Phantom warns iOS users of wallet 'app resets' after update, urges recovery phrase backup

Phantom, the maker of the popular Solana wallet, has alerted users that some are experiencing “app resets” in a message on its social media channels. The issue appears to be isolated to the iOS version of the application. 

“We're aware that a small number of iOS users are experiencing app resets. If you happen to be among them, you can restore your wallet using your recovery phrase,” the company posted on social media platforms X and Telegram, adding they’ve pushed out an update to “prevent this from affecting any additional users.”

“Please make sure you always back up your recovery phrase in a secure location. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused and we're committed to making sure this won't happen again,” the company said. 

According to social media posts earlier on Wednesday, some iOS users reported being automatically logged out and losing access to their Phantom wallets after downloading a recent Phantom update. The issue appears to have affected users who had not backed up their seed phrases.

Because Phantom is a non-custodial wallet, if a user’s seedphrase is not stored locally or written down, the company cannot help retrieve lost funds. The company suggested reaching out to the support team.

A seed phrase, or mnemonic phrase, is a list of words that acts as a backup to recover a lost or damaged cryptocurrency wallet. It is typically generated by crypto wallets but not stored by the wallet provider.

'Lost $1 million'

This is the second time users have reported issues with their Phantom wallets in recent weeks. In late October, an error displayed inaccurate account balances on the app and browser extension. 

“After Phantom updated, it logged me out, and I officially lost access to these wallets,” user @0xFiyopi said on X. “Lost $1 million USD in $POPCAT.”

“@phantom you guys are real ? Wtf is this man i had 100 wallet and all gone ? All allocations on platforms ?,” @aut3z said. 

“I’m seeing quite a lot of people across being affected by the new phantom IOS update that is ‘deleting’ all the wallets off your phone - losing wallets with a lot of money in them ( specifically hot wallets they made just for trading memes),” Graphite Protocol founder Tom said. “This now becomes an interesting situation who is to blame here? Is there any compensation for people who’s app auto updated and got erased? Or do we chalk it up to the game and blame the users for not saving their priv keys/seeds.”

Phantom’s status page currently shows “all systems operational” and no problems with the back or frontends. A representative has not responded to The Block’s query by press time.