Arqma Wallet logo — secure Monero-based privacy crypto wallet
Get wallet
Recovery · 6 min read

Restoring Arqma Wallet from the .keys file

If you have a copy of your wallet folder you can restore Arqma Wallet without the 25-word seed. Here’s exactly what to copy, where to put it, and what to watch out for.

Updated June 2026
Arqma Wallet — gold icosahedron vault mark

The seed phrase is still the gold standard

Before anything else: your 25-word seed phrase can recreate your wallet from scratch on any device. Wallet files are convenient, but if you have both, the seed is the most authoritative copy. See wallet recovery.

What’s in a wallet folder

Arqma Wallet stores your data in a few files, usually named your-wallet-name plus extensions:

  • your-wallet-name.keys — this is the critical file. It holds your encrypted spend and view keys. Lose this and you fall back to the seed.
  • your-wallet-name (no extension) — the wallet cache: known transactions, balance, addresses. Rebuildable from the chain.
  • your-wallet-name.address.txt — your public address in plain text. Convenience, not sensitive.

Where Arqma Wallet stores files by default

  • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arqma\wallets\
  • macOS: ~/Documents/Arqma/wallets/
  • Linux: ~/Arqma/wallets/ or wherever you saved at creation.

If you can’t find them, search your home directory for *.keys.

Restoring from a folder backup

  1. Install Arqma Wallet from the official download page. Verify the checksum.
  2. Close the wallet if it’s open.
  3. Copy your backed-up files (name, name.keys, name.address.txt) into the wallets folder for your OS (see above).
  4. Open Arqma Wallet, choose Open a wallet from file, and pick name.keys.
  5. Enter the wallet password you set when you created it.
  6. The wallet will rescan the chain and rebuild the cache. This may take a while on first sync.

Restoring without the cache file

If you only have name.keys and the password, you’re fine — that’s the only file that matters. The cache rebuilds automatically.

If you have only the password and no .keys file, you need the seed phrase. That’s exactly the scenario the seed exists for.

Watch-outs

  • Don’t restore from a wallet file on a machine you don’t trust.
  • Don’t paste your password into anything that isn’t the wallet itself.
  • After restoring, wait for the wallet to fully sync before judging the balance — it can look empty mid-sync.
What goes wrong elsewhere

The cost of not owning a recoverable wallet

When a wallet file gets corrupted or deleted, custodial users have a support queue. Self-custody users have a 25-word seed and 60 seconds. Arqma is built around the second model — recovery is a feature, not a favour.

  • $2.2Bstolen from crypto services and custodial wallets in 2024 alone (Chainalysis). Almost none of it was held in self-custodial wallets like Arqma.
  • #1cause of consumer crypto losses, year after year, is a fake wallet or cloned download page — not a protocol exploit. The official build is the fix.
  • 25words is all you need to restore an Arqma Wallet on any device, in under five minutes. No support ticket, no waiting on a custodian to respond.
  • $5.6Breported lost to crypto investment fraud in the US in 2023 (FBI IC3). Nearly all of it sat in third-party accounts the victim didn’t actually control.
Take back control

Download Arqma Wallet

Free, open source, non-custodial. Your keys, your coins, your privacy — on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. Install in two minutes.

Download Arqma Wallet →
WindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOS

Always download from the official page. Verified builds, signed releases, open-source code.

Continue reading