You probably know by now that getting a hardware wallet is essential if you want to protect your coins and tokens long-term. But what if your Ledger Nano S, Nano X, or Stax wallet breaks? Let’s say by accidentally submerging it in water or dropping it from a good height.
What if youlosethe device by misplacing it or accidentally leaving it at some other place?
What if your Ledger device getsstolen?
Let’s not also forget that Ledger hardware wallets are electronic devices — whereas any other electronic device regardless of hardware quality could just randomly break out of nowhere.
*Panicking intensifies*
What if my Ledger wallet dies?
No. You don’t lose your funds forever. As long as you’ve backed up your 24-word recovery seed correctly, you can simply purchase a new Ledger hardware wallet and enter your old recovery seed to the new device — giving you back access to your funds.
Always remember that technically, your funds are not stored on the Ledger device. Your funds are stored on the blockchain, which is accessed using your Ledger device.
Durability
While we love our Ledger hardware wallets, take note that Ledger hardware wallets are almost just as durable as most of your electronic devices like mobile phones, flash drives, or other hardware wallet brands. An unlucky drop can easily break your hardware wallet’s screen or buttons.
Also, take note that Ledger hardware wallets are not water-resistant or waterproof.
What if my device gets lost/stolen? Can someone else access my crypto?
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Don’t worry. If you chose a decent PIN that isn’t something like 000000 or 123456, chances are that the finder/thief of your lost Ledger device wouldn’t be able to access your funds.
Ledger’s wipe feature
If anyone makes 3 wrong pin guesses on the Ledger device, the device wipes itself — removing all potential chances of the finder/thief getting access to your funds.
Even though Ledger has this neat device wipe feature though — if you lose your device, we heavily recommend immediately generating a new wallet on a new Ledger device, then send over the funds from the old wallet to the new one. Just to be extra sure!
Use a decent PIN
To prevent a thief from randomly guessing your Ledger wallet’s PIN code, we greatly suggest that you use a pin with at least 6 digits to make guessing your PIN significantly harder.
How do I recover my funds after losing my hardware wallet?
- if you don’t have an extra hardware wallet yet, purchase a brand new Ledger hardware wallet from the official Ledger website
- Grab your written 12-24 word recovery backup
- Grab your brand new Ledger hardware wallet, and instead of generating a new wallet, choose the restore wallet option
- Enter the 12-24 words onto the hardware wallet (not by typing it in on your computer), and proceed with the simple instructions
- Reinstall the Ledger apps through Ledger Live
- You now have regained access to your funds
Quick tips
Having a backup device
If you frequently use your hardware wallet, grab an extra Ledger hardware wallet from the Ledger official website. Just so you always have a backup hardware wallet ready, that you can use immediately if it’s the case that your current hardware wallet becomes inaccessible.
Ledger has hardware wallet bundles on their website that they sell at a discount, perfect for having backup devices.
Quick note: you can have the same wallet backup imported to multiple hardware wallets.
Related: Is it safe to buy a Ledger wallet on Amazon or eBay?
Always make sure you have your 12-24 word wallet backup
From time to time, try to make sure that you still have your 12-24 word wallet backup hidden in your preferred safe place — preferably, a fire-proof safe; just to make sure that you have the backup ready if it’s the case that you lose your Ledger.
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