TL;DR
First look for the copies: if you followed this site, there’s a passphrase card with each seed. If every copy is really gone and all three keys used the same passphrase, your seeds alone open three empty wallets, and you can’t spend until you find it. If only one key used a passphrase, the other two can still sign: move your coins to a new multisig. Never hand your seeds to a “recovery” tool or service.
A passphrase is part of the key. Seed plus passphrase is the key in your multisig. The same seed without it, or with a single character different, opens another wallet that is perfectly valid and empty. There’s no error and no reset option, because no wrong passphrase exists. That’s what makes losing it different from losing a PIN.
First: look everywhere, calmly
- Every box with a seed backup. The setup guide keeps a copy on a separate card next to each seed, so one lost card isn’t a lost passphrase. Open all three boxes before assuming the worst.
- Your notes and your inheritance letter. They may say where it is, or at least whether there was one and how long it was.
- The Ledger. If you attached the passphrase to a second PIN, Ledger says that PIN opens your passphrase-protected accounts. As long as you know it, that key still works. Don’t reset the Ledger, and don’t guess PINs: Ledger resets the device after three wrong attempts.
- Anywhere else you might have noted it, even though the guide says not to: a password manager, an old notebook, an envelope with a lawyer or notary.
Nobody else has a copy. Sparrow sends the Trezor passphrase to the device but doesn’t keep it, the BitBox02 asks for it on the device every time, and your descriptor and wallet file only hold public keys. None of them can give it back.
What still works
| Your situation | Can you still spend? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Same passphrase on all three keys (the guide’s advice), all copies lost | No. Every seed opens the wrong wallet. A Ledger with the second PIN is one key, and you need two | Try the passphrases you might have used (below). Keep everything stored safely |
| Passphrase on one key only, and that one is lost | Yes. The other two keys still sign | Move everything to a new multisig soon |
| A different passphrase per key, one lost | Yes, with the other two | Same: move to a new multisig |
| Different passphrases, two lost | No | Try candidates for both |
In every case your coins stay where they are. A watch-only wallet, or Sparrow with your descriptor, still shows the balance. And anyone who finds your seeds is just as stuck as you are.
No recovery services, no brute-force software
Programs that guess passphrases need your seed words typed into a computer. A “recovery service” needs them sent to a stranger. Both turn a locked wallet into one that can be stolen. Real support never asks for your words. See someone asks for your seed words.
Trying passphrases you might have used
You can test candidates safely on your own devices, without typing seed words anywhere. The test is the master fingerprint: the right seed plus the right passphrase gives exactly the fingerprint that is in your notes, in your Sparrow wallet’s keystore tabs and in square brackets in your descriptor.
- On paper, list everything you might have used: the words you remember, with and without capitals, spaces, punctuation and a final period, in different orders, with your usual typos. Capitals and spaces count.
- Find the fingerprint you’re looking for: open your wallet in Sparrow and look at the keystore tab of the device you’re testing, or read it from your descriptor.
- In Sparrow, start a scratch wallet with File → New Wallet, with the same settings as your real one (Multi Signature, 2 of 3, Native SegWit). You won’t save it.
- Connect one device and unlock it. On the Trezor, click Set Passphrase in Sparrow, type the candidate and confirm on the device. On the BitBox02, type the candidate on the device itself.
- Click Import Keystore and read the master fingerprint Sparrow shows. Match? You’ve found it. No match? Unplug, plug in again and try the next candidate.
- Close the scratch wallet without applying it.
There’s no limit on tries, because a passphrase is never “wrong” to the device. But each try takes a minute by hand. That’s fine for a passphrase you half remember. It can’t find one you never knew.
Found it? Write it on new cards straight away, put one in each box next to the seed, and do the passphrase check from step 10 on every device.
If you can still sign: move your coins
If two keys still work, you have no spare left. One more lost backup and you’d be locked out. Build a new 2-of-3 as in the setup guide, with new seeds for any key whose passphrase is lost and, if you use a passphrase again, copies stored with each seed. Back up the new descriptor, do the recovery rehearsal, and then send everything from the old wallet to a verified address of the new one, signing with the two keys that still work (how to send from a multisig). The order of work is the same as in moving to a new multisig, just without the deadline.
If it stays lost
Don’t destroy anything. Keep the three seed backups, the descriptor and the Ledger exactly as they are, and keep your list of tried candidates. A passphrase sometimes turns up in an old notebook years later. Until then the coins can’t move, for you or for anyone else.
Preventing it
- Keep a copy of the passphrase with each seed, on a separate card, as the guide does. Then it can only be lost together with all three seeds.
- Check those cards against the devices in the recovery rehearsal and in your yearly check-up, reading from the card, not from memory.
- Write it exactly: capitals, spaces and punctuation. Keep it to plain ASCII characters.
- Mention in your inheritance letter that there is a passphrase and where the cards are.