BitBox Wallet Recovery Service

BitBox (Shift Cryptosecurity) makes the BitBox01 and BitBox02 hardware wallets, and the two models back up in completely different ways — check which one you have before you do anything else. In the standard setup, BitBox02 writes its recovery data to the microSD card, and a recovery-word backup is a separate advanced setup option; BitBox01 instead relies entirely on that microSD file, covered below.

What you are actually dealing with

• Recovery words: as an alternative to the default microSD setup, BitBox02 can be created with a BIP-39 recovery phrase through the advanced options (24 words by default, or 12 words). BitBox01 has no word-based backup at all — it writes a single unencrypted backup file to a microSD card, and you need the separate backup recovery password set up alongside it to derive the right wallet from that file.
• Passphrase (optional): BitBox02 supports an optional passphrase. If one was set, the wallet only reappears with the exact passphrase - a wrong or missing passphrase produces a different wallet.
• Device password: after ten failed attempts, the device wipes itself back to factory settings — from there, only a valid microSD backup or recovery-word backup brings the wallet back, and without one the reset is final.

Never reset or wipe a hardware wallet until you have verified a usable backup. For BitBox02, this can be a microSD backup or recovery words, together with the optional passphrase if one was used. A reset deletes the keys from the device; without a usable backup, nobody, including us, can reconstruct them from nothing. Our BitBox recovery guide walks through the safe route.

• MicroSD backup: BitBox02's standard setup writes recovery data to the microSD card, unencrypted by the device password — store that card securely and away from the device, since anyone who has it can restore the wallet without the device password. A passphrase-protected wallet still requires the exact optional passphrase, which is not stored on the card. BitBox01 uses the same kind of file as its only backup (see Recovery words above); skip the matching backup recovery password and it restores a different, empty wallet instead of yours.
• Never photograph a recovery sentence or type it into an online tool.

When professional recovery is the right call

• Words of the sentence are missing, unreadable or in the wrong order - the checksum helps narrow the search.
• The optional passphrase is forgotten. Remembered fragments can help focus a search. This applies whether the BitBox02 backup is on microSD or consists of recovery words; neither backup contains the optional passphrase.
• The device or microSD card is damaged, and the remaining data needs to be preserved before further attempts.
• You need help reconstructing a partial sentence systematically rather than by guessing.

What is impossible

• No sentence and no microSD backup: the keys are gone with the wiped device.
• A forgotten passphrase requires case-specific assessment.