Recovery guide · Browser wallets

MetaMask recovery: password, seed, and vault file

MetaMask stores an encrypted "vault" in your browser's extension storage. The vault is locked by the password you set when you installed the extension. With the password, MetaMask shows you the 12-word Secret Recovery Phrase on demand. Without it, you have two paths: restore from the phrase if you wrote it down, or recover the password from the vault file.

You have the 12-word Secret Recovery Phrase

Install MetaMask fresh, click "Import an existing wallet", and paste the phrase. You can also import the same seed into any BIP39-compatible wallet — Rabby, Frame, hardware wallets — and the same Ethereum addresses appear. The default MetaMask derivation path is m/44'/60'/0'/0/x.

You forgot the password but the extension is still installed

The encrypted vault lives in your Chrome / Brave / Firefox profile, in the MetaMask extension's local storage. If the extension is still installed and you haven't reset it, the vault is there. Back up your entire browser profile folder before touching anything else. With the vault file and any partial memory of the password (length, characters used, words you tend to base passwords on), targeted decryption recovers the seed in the overwhelming majority of cases.

You reset MetaMask or moved browsers

Once the extension is uninstalled or the browser profile is wiped, the vault is gone unless you backed it up. If you have a Time Machine, Windows File History, or browser-profile cloud sync from before the reset, the encrypted vault may still be in there — recover the file first, then attempt password decryption.

Partial seed or transcription error

• 11 of 12 words — the 12th word is determined by the BIP39 checksum and can be searched in seconds.
• 12 words that fail validation — one or two words are likely misspelled or swapped; checksum-aware search resolves most.
• Seed recovers an empty wallet — derivation-path mismatch is the most common cause; sweep paths before assuming loss.