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Back up & restore your account

Your account lives on your phone, and it is held by a 12-word recovery phrase. Back it up to your own cloud, write the phrase down, and know how to get the account back. The steps differ a little between Android and iOS.

You will need the app installed. Download links are in Get the app.

The recovery phrase is the account

Anyone who has your recovery phrase can take over your account, and nobody can issue you a new one. Never type it into a website, send it in a chat, or give it to someone offering help. The Polkadot app will never ask you for it.

What a backup covers

A backup saves one thing: your 12-word phrase. That is enough to bring back your account, your username, your CASH and your collectables, because those belong to the account itself rather than to the phone.

What it does not bring back is anything that only ever lived on the phone. Chat history and downloaded photos start fresh on a restored app.

Cloud backup Written-down phrase
Where it goes Your Google Drive (Android) or iCloud (iOS) Paper, kept somewhere safe
Covers you if You lose, break or replace the phone You also lose your Google or Apple account
Effort Two taps A minute with a pen

Do both.

Turn on the cloud backup

The app tries to set this up when you first create your account, so it is often already on. Check, and switch it on if it is not.

Android

  1. Open the Settings tab. A warning dot on the tab means you have no backup.
  2. Under Security & privacy, tap Backup.

  3. You will see one of these:

    What it says What to do
    Account is backed up Nothing, you are set
    Backup your account Tap Backup Your account and choose a Google account
    Enable Google Drive Tap Enable Google Drive, allow access, then back up
    Backup conflict You already backed up a different account. See below.

Your backup is saved in your own Google Drive, in a folder called Polkadot App - DO NOT DELETE. Do not delete or rename that folder.

If you see a backup conflict. Google Drive keeps one Polkadot backup at a time. Backing up a second account offers to Override existing backup, and makes you tick a box saying "I fully understand the risk". The account you replace cannot be recovered unless you already have its phrase on paper, so go and write that down first.

If your phone has no Google Play. The app-polkadot-devnet-nogms.apk download is for phones without Google Play services, and it cannot back up to Google Drive at all. On that version, writing the phrase down is your only backup, so do it straight away.

iOS

  1. Open the Settings tab.
  2. Under Security & privacy, tap Backup.

  3. You will see one of these:

    What it says What to do
    Account is Backed Up Nothing, you are set
    Backup your account Tap Backup Your Account
    Enable iCloud backup The app cannot reach iCloud. See below.

Enable iCloud backup talks you through signing in to iCloud and turning on iCloud Drive, with an Open settings button. It misses one setting you also need: your phrase is stored in the iCloud Keychain, so turn that on too under Settings → your name → iCloud → Passwords and Keychain. Then come back and tap Backup Your Account.

You need the same account to get it back

A backup only opens for the account that made it. An Android backup can only be restored by signing in to the same Google account, and an iOS backup only reappears on a phone signed in to the same Apple Account. Make sure you can still get into that account.

Write down the recovery phrase

Do this even if the cloud backup is on. You can do it at any time, whether or not you have a backup yet.

  1. Settings → Security & privacy → Backup.
  2. Tap View recovery phrase on Android, or View Secret Recovery Phrase on iOS.
  3. Read the warning and tap Show recovery phrase.
  4. Unlock. Android asks for your usual screen lock ("Verify it's you"); iOS asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. If iOS will not let you through, check that you have a passcode or Face ID set up on the phone.
  5. Tap Tap to reveal, then copy the 12 words onto paper, in order.

Keep the paper somewhere only you can get to. Android has no copy button on purpose. iOS does have Copy to clipboard under the words if you keep the phrase in a password manager, but paste it and then copy something else straight away, because other apps can read whatever is on your clipboard.

Get your account back on another phone

You can only restore onto an app that has no account on it yet. If the app on that phone is already set up with a different account, uninstall and reinstall it first.

Android

  1. Open the app. It starts on Pick a username.
  2. Tap Already using Polkadot? Recover here.
  3. Either tap Backup from Google Drive and sign in with the Google account that holds your backup, or tap Import recovery phrase, type your words in, and tap Restore account.
  4. You will see Account restored. Confirm your username to finish.

If you start creating a new account while a backup already exists, the app stops you with We found an existing backup and offers Recover this backup or Replace with a new backup. Replacing it cannot be undone.

iOS

iOS does this for you. If it finds your iCloud backup when you open the freshly installed app, it restores the account on its own and you have nothing to tap.

If it shows you Pick Your Username instead, the phone is signed in to a different Apple Account, or iCloud Keychain is switched off. Fix that in the iOS Settings app and reinstall. To use your written phrase instead, tap Already using Polkadot? Recover here and type it into Recover Polkadot ID.

Desktop

The desktop app has no account of its own. It works by pairing with your phone, and everything is approved on the phone, so there is nothing to back up. Get your phone working again, then open the desktop app and scan its QR code to pair once more. See the client architecture for why it works this way.

The hidden debug menu

This test version of the app has a debug menu that the public Polkadot app does not. Shake your phone to open it, or on Android use Settings → Debug → Debug menu. It is meant for testing, and two things in it can cost you an account.

On Android, Copy wallet mnemonic copies your 12 words without asking for your screen lock, so anyone holding your unlocked phone could take them. Clear backup deletes your Google Drive backup.

On iOS there is no copy shortcut. Clear Backup deletes your iCloud backup, and Replace Entropy (Random) throws your account away and starts a new one, which you cannot undo without your written phrase.

Nothing here asks you to confirm

Use the debug menu on accounts you do not mind losing, and have your recovery phrase written down before you tap anything that says clear or replace.

Learn more