Recovery key not accepted on fresh install - had to start from scratch!

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@danielson

So, if i understand you properly.
If i do a fresh install on my PC, the previous sync code is no longer valid?

Yes, in general the previous sync code won’t be valid longer. The only exception is if you will use enter sync code in the same day as you get it in settings, the sync code is valid for one day.

If so, a user must foresee making a backup of Brave data?

Sync is not advised as a backup solution. But if you have two devices in the chain and doing fresh OS installation or factory reset on one of them, you can pick the code from other device.

So, say i do fresh install on PC.
Need new sync code…
Then, install on tablet and sync with version on PC.
What then if i must re-install PC?

Just pick the code again from the tablet and enter into PC.

Will need new code while the old one still works with the tablet?

Technically each time when you get the code words or QR code for the existing sync chain, it is always new.
The proper way of connecting the device to the sync chain - always take the sync code from the device which is already in the chain.
So yes, use a new code for the sync chain.

How will sync between PC and Android tablet continue?

Sync code now consists of two parts:

  1. seed, 24 of first words, which is never changed.
  2. 25th word with represents the number of days between Words v2 Epoch of Tue, 10 May 2022 and today’s date.
    And sync internally used only the 1st part, which is seed, and which never changes.

If you are desperate and did re-install of OS and you don’t have other device in the chain to pick the code words in a proper way, but you have old saved sync words, there is a workaround:

Disclaimer
we don’t officially support this use case and that while it may work now, we’re not committing to this continuing to work into the future.

25th word is the same on different devices and reflects the number of days between today and so-called time-limited-words-epoch

For today 4 Aug 2022 the 25th word is “approve”

So it is possible to take your old 24-words, add space and add “approve” word and join the sync chain.

If you saved time-limited words of 25, you need to remove the last 25th word, add space, add “approve” and join the sync chain

Word “approve” will be shifted each day, the next word is “april”
The list of words is https://github.com/ElementsProject/libwally-core/blob/cd5b8c404352759d603208e08c59003aaeb9a6fa/src/data/wordlists/english.txt

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