TL;DR
Your coins are on the blockchain, not in Sparrow. A zero balance almost always means Sparrow isn’t connected, or is looking at a slightly different wallet: built with a missing passphrase, a different script type or a different derivation path. Don’t move or rebuild anything in a hurry, and don’t receive new money into the wallet until the first address matches one you used before.
Sparrow only shows what it calculates from your wallet setup and what its server tells it. Nothing on your computer holds the coins themselves, so a wrong number on the screen doesn’t mean they’re gone. Work through the checks below in order. The first two cover most cases.
1. Is Sparrow connected?
- Look at the toggle in the bottom right. Off or grey means no server. Turn it on. With the public server from step 3 it turns yellow.
- Open File → Settings → Server and click Test Connection. If it fails, try another public server from the list, or check your internet connection.
- A red icon on the wallet’s tab means, according to Sparrow’s FAQ, that loading the wallet history from your server failed. Usually that’s the server or the connection, not your wallet.
- Once connected, choose View → Refresh Wallet and give it a minute.
Using Tor or your own node? A blocked Tor connection looks like no connection at all (see Sparrow over Tor). A pruned node can’t see transactions from before its prune point, so an older wallet looks empty on it; and with Bitcoin Core, Sparrow only scans from the wallet’s Birth date under Settings → Advanced. A birth date after your first deposit hides everything before it. More in your own node for Sparrow.
2. Is it the same wallet?
Take a receive address you used before: from your notes, your test transaction or your exchange’s withdrawal history. Open the Addresses tab in Sparrow and look for it. If it’s there and the server is connected, the balance will show. If it isn’t there, this is a different wallet from the one you funded, and one of the settings below differs from the original.
The quickest fix is not to repair the settings by hand but to start from your backup: File → Import Wallet and load the descriptor from your USB stick or printout, as in the recovery rehearsal. The descriptor holds all three keys, the 2-of-3 rule, the script type and the paths, so there’s nothing to get wrong.
3. Settings that must match the original
If the wallet was built or rebuilt by importing the three devices (a new laptop, or no descriptor at hand), check each of these against your notes. A single difference gives a valid, empty wallet, with no error message.
| Setting | In this setup | If it’s different |
|---|---|---|
| Passphrase | Unlocked on every device that uses one | That device hands Sparrow the keys of another, empty wallet. Its master fingerprint differs from your notes |
| Devices | Your three keys, each imported once | A key from another wallet, or one device imported twice, gives other addresses |
| Policy | Multi Signature, 2 of 3 | Another quorum gives other addresses |
| Script type | Native SegWit (P2WSH), addresses start with bc1q | Nested SegWit or Legacy addresses start with 3 |
| Derivation path | m/48’/0’/0’/2′ (account 1′ for a second vault) | Other keys, so other addresses |
The passphrase is the most common one. With a wrong or forgotten passphrase the device opens a different wallet, and every passphrase, including a typo, is valid. Compare each keystore’s master fingerprint in Sparrow with your notes or with the fingerprints in square brackets in your descriptor (see master fingerprint explained). For a Ledger with a passphrase, unlock with the second PIN. Paths are explained in derivation path explained.
Have only two seeds and no descriptor? Then Sparrow can’t calculate your addresses at all. Read lost your multisig descriptor before you try anything else.
4. Gap limit
Sparrow looks a fixed number of unused addresses ahead for new transactions. Sparrow’s FAQ gives a default of 20 for normal wallets. If you handed out many addresses that were never paid, and money arrived at one further down the list, Sparrow may not see it. In the wallet’s Settings tab, click Advanced, raise the gap limit, then Close and Apply. Don’t make it huge: the FAQ notes that loading gets slower, and Sparrow warns that very large limits can make some servers fail.
5. Testnet instead of mainnet
If you ever tried Sparrow on testnet, it may have restarted there. Sparrow then shows the network name, such as Testnet, at the top right of the tab bar, and addresses start with tb1 instead of bc1. Your mainnet wallet isn’t visible in that mode. Switch back with Tools → Restart In → Mainnet.
Nobody needs your seed words to find your coins
Not Sparrow, not a support agent, not a “recovery service”. Every check on this page uses only the descriptor, the devices and public addresses. Anyone asking for your words is a scammer: see someone asks for your seed words.
When it shows up again
Note what the cause was. If a device had the wrong passphrase, check the card in that box (it may hold a typo) and repeat the passphrase check from step 10. If you rebuilt the wallet by hand, make sure the descriptor backup in every box is the current one, as in step 7.
Common mistakes
- Creating a new wallet in a panic instead of importing the descriptor.
- Unlocking the Ledger with the normal PIN when the wallet uses a passphrase.
- Rebuilding with Nested SegWit or the wrong account number.
- Sending fresh money to a wallet whose first address doesn’t match one you used before.