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I lost access to a specific address generated in MetaMask web wallet, I still have the public address and my seed phrase. Re-creating my account using the same seed in MetaMask isn't showing that specific address that was created. Is it possible to re-create the private key for that address using my seed phrase? If so, how do I do that?

EDIT:

Correction, I do not have the public key, I just have the ETH address.

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  • How did you create the seed phrase? Is it 12/15/24 words in length? Sseed phrases are standard and should be enough to regenerate the private key, so either the seed phrase doesn't belong to the expected address or some of the words were changed.
    – Ismael ♦
    Aug 16, 2020 at 17:12
  • @Ismael the seed phrase was given to me by MetaMask, it's a 12 word phrase which I saved as it was shown. Perhaps the seed phrase I'm using is for an older wallet which I never used, in which case it's unfortunate.
    – bandem
    Aug 16, 2020 at 17:20
  • At the beginning some wallets used a different derivation path you may want to check some other paths: medium.com/myetherwallet/…. MyCrypto desktop app allows to choose between most commonly used paths.
    – Ismael ♦
    Aug 16, 2020 at 17:42

1 Answer 1

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You can derivate multiple accounts from a seed phrase. My guess is that the address you're looking for is not the first derivation of the seed.

You have two solutions to verify that:

  1. Use https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ and past your seed phrase, choose the appropriate length and select ETH for coin. Then it should print a list of Derived Addresses. Look for your address.
  2. Import your seed phrase into MetaMask and generate new accounts until you find your address.

In any case, if you have your seed phrase, you will get back your funds.

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  • Thank you for the information, I had already tried this. My suspicion that I did not have the correct seed phrase is confirmed. Looks like I had created a new seed phrase that I didn't save and so my wallet is lost.
    – bandem
    Aug 21, 2020 at 19:49
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    Instead of Step 1, it is much safer to use the Standalong offline version on a computer that never goes online: github.com/iancoleman/bip39#standalone-offline-version Avoid pasting seeds to any websites, and it is even safer to only work with seeds on an air-gapped computer that is offline.
    – eth ♦
    Aug 25, 2020 at 2:57
  • With the seed phrase you can restore your accounts, but not all wallets use the same generation path. Just have a look at medium.com/myetherwallet/…
    – Markus Sprunck
    May 18 at 8:26

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