Are you having issues seeing or adding certain accounts in Ledger Live? If that’s the case, then you have arrived at the right place!
In this article, I’ll go over some of the most common reasons why your Ledger Live accounts might be missing and how to get them back. So without wasting any more of your time, let’s dive right in!
You Installed Ledger Live on a New Device
One potential scenario where your Ledger Live accounts are not showing up is when you install the application on a new device (secondary phone, PC, etc). The fact that the accounts are missing is totally normal and the expected behavior in this case.
You should know that Ledger Live does not save or keep your configured accounts and settings in a centralized database as many other applications do. Instead, your configured accounts and settings are stored locally on your PC in a dedicated configuration directory.
This means that if you install the application on a new device, you must manually add back the accounts or restore them from the backup. Just click on the link to read my detailed step-by-step tutorial on installing and restoring Ledger Live accounts on a new PC.
If you are trying to restore your accounts to a mobile device, then click on the link to read my article explaining how to keep your Ledger Live desktop and mobile applications synced.
You Are Using the Wrong Private Key (Seed Phrase)
The thing about Ledger Live accounts is that you can remove and add them back at your own will without actually losing access or “deleting” your crypto.
That is because your crypto assets are stored on the blockchain (not Ledger Live or your hardware wallet) and when you re-add an account, Ledger Live will automatically query the blockchain for all wallet addresses (accounts) that can be derived from the private key that your hardware wallet holds.
So in theory, if you remove an account and then try to add it back, Ledger Live should automatically display the same account (with the correct balance) for you to add back. But what if that’s not the case?
What if you try to add back an account, but it only lists accounts with zero or a wrong balance? In that case, it is likely that at some point you reset your Ledger hardware wallet and generated a new recovery phrase which now manages a totally different set of accounts.
Try to remember if and where you stored your (other) recovery phrase. When found, restore your hardware wallet with that seed phrase and try adding your account again.
Hopefully this time you’ll be able to add back the account(s) with the correct and expected balances. If not, go ahead and proceed with the next steps in the article.
You Were Using Ledger Passphrase Functionality
Somewhat related to the previous paragraph, one reason why you might not be able to add back accounts with correct balances is if you activated the passphrase functionality on your hardware wallet and moved your funds.
What the passphrase functionality does is that it adds a 25th word of your choosing to your recovery phrase. This creates an entirely different set of addresses that cannot be accessed via the 24-word recovery phrase alone.
The most common way to set up the passphrase functionality on the Ledger wallet is to configure a separate PIN code for it. So there is PIN1 for your regular 24-word recovery phrase and PIN2 for your passphrase accounts (24 words + 1 your custom word)
Think through if you are currently using the “correct” PIN code and if not, then try logging in with the other PIN and see if you are able to add back the correct accounts.
Update Ledger Live
Another thing you can try when you are missing some (or all) of your Ledger Live accounts, is to update the application to the latest version. In most cases, Ledger Live should automatically notify you when there’s an update available – go ahead and download & install the new version.
Sometimes that’s not the case – so if you are having any issues updating Ledger Live, go ahead and click on the link to read my troubleshooting article. After updating Ledger Live, see if the missing accounts issue is solved.
Token Support Missing on Phone (or Desktop)
Ledger Live regularly adds support for new crypto assets and tokens. In rare cases, you might bump into a situation where a crypto asset is supported in the desktop version of Ledger Live, but not on the mobile one.
This means that when you try to export accounts (or manually add them), some of the coins might be present in the desktop application, but missing in the mobile version. If that’s the case, you can’t really do much – you simply have to wait until the support for the asset is expanded.
Check Blockchain Explorer
If you are having any issues with certain accounts missing and having doubts about whether your crypto assets are secure, it can be a good idea to check the blockchain explorer for this specific crypto asset to calm yourself down.
If you don’t know the wallet address, you can follow the traces from centralized (and decentralized) exchanges to determine which addresses were used to send your funds to cold storage. Then all you have to do is check these addresses to make sure your funds haven’t moved.
I hope this article was useful for you. In case you are still having issues, go ahead and contact Ledger support and provide a detailed description of the issue you are having along with all the steps you have taken yourself to solve the problem.