How to restore your Armory Wallet in 2024: A Step-By-Step Guide

Designed for security-conscious Bitcoin users, Armory offers multiple ways to restore your wallet. Whether you’ve stored your root key digitally, on paper, or fragmented, this guide explains each option to help you access your Armory wallet again with ease.

Although Armory recommended using a paper wallet, it also offered a data backup if you wanted to store your root key as a file on your computer or on a USB drive. The data backup contains the same private keys as the paper backup, except it’s in a digital format.

1. Open the Armory application.
2. Press the “Import or Restore Wallet” button.
3. Choose “Import Digital Backup” to load from your backup file.
4. In the file explorer, find and select your .wallet file.
5. Click “Import Wallet” to complete the restoration process.

After completing the above steps your wallet should appear in the “Available Wallets” list with its wallet name and ID. Note: You do not need your passphrase to import your digital wallet backup. You will only need to enter the passphrase when sending transactions, changing the passphrase or exporting your Armory private keys.

For security and ease of recovery, Armory let users print a “paper wallet backup” containing their wallet’s “root key” and a QR representation of this key. Armory also offered a “SecurePrint feature,” which gave users an additional secret code to avoid any root key data leaking after sending this info to their printer. If you used this optional feature, you had to write down an additional case-sensitive “SecurePrint code” after printing your paper wallet.

1. Open the Armory application.
2. Press the “Import or Restore Wallet” button.
3. Select “Single-Sheet Backup” option.
4. Select the backup type according to your paper backup.
5. Enter “SecurePrint code” if used.
6. Enter the Root Key.
7. Click “Restore Wallet”.

Optional: Check if the Wallet ID displayed matches the Armory Wallet ID you want to recover.

Armory fragmented backups increased the security of the paper backup by splitting up the root key into multiple smaller pieces. The benefit of this method is that a thief would need all the fragments of your root key, rather than just one sheet in a standard paper backup. You could choose how many printed fragments you wanted to re-access a wallet (for instance, two out of three or four out of five) and you had the option to save each of these fragments as a digital file. Additionally, you could also opt for the SecurePrint feature for an additional SecurePrint passcode for each fragment. While fragmented backups gave users greater protection, it also meant they required more individual pieces of information to recover their Armory Wallet.

1. Open the Armory application.
2. Press the “Import or Restore Wallet” button.
3. Select “Fragmented Backup” option.
4. Enter each individual backup fragment.
5. Click “Restore From Fragments”.

Armory offered a simple way to add multiple signatories to a wallet with its Lockbox feature. This advanced security option made your Armory a multi-signature wallet, meaning Armory can’t sign transactions unless enough wallet owners confirm a Bitcoin transfer. For example, if you set your Lockbox to two out of three, it would have three signatories and require two of these three to sign BTC transactions every time you wanted to send Bitcoin out of your Armory wallet.

Due to its age and lack of recent updates, Armory can sometimes experience syncing issues, which may prevent you from easily accessing your Bitcoin. Exporting your private keys from Armory allows you to use more modern wallet solutions that offer smoother and more reliable access, avoiding these common delays and complications.

1. Open the Armory application.
2. Double-click the wallet you want to export your keys from in the “Available Wallets” list.
3. Click on “Backup This Wallet.”
4. Choose “Export Key Lists” and press the “Export Key Lists” button.
5. Enter the passphrase of your wallet to unlock it.
6. Tick the checkbox for “Private Key (Plain Base58)” to include private keys.
7. Press “Save to File…” and select a secure location for the file.

Once exported, these private keys can be imported into a more modern wallet, such as Electrum, for easy and reliable access without syncing issues.

If you’re having trouble restoring your Armory wallet - whether due to the passphrase not working, a corrupted wallet file or other issues - there are still ways to regain access to your BTC. For a more detailed guide on common issues, check out our dedicated Armory Troubleshooting Guide. If you need additional support, consider reaching out to a wallet recovery service like ReWallet for expert help.