Restore an Electrum Bitcoin Wallet on iPhone

Oath can restore supported Electrum Bitcoin seed formats on iPhone. This guide covers ordinary Electrum Standard, native SegWit and old-format deterministic seeds in Oath 5.0.2 (104). Recovery rebuilds the Bitcoin account; it does not move BTC to a new address or restore everything stored in an Electrum wallet file.

Before starting, identify the original wallet's seed type and whether it used a seed extension. Keep your Electrum installation, wallet file and independent recovery copy available until you have checked recovery.

Electrum seeds are a distinct format

Electrum's seed-version documentation explains how its seed format identifies the wallet derivation. A phrase generated by Electrum is not automatically BIP39, even when its words look familiar. Older Electrum seeds use a separate encoding again.

Electrum can also open a BIP39 wallet imported from another application. That does not turn the phrase into an Electrum-generated seed. Such a wallet needs its original BIP39 passphrase, account path and script type; it is outside the verified Electrum-seed combinations below.

Verified recovery scope

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Two-factor/TrustedCoin and custom multisig recovery are outside this guide's verified instructions. Oath has separate two-factor recovery code, but this guide does not establish preservation of its original cosigner or two-factor protection. Watch-only wallets, imported individual-key wallets, hardware wallets and custom scripts also need their own recovery material and review. Do not treat their wallet-file password as a seed.

Restore the wallet in Oath

1. In the original Electrum wallet, identify the wallet type and note public receiving and change addresses that have been used. Confirm whether the seed was generated by Electrum or imported as BIP39.
2. Open Oath and choose Import wallet, or open Settings → Wallets to add it alongside an existing wallet.
3. Enter the original Electrum words in order. If Oath offers more than one matching format, explicitly choose Electrum. Read the detected seed-type information and resolve validation errors from your original backup rather than guessing replacements.
4. Complete setup and name the wallet. For a supported Standard or SegWit seed that used an extension, open that wallet's settings and choose Add Password to restore the extension-derived wallet. Enter and confirm the original extension, then open that resulting wallet. Do not substitute your Electrum file-encryption password or Oath app passcode.
5. Let Bitcoin discovery refresh. Compare known addresses and available transaction history with Electrum. Check receiving and change activity, not just the newest receiving address shown by one app.
6. Keep the original recovery copy until the accounts and funds you need are accounted for. Check the network fee and destination before any later send.

Enter private recovery material only in the app. Do not paste a seed, extension or wallet file into this website, support messages, an online checker or a conversion service. See the general import guide for the distinction between recovery phrases, keys and Oath backup files.

What is recovered, and what is not?

This recovery is Bitcoin-only. It does not recover other coins, Bitcoin Cash forks, wrapped BTC on other chains or unrelated keys merely because they appeared beside the original wallet. Matching keys give access to their corresponding Bitcoin outputs; displayed balances and transaction history still depend on discovery providers.

The phrase alone does not recreate Lightning channel state, custom labels, contacts, invoice records, frozen-coin choices, plugins or arbitrary metadata from the Electrum wallet file. A seed-only import must not be treated as Lightning-channel recovery. Keep the original software and any channel backups for that separate process.

Oath 5.0.2 excludes Electrum wallets from its encrypted iCloud export flow. Keep a separate offline backup of the original seed and, where required, the extension. An Oath app passcode does not replace those recovery materials. See Oath's backup scope.

Why might the balance look incomplete?

First confirm the seed format and original extension. Standard, SegWit and BIP39 derivations can produce different wallets from apparently similar inputs. A different current receiving address can also be normal: Bitcoin wallets rotate addresses.

Then compare known historical receiving and change addresses. Discovery scans bounded ranges; addresses after long unused gaps, custom derivations and imported keys are not proven recovered just because the seed was accepted. Provider failures or delayed responses can also leave data incomplete. Keep the original wallet, and resolve the discrepancy before assuming all funds have been found.

There is no Bitcoin network fee for importing a seed. Sending BTC afterward requires an on-chain transaction and its fee. If your goal is new keys, create and back up a new wallet and transfer BTC to its verified address. Restoring the old seed keeps the old wallet's keys and access.

What we verified

Checked November 6, 2026 against Oath 5.0.2 (104) source. We ran its Electrum host tests: five checks passed, and the opt-in Bitcoin Core funding/transfer check was skipped. The public reference suite compares 132 receive/change addresses across 22 fixtures and also tests extension isolation and bounded discovery. The suite includes additional seed types beyond the ordinary-wallet instructions in this guide.

These are offline recovery and source checks. They are not an iPhone runtime test, a live funded transfer or a guarantee that every historical Electrum wallet configuration will recover through this route.

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