I've lost my account secret!
I can not find my Secret numbers / Family seed / Mnemonic
Introduction
Xaman (formerly Xumm) is a self-custody wallet.
Self-custody is all about controlling the account secret(s) for you XRP Ledger account(s).
On the XRP Ledger, the account secret is the "holy grail" of your account.
If you would like to access the funds in an XRP Ledger account, you need to know the account secret.
If you would like to send funds, or create Trust Lines, or purchase a product or service using XRP, you need to know the account secret.
If you give your account secret to someone, they now have access to your account and all your funds.
Protecting your account secret and a helping you interact with the XRP Ledger is what Xaman specializes in.
If you have already lost your account secret, here are the few ways you might be able to access your account, depending on your situation...🤔
What is an account secret?
Have you ever heard the saying,
"Not your keys, not your crypto"
The account secret is your private key. It is how you get full access your XRP Ledger account.
An account secret comes in three main forms:
Secret numbers - If you created your XRP Ledger account using Xaman, you would have received a set of secret numbers consisting of 8 rows, (A-H), each with 6 digits.
Family Seed - A 29 character string of numbers and letters starting with the letter "s".
A typical family seed looks something like this:
sn3e4r5t6ygtfr5tgy6tr4edse3wq
Mnemonic - A set of 12, 16 or 24 words chosen from the BIP 39 list.
Xaman is fully compatible with all three account secret formats.
An account secret can not be viewed in Xaman
If your XRP Ledger account was created using Xaman, you would have received a set of secret numbers. (8 rows, A-H, each with 6 digits).
Xaman does not have the ability to display or recover your secret numbers. They are only displayed once, when an account is created. After that, there is no way to see them again. In fact, Xaman was designed specifically to NOT display them just in case your phone was ever stolen or compromised.
You can read more about this here:
Only four possible options to access your XRP Ledger account.
Option 1 - You still have existing access on your device
If you still have access to your account on your phone and you can still sign transactions on your account, you can create a new XRP Ledger account using Xaman:
1) Press Settings then Accounts.
2) Choose + Add account then Create a new account
Once you have completed the steps (and written down your new secret numbers), you can activate it with 10 XRP, then start moving your assets over to your new account using the Send feature on the main page of Xaman.
Note: You will need to create Trust Lines for any tokens you might have and arrange to move any NFTs with your NFT platform.
By creating a new account, you will get a new set of secret numbers which you can use to access your account on your phone.
Option 2 - You have existing access on another device
In some cases, people will have an old phone or mobile device which still has signing access to their account. If you have an old phone with signing access to your account, you can run through the steps in Option 1 to create a new account.
Option 3 - You created your XRP Ledger account using another wallet or platform
If you used another wallet to create your XRP Ledger account, it is possible that they have a recovery option or utility to recover your account secret. Try contacting them and see if they have any options for accessing your account secret.
Option 4 - Your account was created during the Casino Coin swap.
If your account was created during the Casino Coin swap, there is a special set of instructions for recovering an account. Check out this article for more information:
Frequently asked questions
I went through the KYC process. Doesn't that make a difference?
The KYC process has nothing to do with the private keys to your XRP Ledger account. When you go through the KYC process it does not "link" your personal information to your private keys and does not grant you access to your XRPL account. The only way to access an XRP Ledger account is if you know the private keys (account secret) for it.
For example, if you were to open an account with a crypto exchange, you would go through the KYC process and they would create a record in their internal database containing all of your personal information. They would then create an account on their internal systems and assign you a password to access it. If you ever lost your password for your account with them, they would go into their company database and simply change it for you. They control your account. They control your personal information. They take custody of your funds and have complete control over them.
Accounts on the XRP Ledger do not work that way.
When you create an XRPL account, you do not have to go through KYC. You do not have to provide personal information about yourself to create an account. You simply generate a set of private keys and activate your account and you are good to go. No internal databases. No records of your personal information. No centralized authority.
If you do decide to go through the KYC process, there is no database on the XRPL where your information is stored and the process does not involve the private keys of your account.
I already have my account secret but it accesses another account!
If you are importing your account secret into Xaman and you are getting a different r-address, you actually imported another XRPL account that has not been activated, and does not contain your balance and tokens.
The only way to get full access to your account, is by importing the correct account secret.
Importing the account secret into Xaman will always result in the same r-address, with balance and tokens in place.
...but I'm sure my account secret is correct...
If you have a set of secret numbers, they need to be entered exactly that same way that they were displayed when the account was created. Every number needs to be correct, in the correct spot and in the correct row. If even one number is wrong, another XRPL account will be accessed.
In some cases, sometimes people have confused a 1 with a 7, a 6 with an 8, a 3 with an 8 or perhaps some other numbers.
Take a close look at your secret numbers and consider the possibility that you have written one of them down wrong. If you think there is a chance that one of them is incorrect, see if you can supplement one of the numbers with another possibility and try importing them into Xaman. It may take several attempts with various numbers to get the correct combination.
Do I have any other options?
As mentioned earlier, there is only one way to access an XRP Ledger account... you know the correct account secret for it. (This is one of the main reasons for self-custody. You are the only person who can access your account.)
The XRP Ledger does not have any administrator functions and there are no "back-doors" to get access to an account.
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