Trezor.io/Start FAQ: setup, downloads and seed safety

It is the official starting point on the manufacturer's website for a brand-new device: the address that leads to the app download and then into the guided first-run flow — firmware, wallet creation, the recovery seed, a PIN and a first account.

This site is an independent guide to the same journey. It exists so you can read what each screen is about to ask before you plug anything in, and know which steps carry consequences. Start with the seven-stage walkthrough.

No. This is an independent educational resource, not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the company that makes the devices. The official website is reached by typing trezor.io into your address bar yourself, or from a bookmark you made before you bought the device.

Nothing on this site asks for a recovery seed, private key or password, and nothing here will ever link you straight to an installer file. That is deliberate: getting to the official source under your own steam is part of the security, and the download guide explains why.

No account exists to create. Hardware wallet setup has no signup, no email verification and no password — and any page that asks for credentials during wallet setup is working against you.

What you create instead is a wallet on the device, protected by a device PIN and backed up by the recovery seed you write down. Those two things replace the account entirely, which is also why losing the seed has no support-desk remedy.

Partly. The mobile app covers a lot on iOS and Android, but the desktop application is still the most complete way to set up, update and manage a wallet — and the least likely to leave you hunting for USB permissions or helper utilities.

If a computer is available, do the first run there. Use the mobile app afterwards for balances and light use. Full details are on the download page.

Use the cable that came in the box. It is the one cable you know carries data, while a surprising number of spare cables are charge-only and can never carry the connection the app needs — this is the single most common cause of “my device is not detected”.

If yours goes missing, buy a replacement rated for data, with the connector type your model uses, and plug it straight into the computer rather than through a hub. See the detection checklist.

Expect one. Devices generally ship without firmware or with an older release, and the app installs the current signed version during first run — before a wallet exists, so a failed or interrupted install costs nothing but time.

Confirm the version on the device's own screen during the update, keep the device connected, and do not let the computer sleep mid-install.

Do not use it. A new device should have no wallet, no PIN and no seed words of any kind. If it already contains a wallet, came with a pre-written seed card, or asks for a PIN you never set, treat it as tampered — contact the seller or the official support channel and exchange it.

“Just reset it and carry on” is not a safe answer: you cannot verify what firmware or modification was left behind. The device page lists what should and should not be in the box.

Arrive deliberately — typed address or a bookmark made before the device arrived — then read the domain character by character, including the ending. Be sceptical of sponsored search results, links in messages and emails, and any page that opens a chat window to “help”.

A padlock in the address bar only means the connection is encrypted; it says nothing about who controls the page. The verification routine takes about a minute and is worth doing every time.

Yes — it is the only backup that can restore your funds. If the device is lost, stolen, damaged or wiped after repeated wrong PIN entries, the words are the way back in. Without them, the wallet is gone permanently.

Twelve words, sometimes twenty or twenty-four, written by hand in order and stored offline. The storage section covers paper, metal, second copies and the schemes that fail years later.

No. Anything that syncs, screenshots, autosaves or backs itself up to the internet can be reached without touching your device — through your account, your email, or someone else's breach. Encrypted cloud storage changes who holds the risk, not whether the risk exists.

Keep the seed offline: handwriting on the supplied card, or stamped into metal if you want it to survive fire and water. Why the seed is the master key.

A passphrase is an extra word or phrase that combines with the same seed to open a separate hidden wallet. It protects you if someone finds your written seed — and it cannot be recovered if you forget it, mis-capitalise it or mistype even one character.

Advice: skip it on day one. Add one once you understand the trade-off and can store it as carefully as the seed, in a different place. Read PIN versus passphrase first.

You restore the wallet from your recovery seed on the device — or on a replacement — and set a new PIN. Nothing is lost as long as the seed is intact and readable.

Repeated wrong entries wipe the device by design, which stops someone guessing with the hardware in hand. That is exactly why the seed backup comes before the PIN in the setup order.

Yes. One device can hold accounts for many coins and tokens at the same time — the device stores keys, not balances, so the limit is what the app supports rather than how much you own.

Add one account per asset and keep the list short enough to understand at a glance. Before relying on a specific coin, check the always-current supported-assets list on the official website rather than a third-party page written years ago.

On the blockchain, never on the device. The device holds the private keys that authorise spending, and the app reads public chain data to show balances.

The practical consequence is the whole point of the setup order: losing the device is survivable, losing the recovery seed is not.