Smartable does not use a 13th word

Some wallets add an optional passphrase on top of the recovery phrase. Smartable has no such field — and importing a phrase that had one opens a different, empty wallet without reporting an error.

A passphrase — often called the "13th word" — is a second secret some wallets mix in before the keys are derived, so that a recovery phrase somebody finds is useless on its own.

Smartable does not implement one. Every Smartable wallet is derived from its recovery phrase alone — the twelve words Smartable creates, or the 12 to 24 words of a phrase you import — and there is no passphrase field when you create a wallet or when you import one.

If the wallet you are importing had a passphrase

The words on their own are still a valid phrase, so they derive a valid wallet — a different one, with different addresses and nothing in it. Nothing reports an error, because from the mathematics both answers are correct.

This is the usual reason an imported wallet looks empty when the phrase was typed correctly.

Smartable does not currently support restoring a BIP‑39 passphrase-protected wallet. Keep that wallet in software that does, and move funds from it if you want to hold them in Smartable.

Hardware wallets are the exception, and it is theirs

A Trezor or Ledger can have a passphrase of its own, entered on the device's own keypad. Smartable answers the device's request by telling it to ask there, and never receives the passphrase itself.

Accounts you add from such a device belong to that device. Smartable only ever sees the addresses it reports and the signatures it returns.

The split-backup password is not a 13th word

Restoring a split backup asks for the wallet password you had when you made the backup whichever shares you use, because the shares are sealed under it. That is a lock on the backup. It is not a secret added to the phrase, and it does not change which wallet the phrase derives.

Security note

Never share your recovery phrase, private key, password or device PIN. Smartable will never ask for them or ask you to sign a transaction to “verify” or “recover” your wallet.

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