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When I go into the 'Show seeds & keys' screen from the Settings menu tab, the mnemonic field is empty. I'm trying to get a copy of it as the one I saved from the initial setup is somehow missing one word. I found this out when I pasted the see into the 'https://xmr.llcoins.net' website.

Also, the secret keys have strange values. The view key is a bunch of zeroes and the spend key is a bunch of 'f's.

On a positive note, I saw that the account received some test XMR that I sent a couple of days ago and it now shows in the balance. I was also able to do a 'Send' just a couple of minutes ago and it's showing some confirmations.

So it looks like the wallet is working even though there might be an issue with the seed & keys.

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The mnemonic field is empty because your Ledger 24 word mnemonic seed (which was generated upon initializing the Ledger device and is essentially your Monero seed for a Ledger Monero wallet) is retained on the device. Similarly, the private spend key (note that the 24 word Ledger mnemonic seed is simply a representation in words of your private spend key) and the private view key values are also not obtainable in the GUI.

In sum, essentially, the notion of a hardware device is to provide security by retaining your private spend key (the 24 word mnemonic seed) on the device. Therefore, the GUI cannot show your keys or mnemonic seed.

I found this out when I pasted the see into the 'https://xmr.llcoins.net' website.

Entering your 24 word Ledger mnemonic seed into your system basically renders the security provided by the hardware device obsolete.

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  • Thank you. That clears up a lot questions I had with how all these components, hardware and software, work together. So how do I generate a new seed for the Nano, now that I pasted the current (now not so secure) one into a public website. Do I simply uninstall/re-install the Monero app onto the Nano?
    – ncruz
    Commented Jun 18, 2019 at 7:31
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    You're welcome. I am not particularly well acquainted with Ledger devices, but as far as I know you can 'reset' the device and generate a new 24 word mnemonic seed. Make sure to first move the funds out of your 'old' Ledger Monero wallet though.
    – dEBRUYNE
    Commented Jun 18, 2019 at 10:48
  • So you're recommending to move any funds I have because 24 word mnemonic seed (or private spend key) is retained on the device, and since I don't have the values for these, I cannot restore this wallet elsewhere, even another hardware device? Basically, this wallet is deleted forever if I reset the device?
    – ncruz
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 1:40
  • I just realized that I do have the 24 word mnemonic seed and the problem is that to restore a wallet to other platforms, a 25 word mnemonic is required. So perhaps I can restore this 'main' or embedded wallet but only to another Nano S. This would make sense because it's in line with the use case of losing the device and buying another (same) device and restoring this main wallet on it.
    – ncruz
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 2:08
  • First, a 24 word Ledger mnemonic seed can only be restored in another Ledger device. You cannot simply restore it in the GUI (unless you use a conversion tool), as the seed format is incompatible. | No, I am not recommending to move funds because of that. If you reset the Ledger device, you cannot access your previous Ledger Monero wallet anymore. That's why I recommended to first move the funds before you generated a new 24 word Ledger mnemonic seed. Hopefully it is a bit more clear now. If not, do not hesitate to ask further questions.
    – dEBRUYNE
    Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 6:30

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