CustodyStress
Archive › Passphrase unavailable
Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
CS-00223

The phone was lost in 2014 and the cloud backup had not included voice memos.

Blocked
Case description
A 2015 case documents a user who had backed up their wallet passphrase as a voice memo on a mobile phone. The phone was lost in 2014 and the cloud backup had not included voice memos. By 2015 the passphrase could not be recalled from memory.
Custody context
Stress conditionPassphrase unavailable
Custody systemMobile or software wallet
OutcomeBlocked
DocumentationUnknown
Year observed2015
CountryUnknown
Structural dependencies observed
Single point of failureHardware device required
What this illustrates
The seed phrase was there, but the passphrase that unlocked it was gone. Both are required. Access was not recoverable.
Outcome interpretation
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Source
Publicly Reported
Evidence type
Forum post
Related cases involving passphrase unavailable
217 cases involve passphrase unavailable 572 cases involve mobile or software wallet View archive statistics →
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Framework references
Terms guide
Survives
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Constrained
Access remained possible, but only with delay, dependence, or significant difficulty.
Blocked
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Indeterminate
There was not enough information to determine the outcome.
Single-person knowledge
Recovery depended on information or capability held by one individual who was unavailable.
Institutional dependence
Recovery depended on a third-party institution or service that was inaccessible or uncooperative.
Documentation gap
Recovery depended on instructions that were missing, incomplete, or unclear.
Authority mismatch
The person with legal authority to act did not have operational access, or vice versa.
Original text
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