After losing a hardware passkey, whether you can recover your smart wallet depends entirely on whether you set up a second recovery path in advance. The answer is: if you prepared ahead, recovery is possible; if you didn't, there's almost no hope.
Case A: You turned on cloud sync (iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager)
This is the simplest scenario. Your passkey is encrypted and backed up to your cloud account. When you get a new device, you can retrieve it directly.
What to do: On your new phone, sign in with the same Apple ID or Google account you used when creating the wallet. Then open your smart wallet app (like imToken Web), choose "Sign in with passkey", and verify with Face ID or fingerprint.
Completion standard: After signing in, your account address and assets are automatically restored, exactly the same as on your old phone.
Security note: Even though the passkey is backed up in the cloud, neither Apple nor Google can read your private key. Any use of it must be authorized by your biometrics or PIN.
Case B: You set up a separate "recovery key" in advance
If your passkey is device-bound (like a YubiKey, or cloud sync wasn't turned on), it won't appear on a new phone. But many smart wallets (like Circle Modular Wallet, Coinbase Smart Wallet) let you register a recovery key as a backup ahead of time.
What is a recovery key: It's usually an EOA address controlled by a seed phrase, added to the smart wallet as a backup signer. This key must be set up while you still have access to your passkey.
What to do: After losing the hardware passkey, on the wallet's login page choose "Sign in with recovery phrase" or a similar option, and enter your backed-up seed phrase. The system will then guide you to register a new passkey.
Completion standard: Once the new passkey is registered, you can access your original smart wallet normally. Note: recovery won't automatically remove the old passkey. If your old device might still be in someone else's hands, you'll need to go into wallet settings and remove it separately.
Case C: You didn't enable cloud sync and didn't set a recovery key
This is the worst case. If your passkey is device-bound and there's no second recovery path, losing the passkey means the private key is gone forever.
Why it can't be saved: The passkey's private key never leaves the hardware device. The server only stores the public key. The server has no power to "reset" the passkey and doesn't have a copy of your private key.
Result: The assets in the wallet become permanently inaccessible. No customer service or third party can help you get them back.
High risk warning: If the lost passkey was your only one and you never set up any backup recovery method, no one can help you retrieve that wallet. Go check your wallet settings now. If you see an option to "set up account recovery" or "generate recovery phrase", do it immediately and store the backup safely. The consensus in the community is that every account should have at least two recovery paths. A single path lost means the wallet is lost.
After recovery
Verification method: After a successful recovery, check your wallet interface or a block explorer to confirm the account address and asset balances match what you had before.
Next steps: Once recovered, immediately set up backups for the new passkey again. If you rebuilt access using a recovery key, the old passkey may still exist — go to the wallet's authorization management page and remove it to prevent misuse from the old device. Also verify that your recovery key is still usable. If you used a seed phrase, double-check that you still have that backup stored securely.
