How to update your wallet app
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 4 min
In short
Update only through the official store or a distribution route published on the developer's official site. Confirm your seed phrase backup is at hand before you start. A legitimate update never asks you to enter the phrase — if something does, it is not an update, it is a scam.
Key points
- Check you know where your seed phrase backup is before updating
- Use only the official store or a route published on the official site
- If an update asks you to enter your phrase, stop immediately
- Do not follow links in emails or pop-ups that pose as update notices
Definition
Replacing your wallet app with its latest version so that fixed defects and strengthened protections take effect.
The reason not to postpone updates is straightforward. A wallet is software sitting directly on top of your assets, and fixes for discovered defects and defences against new scam patterns arrive through updates. Staying on an old version means leaving known holes open. Protective features in particular — warnings about dangerous signature requests, for example — tend to get better with each release.
One preparation comes first: confirm where your seed phrase backup is right now. Updates do not normally erase anything, but the chance of an app replacement or a device problem requiring you to set up again is not zero. Do not start an update while you are unsure where your backup is.
Keep the update route narrow. For a phone app, go through the device's official store; for a browser extension, through that browser's official store. In both cases, reach it via a link published on the developer's official site. Do not arrive there from a sponsored search result, a social media post or the body of an email. Fake update notices are built to look exactly like real ones.
Hardware wallets add a separate job: firmware updates. Always run these from the manufacturer's official application. Some models need to be wiped and restored from the seed phrase as part of the process, which is precisely why checking your backup comes first. Follow the manufacturer's official documentation and do not disconnect or cut power partway through.
After updating, check the balance display and the selected network once. Layouts change and manually added tokens can disappear from the list, but these are usually display settings rather than asset problems. Work calmly through network, then account, then token registration. Looking your address up in an explorer gives you an objective view of the on-chain state.
Watch out for
- · Do not start from a pop-up or an email link urging you to update — fake update prompts exist
- · Being asked for your seed phrase during an update is not a legitimate step; stop at once
- · Run hardware wallet firmware updates only through the manufacturer's official app and instructions, without disconnecting midway
Frequently asked questions
Tokens I had added disappeared after updating.
Usually the display registration simply did not carry over while the on-chain balance is untouched. Check your address in a block explorer, and if the balance is there, re-register the contract address as described in 'How to display a custom token'.