YWallet is retired: how to move to Zkool

Quick steps

1. Note your YWallet seeds. For every account write down the seed or key, account index, passphrase and approximate birth height on paper.
2. Install Zkool. Get Zkool from the App Store, Google Play or the developer's GitHub releases, and accept the disclaimer.
3. Restore each account. Tap +, switch on Restore Account?, enter the seed, a birth height lower than the real one and any account index.
4. Sync and compare. Sync all accounts and compare balances with YWallet before uninstalling it.
5. Migrate Orchard to Ironwood. Move any Orchard balance into Ironwood using round amounts, spaced over time, with Tor or Nym on.
6. Shield transparent funds. Zkool has no automatic shielding, so shield transparent ZEC manually.

YWallet was one of the most popular Zcash wallets for years, and many guides still recommend it. That advice is out of date. ZecHub lists YWallet as deprecated with the warning "Do not use these wallets for new funds", and it is not Ironwood-ready. Its developer (Hanh) now builds Zkool, a from-scratch successor that imports YWallet accounts. Note that the ywallet.app site showed no deprecation notice when we checked on 24 October 2026, so do not take its silence as a sign it still works.

Why you should move now

• No Ironwood. Since 28 July 2026 new shielded ZEC goes to the Ironwood pool. A wallet without Ironwood cannot receive shielded funds in the current pool or migrate your Orchard balance.
• No fixes. A retired wallet gets no security updates or network-upgrade support. The NU7 upgrade is planned for around 5 November 2026 (block 3,543,405).
• Your funds are not lost. They live on the blockchain. Your seed restores them in any compatible wallet.

What Zkool is

Prefer something simpler? Zodl, Zingo! and Cake Wallet are also Ironwood-ready. Compare them in Zodl vs Zkool vs Zingo.

Step 1: collect what you need from YWallet

Open YWallet while it still runs and, for each account, note:

• The seed phrase (or the key, if the account was imported from a key). YWallet keeps this in its backup section for each account; the exact menu path differs between versions, so look for the account's backup or seed option.
• The account index, if several accounts came from one seed.
• The approximate birth height or the date you created the account.
• Whether you used a passphrase.

Write these on paper, never in a cloud note. If YWallet no longer opens, use the paper backup you made when you created it. Zkool's documentation notes that YWallet saved and restored all accounts at once, while Zkool works per account, and we could not confirm a direct import of YWallet's full backup file. Restoring from seeds works in every case.

Step 2: install Zkool safely

Install from the App Store or Google Play (search "zkool" and check the developer) or from the hhanh00/zkool2 project's releases on GitHub. Type addresses yourself. Fake wallet downloads have a long history in Zcash: in 2019 a fake ZecWallet update spread malware from a look-alike GitHub repository.

On first launch, read the disclaimer, turn on I Agree and tap Continue. Consider turning on Pin Lock in Settings.

Step 3: restore each account

1. In the Account Manager, tap + and name the account.
2. Switch on Restore Account?.
3. Enter the seed phrase or key from YWallet.
4. Enter a birth height lower than the real one. Leaving it blank defaults to the current height and would miss your history.
5. For extra accounts from the same seed, open Advanced Options and set the account index (the first is 0). Add the passphrase there if you used one.
6. For a Ledger account, use the H/W Ledger switch instead of typing any seed.
7. Press save. When asked to sync, choose Cancel if you have more accounts to add, then sync them together from the Account Manager.

Steps from the Zkool account guide, checked October 2026. Turn on Tor or Nym before syncing if network privacy matters to you.

Step 4: check balances against YWallet

When sync finishes, compare each account's balance with what YWallet last showed. If something is missing, the usual causes are a birth height that is too late, the wrong account index, or a missing passphrase. Restore that account again with corrected settings. More help: restoring a Zcash wallet.

Step 5: move Orchard funds to Ironwood

Shielded ZEC received before 28 July 2026 may sit in Orchard, which is now withdraw-only. Zkool supports both pools, so once restored you can move them to Ironwood. We could not verify Zkool's exact migration screens. If Zkool offers a migration option, use it; otherwise send funds to your own Zkool shielded address and check the pool breakdown afterwards.

• The amount crossing from Orchard to Ironwood is public. Use round amounts, spread transfers over days and keep Tor or Nym on.
• Each transfer costs a normal fee, at least 0.0001 ZEC.
• There is no deadline.

Full background: Orchard to Ironwood migration.

Step 6: shield transparent funds yourself

Zkool has no automatic shielding. If an account holds transparent ZEC, shield it manually. Transparent funds are not lost, just public. See how to shield Zcash.

After the move

• Uninstall YWallet once every balance is confirmed in Zkool, and stop giving out old YWallet addresses to people who expect it to be your active wallet. Funds sent to those addresses still reach the same keys, so they appear in Zkool too.
• If you suspect your old phone or backups were exposed, create a fresh Zkool account and move funds into it.
• Install Zkool updates before NU7, planned for around 5 November 2026. As of 24 October 2026 it had not activated.

Frequently asked questions