Wallet recovery

Recovery

Using emergency.recover

• Copy the valid binary formatted hsm_secret into $LIGHTNINGDIR directory
• Copy the latest emergency.recover backup file into the $LIGHTNINGDIR before starting up the node
• Start lightningd
• Run lightning-cli emergencyrecover (RPC command)[https://docs.corelightning.org/reference/lightning-emergencyrecover] to recover all the channels on the node
• Wait until your peer force closes the channel and the node would automatically sweep the funds. This could take some time

Using --recover flag

• Copy the latest emergency.recover backup file into the $LIGHTNINGDIR before starting up the node
• Start lightningd --recover=<codex32secret>. It will automatically generate your node's hsm_secret using the codex32 secret
• The node will initiate in offline mode. As a result, it won't establish connections with peers automatically
• Restart lightningd
• Run lightning-cli emergencyrecover (RPC command)[https://docs.corelightning.org/reference/lightning-emergencyrecover] to recover all the channels on the node

🚧

Only recover from database if you are sure that it is latest.

Snapshot-style backups of the lightningd database is discouraged, as any loss of state may result in permanent loss of funds.

See the penalty mechanism for more details.

Using database

If you already have latest wallet backup and hsm_secret, it is technically not recovery. It is similar to restarting your lightning node.

• Copy the DB backup lightningd.sqlite3 from your NFS backup directory into $LIGHTNINGDIR directory
• Either copy the valid binary formatted hsm_secret into $LIGHTNINGDIR directory and start lightningd
• Or start lightningd with recover flag (lightningd --recover=<codex32secret>)
• Note that emergency.recover backup file is not required here but you can copy it into $LIGHTNINGDIR directory (if exists)