# Verify Your Recovery Phrase > *"Confirm that you wrote down your recovery phrase correctly. Your device will ask you to enter some of the words."* Verify recovery phrase This is the single most valuable minute of the entire setup, and the one people most often skip. ## Why this step exists A backup you have never tested is not a backup. It's a piece of paper you *believe* is a backup. The failure mode is brutal and extremely common: someone writes the words down, puts the paper in a drawer, funds the wallet, and discovers three years later — at the exact moment they need it — that word 9 says `flat` when the device said `float`, or that words 14 and 15 got swapped, or that a `1` was read as a `l`. At that point the funds are unrecoverable. Nobody can help. Verifying now costs you a minute. Verifying later costs you everything, and you only find out when it's too late. ## What happens when you click Verify Now The device asks you to enter words from your phrase, using the same [scrambled cipher grid](/docs/desktop/setup/cipher-recovery) used for recovery. Read them from **your written backup**, not from memory — the point is to test the paper, not your recall. The check happens **on the device**. Your computer never receives the words, and never learns whether any individual word was right — only whether the whole phrase matched. > On the KeepKey emulator, the flow differs slightly: it asks for **3 words at random positions** rather than running a full on-device entry pass. The purpose is identical. ## Recovery Phrase Verified > *"Your backup is correct. Keep it safe — never share it with anyone."* Your paper matches the device's seed. That paper will restore this wallet on any BIP39-compatible device. Put it somewhere safe now, while you're still thinking about it. ## Verification Failed > *"The words you entered did not match. Please try again or check your written backup."* **Do not panic, and do not wipe the device.** As long as the KeepKey is still set up and unwiped, the true seed is intact and you can retry. The mismatch is nearly always a transcription problem: 1. **Check the order.** Swapped adjacent words are the most common error. 2. **Check ambiguous handwriting.** `l`/`1`, `0`/`O`, `rn`/`m`, `u`/`v`. 3. **Check against the BIP39 wordlist.** Every valid word is uniquely determined by its first four letters — if your written word isn't on the list, you have found your error. 4. **Retry.** Use **Try Again**. If you cannot make your paper match, your backup is wrong and your funds would be unrecoverable. The right move is to **wipe the device and start over with a fresh seed, before putting any funds on it** — while a bad backup costs you nothing. ## Skip — I'll verify later The wizard lets you defer this, and it will not nag you again. Weigh that honestly: - The cost of verifying now: about a minute. - The cost of a bad backup discovered later: the entire wallet. If you do skip, verify before you send any meaningful amount to the wallet. You can run the same check any time from **Settings → Device**. ## Related - [Recovery Phrase](/docs/desktop/recovery-phrase) — long-term storage - [Your Words = Your Wallet](/docs/desktop/setup/recovery-words) - [Scrambled Recovery Entry](/docs/desktop/setup/cipher-recovery) - [All setup screens](/docs/desktop/setup)