Monero Wallet Restore Height: What It Is and Why It Speeds Up Sync

What Is Restore Height?

When you create a new Monero wallet, the wallet software records the approximate block height at the time of creation. This number, known as the restore height, tells the wallet where to start scanning the blockchain for transactions that belong to you. It is one of the most important yet least understood concepts in Monero wallet management, and getting it right can save you hours of waiting when recovering a wallet.

The Monero blockchain contains millions of blocks stretching back to its genesis in April 2014. When you restore a wallet from a seed phrase, the wallet needs to scan the blockchain to find your transactions and calculate your balance. Without a restore height, the wallet would have to scan every single block from the very beginning, a process that can take many hours even on fast hardware. The restore height tells the wallet to skip all the blocks before your wallet existed, dramatically reducing the sync time.

Why Restore Height Matters

The Monero blockchain grows by approximately 720 blocks per day, and as of early 2026, the chain contains well over 3 million blocks. Scanning each block requires the wallet to check every transaction output against your wallet's keys to determine if any funds were sent to you. This is computationally intensive work.

The Time Difference

To illustrate the impact of restore height, consider a wallet created in January 2025. Without a restore height, the wallet must scan approximately 3.2 million blocks to synchronize. With the correct restore height set to the block at which the wallet was created, only a few hundred thousand blocks need to be scanned. Depending on your hardware and connection speed, this difference can mean the difference between a 30-minute sync and a multi-hour ordeal.

For wallets created more recently, the difference is even more dramatic. A wallet created just a few months ago might sync in under 10 minutes with the correct restore height, compared to several hours without it. For users who need to quickly access their funds during a wallet recovery, this time savings is critical.

How to Find Your Restore Height

There are several ways to determine the correct restore height for your wallet:

Wallet Creation Date Method

If you know when you created your wallet, you can calculate an approximate restore height. Since Monero produces approximately 720 blocks per day (one block every 2 minutes), you can estimate the block height for any given date. Several online tools and community resources provide date-to-block-height converters for the Monero blockchain.

When using this method, always round down and subtract a safety margin of a few thousand blocks. It is far better to scan a few extra blocks than to set the restore height too high and miss transactions. A common recommendation is to subtract 10,000 blocks (approximately 2 weeks) from your estimated creation height to ensure no transactions are missed.

Wallet Software Records

Many wallet applications display or store the restore height alongside your seed phrase when you first create a wallet. Feather Wallet, for example, shows the restore height on the same screen where it displays your seed phrase. If you wrote down your seed phrase when creating your wallet, check if you also noted the restore height or creation date.

Some wallets encode the restore height directly into the seed phrase itself. Monero's standard 25-word seed includes a checksum that also encodes the approximate creation date. When you restore using a standard Monero seed, the wallet software can extract this information automatically. However, this only works with the standard Monero seed format, not with all wallet implementations.

The Restore Height Lookup Tool

The Monero community maintains block height lookup tools that allow you to convert between dates and block heights. These tools are available on various Monero community websites and can give you an accurate restore height for any date. Simply enter the approximate date when you created your wallet, and the tool will return the corresponding block height.

Setting Restore Height in Different Wallets

Monero GUI Wallet

When restoring a wallet in the official Monero GUI, you will be prompted to enter a restore height or a wallet creation date during the restoration process. The GUI provides a field where you can enter either the block height directly or a date, and it will calculate the corresponding height.

To restore with a specific height in the GUI:

• Open the Monero GUI and select "Restore wallet from keys or mnemonic seed"
• Enter your 25-word seed phrase
• In the restore height field, enter your known block height or the approximate creation date
• Complete the wallet creation process and wait for synchronization

Monero CLI Wallet

The command-line wallet accepts restore height through the --restore-height flag when creating a wallet from a seed. The command structure is straightforward:

Use the monero-wallet-cli --restore-deterministic-wallet --restore-height BLOCK_NUMBER command, replacing BLOCK_NUMBER with your known restore height. The CLI will prompt you for your seed phrase and then begin scanning from the specified block height.

If you have already restored a wallet without setting the restore height and want to rescan from a specific height, you can use the rescan_bc command within the CLI wallet, optionally specifying a height to scan from.

Cake Wallet

Cake Wallet, a popular mobile Monero wallet, handles restore height during the wallet recovery process. When you choose to restore a wallet from a seed, Cake Wallet provides an option to enter the restore height or a date. If you leave this field blank, the wallet will scan from the genesis block, which can take a very long time on a mobile device with limited processing power.

Given the limited resources of mobile devices, setting the correct restore height is especially important in Cake Wallet. Mobile wallet synchronization is already slower than desktop synchronization, so skipping unnecessary blocks makes a significant difference in the user experience.

Feather Wallet

Feather Wallet automatically records and displays the restore height when you create a new wallet. During restoration, it provides a clear field for entering the restore height and includes helpful guidance about what value to use. Feather also supports date-based restore, automatically converting your wallet creation date to the appropriate block height.

What Happens If You Set It Wrong

Restore Height Too High

If you set the restore height higher than the block in which your first transaction was included, the wallet will skip over that transaction and all subsequent transactions up to the specified height. This means your balance will be incorrect, showing less than you actually own, and your transaction history will be incomplete.

This is the more dangerous of the two possible errors, because it can make you think funds are missing when they are actually there. If you suspect your restore height is too high, you can rescan from a lower height or from the genesis block to ensure all transactions are captured.

Restore Height Too Low

Setting the restore height too low is safe but inefficient. The wallet will scan blocks that do not contain any of your transactions, wasting time but not missing any funds. Your final balance will be correct. It will just take longer to get there.

For this reason, when in doubt, always err on the side of setting the restore height too low rather than too high. Better to wait an extra hour for synchronization than to miss transactions and have an incorrect balance.

Saving Time on Wallet Recovery

The single most important thing you can do to prepare for wallet recovery is to record your restore height alongside your seed phrase. When you create a new Monero wallet, write down both pieces of information and store them securely. Many users diligently record their seed phrase but forget the restore height, leading to unnecessarily long recovery times.

If you have an existing wallet and do not know your restore height, you can find it in your wallet settings or by looking at the date of your earliest transaction. Record this information now, before you need it, and store it with your seed phrase backup.

Best Practices for Wallet Backup

• Record both the seed phrase and restore height when creating any new wallet
• Store backup information securely in multiple physical locations
• Test your backup by restoring to a secondary device to verify that both the seed and restore height are correct
• Update your records if you create new subaddresses or accounts within the same wallet
• Use the standard 25-word seed format when possible, as it encodes approximate creation date information

Technical Details for Advanced Users

Under the hood, the restore height is simply a block height number that tells the wallet daemon where to begin the scanning process. When the wallet scans a block, it downloads the block's transaction data and checks each output against the wallet's view key. If a match is found, the output is added to the wallet's local database along with the information needed to spend it later.

The scanning process also builds the wallet's local cache of known ring members, which is used when constructing new transactions. This cache helps the wallet create transactions more efficiently and with better privacy properties. A complete scan from the correct restore height ensures that this cache is properly populated.

For users running their own Monero node, the restore height also affects how much blockchain data needs to be read from disk. A lower restore height means more disk reads, which can be a bottleneck on systems with slow storage. Using an SSD rather than an HDD can significantly speed up the scanning process regardless of the restore height.

At MoneroSwapper, we understand that wallet management can be daunting for new users. Whether you are setting up your first Monero wallet or recovering an existing one, understanding restore height ensures you can access your funds quickly and efficiently after any exchange through our platform.