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MetaMask Wallet Recovery Seed Phrase
Losing access to your cryptocurrency wallet can be a stressful experience, especially if you haven't backed up your seed phrase. However, if you've previously used MetaMask and still have your password, there's hope. This guide offers a comprehensive, step-by-step tutorial on how to recover your MetaMask seed phrase, focusing specifically on users of the Firefox browser. The process involves several technical steps, but by following closely, you can regain access to your funds.
Disclaimer
Before we dive into the recovery process, it's important to note that this method requires you to have your MetaMask password. If you do not have your password, unfortunately, this guide will not be able to assist you.
Pre-Requisites
MetaMask password
Access to the Firefox profile where MetaMask was installed
Basic understanding of navigating file systems
How To Recover MetaMask Seed Phrase?
Step 1: Locate Your Firefox Profile Data
MetaMask stores its extension data, including the encrypted seed phrase, within your Firefox profile folder. Here’s how to find it:
Open Firefox and type about:support in the address bar. This page shows detailed information about your Firefox installation.
Look for the "Profile Folder" section and click on "Open Folder." This action will take you directly to your current Firefox profile directory.
Step 2: Navigate to the Extension Storage
In your profile folder, follow these steps:
Navigate to the storage/default/ directory.
Look for folders named starting with moz-extension and followed by a string of characters. These folders contain data for installed Firefox extensions, including MetaMask.
Note: If you have reinstalled MetaMask, you might see multiple folders. MetaMask and other wallet extensions like Solana's Phantom wallet share a similar naming convention, which can be confusing. The correct MetaMask folder typically contains files related to the extension's operations, such as SQLite databases and a specific IndexedDB file, which is our main focus.
Step 3: Identify the IDB File
Inside the correct moz-extension folder:
Find the idb subfolder.
Look for a file with a numeric name inside this folder. This file is a binary database that stores your encrypted vault data, including the seed phrase.
Step 4: Extracting Vault Data
To access the vault data, you will need a HEX editor. Open the IDB file with it, and search for the "vault" string. Here, you should be able to find the encrypted vault data.
Step 5: Understanding Snappy Compression
Firefox compresses extension data, including the MetaMask vault, using Snappy compression. This means that the vault data cannot be directly read as plain text from the file. Recovering and decompressing this data is essential for the next steps.
Step 6: Recovering the Full Snappy File
If you only have partial data or suspect the file is corrupted, use a data recovery tool like foremost to recover the Snappy-compressed file. Search for files that match the Snappy header and footer signatures. This step might recover multiple files, so identifying the correct one by size or content may be necessary.
Step 7: Decompressing the Snappy File
Once you've identified the correct Snappy file containing your vault data:
Use a tool capable of decompressing Snappy files. A recommended tool is snappy-fox, which is available on GitHub.
Run a command similar to ./snappy-fox <input.snappy> <output.txt> to decompress the file. Replace <input.snappy> with your file's name and <output.txt> with your desired output file name.
Step 8: Recovering Your Seed Phrase
After decompressing the file, you should have a plaintext file containing various data, including your encrypted vault information.
Open the MetaMask Vault Decryptor tool, available through MetaMask's official documentation or GitHub repository.
Input the decrypted vault data and your MetaMask password into the Vault Decryptor.
If everything is correct, the decryptor will display your seed phrase.
Seed Phrase Recovered - Success!
Recovering your MetaMask seed phrase, especially from Firefox, involves technical steps that may seem daunting. However, by carefully following this guide and using the provided tools, you can successfully regain access to your wallet. Always remember to securely back up your seed phrase in the future to avoid similar situations.