Recovery Dry Run

A recovery dry run is restoring a wallet from its backup on purpose, before anything depends on it, to prove the backup works. It is the only way to find out that a word was written down transposed, that a passphrase is remembered incorrectly, that a derivation path differs between applications, or that a share of a split backup was never placed where the note says it is — every one of which stays silent until the day the original device is gone. The usual method uses a spare device, or a wallet application that can be reset afterwards: enter the backup, confirm that the restored accounts show the addresses and balances you expect, then remove it. Doing this with a small balance first tells you more than reading the words back, because it exercises the standard and the path as well as the spelling. Repeat after any change to the backup, and before committing an amount you could not afford to lose.