How to back up your Liana wallet

Two things to back up

A complete Liana backup requires two items, and both are needed:

The seed phrase for every signing key in your wallet
The wallet descriptor

Missing either one makes recovery much harder, and in some cases impossible. This is different from most single-key wallets, where a seed alone is sufficient.

Why seed phrases alone aren't enough

Most Bitcoin wallets can be fully recovered from a single seed phrase because the wallet is just one key. Liana wallets are different: they are defined by a spending policy: who can spend, under what conditions, and after what timelocks. That policy is encoded in the wallet descriptor.

Without the descriptor, you cannot deterministically reconstruct the wallet even if you have all the seeds. A Liana wallet isn't a key; it's a policy. Back up the policy.

Backing up seed phrases

Each hardware signing device generates its own seed phrase independently. Back them up as follows:

Write down each seed phrase on durable media. Metal seed storage is the most resilient option against fire and water; paper works if stored carefully.
Back up each seed independently, stored in separate physical locations
Never store seeds digitally. No photos, no cloud storage, no password managers.
Seeds use standard BIP39 format: 12 or 24 words depending on your device

Backing up the wallet descriptor

In Liana, go to Settings, then Wallet, then Export descriptor. The descriptor encodes your complete spending policy in a compact format.

The descriptor can be stored encrypted, which means unlike seed phrases it is safe to keep copies in multiple locations including online. Cloud storage, email to yourself, and a USB drive are all fine options alongside your seed backups. Multiple copies are strongly encouraged: the descriptor alone cannot be used to spend your funds, so redundancy here costs nothing.

Good places to store the descriptor:

Encrypted in cloud storage or emailed to yourself
On USB drives kept in separate locations
Printed on paper and stored with your seed backups
With a trusted third party (notary, lawyer, or trusted family member)

Checking what your backup looks like

The descriptor is a plain text string. Here is what a typical Liana descriptor looks like:

wsh(or_d(pk([fingerprint/path]xpub.../0/*),and_v(v:pk([fingerprint/path]xpub.../0/*),older(25920))))

Label every backup clearly: include the device name, its role (primary key or recovery key), and the date of backup. This makes recovery unambiguous even years later.

Testing your backup

Don't assume your backup works. Verify it. On a second computer, or after uninstalling and reinstalling Liana, use the Restore from descriptor option and paste your saved descriptor. Liana should load the wallet and display your correct balance and history. If it does, your descriptor backup is valid. Do this at least once after initial setup, and again any time you update your wallet configuration.

For Liana Business

Wizardsardine helps you design your backup and recovery documentation as part of the onboarding process. Your descriptor and key custody plan become part of your formal governance documentation, useful for audits, succession planning, and operational resilience. Learn more about Liana Business.

Summary checklist

Seed phrase backed up for every signing key
Wallet descriptor exported and stored in multiple locations
Restore tested on a clean install
At least one offsite copy of both the seed and descriptor