Situations · Reconstructing the story
I bought in 2017 and don’t remember where I stored it: how to reconstruct it
This case isn’t solved with technology: it is solved by investigating your own past methodically. And the outlook is better than it looks, because everything you did left a trail in places you can still consult.
Start with the bank
It is the best starting point and hardly anyone uses it first. Look through that year’s statements for any charge or transfer to a crypto trading platform. It gives you three things at once: which platform you used, on what date and how much you put in. That is the thread to pull.
Continue with your email
- Search your email for that platform’s name. The sign-up, verifications and purchase confirmations will appear.
- Search for withdrawal or send confirmations. Those are the important ones: they usually include the address you sent the money to.
- Search for emails from wallet apps: alerts, newsletters, install confirmations.
- Search generic terms: wallet, backup, seed, recovery phrase.
Then, the devices
| Where to look | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Current and previous phones | Wallet apps, even uninstalled ones |
| App store purchase history | Which wallets you installed and when |
| Old computers and drives | Folders named after the program |
| Browser | Installed extensions, bookmarks from that period |
| Cloud folders | Files with odd names from 2017 |
The second row is a trick that works very well: your app store history keeps everything you ever installed, even if you deleted it. There you will see the exact name of the wallet you used, and that narrows the search enormously.
What to do with what you find
If a written phrase turns up, you are done: restore and finish. If the app name turns up but not the phrase, you have a concrete case to work on. If only the address turns up, you have proof of ownership, which is essential for anyone to be able to help you. And if nothing at all turns up, at least you will know whether it was worth continuing.
The detailed method for combing devices is in how to find an old wallet on your computer.