Edit: It turns out this applies to ledger and any BIP39 wallet, not just trezor.

Yesterday I almost lost everything. After 8 years of holding, I went to recover my wallet and sell half my funds. In that time a small investment has turned into a life changing amount of money.

I entered my 24 words into the trezor and the wallet that opened was... Empty.

I tried it again. Zero balance.

I got my wife to try it. Same.

I used trust wallet, thinking it was a trezor issue. Empty.

This is a life changing amount of money for us. I started to feel like I could vomit. It felt like an out of body experience, like I was watching myself from above sweating and shaking.

Then I started googling, and learned that the passphrase is actually a 25th seed word. Without it, the funds are gone forever.

All those years ago when I set up the trezor, I had no idea. I thought it was just a way to hide a wallet in the trezor UI. I thought the 24 seed words were sufficient to restore the wallet on any bip39 device.

In an absolute miracle, like a bullet just missing your head, I found the passphrase. I got the funds. But it was almost a life changing mistake so wanted to share.