Phantom issues after an emergency update of the iOS app locks users out of the wallet

Phantom, a Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) wallet, has released an urgent update to its iOS app. This error follows reports of some users being unexpectedly logged out of their accounts.

The problem prevented many iOS customers from accessing their wallets unless they backed up their recovery phrases.

Users are locked out of their wallets

In a Nov. 13 post on X, Phantom said, “We are aware that a few iOS users are experiencing app resets. If you are among them, you can restore your wallet using your recovery phrase.

The team behind the wallet has made sure to release a new iOS update so that more people don't face the same problem. They also advised all users to back up their recovery drives safely and apologized for the situation.

Reports of the problem first surfaced on social media earlier in the day, with some iOS users reporting that they were suddenly logged out and lost access to their wallets after installing the app's latest update.

An individual asked Phantom why their application reset itself overnight and took all of his wallet. Another said, “Phantom is deleting people's wallets with the latest update… People are going to get burned if they forget to save a lot of tokens.”

The problem seems to affect people who don't support their pedigrees, which is an important recovery step in non-case wallets like the Phantom. Crypto trader ACE has warned others not to update their wallets without saving their pedigree on X.

Since the service operates as a non-custodial wallet, the platform cannot withdraw funds if the user's lineage is lost or unsupported. Tom, the founder of the Graphite protocol, highlighted the situation, reporting that the recent “phantom update” caused significant losses to wallet owners.

He also asked if the liability was only for those who were unable to recover their private keys, or if Phantom should consider compensation for those affected by the update.

More events

This incident adds to the list of technical issues that Phantom users have experienced over the past few months. In late October, customers complained about scaling errors in the app and browser extension, which Phantom admitted was a “periodic phenomenon.”

At the time, the company advised users to ignore authentication errors and continue transactions using decentralized applications (dApps) if urgently needed. Phantom resolved the issue shortly after, updating users that the services were working normally.

Earlier in the year, on February 3, the team also reported delays with token balance updates. Additionally, in a separate incident on August 15, a temporary bug affected users' ability to view their actual account balances. However, the wallet solved both situations immediately.