In 2021 I installed Daedalus Mainnet and I created a wallet, I still have the password but I lost the 12 word recovery seed phrase. Normally I can get into Daedalus, now I have created a new wallet in there, with a new recovery seed phrase, which I would like to move my ADAs to, so I can have them safe again. The problem is that the sync has been at 76% for a few months now, and it’s going very slowly. Without 100% sync, I can’t move the ADAs. Is there any way to do this? At the same time, Daedalus is asking me to upgrade the software from version 4.7.0 to 5.3.0. I’m afraid to do this before I move ADA to the new wallet, since I don’t have a seed phrase for the old one. Am I worried for nothing? Is the upgrade safe and won’t it ask me for a seed phrase? Can anyone please give me an advise before I make any irreversible move? I don´t want to lose my ADA 
Thank you very much for your help
Daedalus is a full node wallet that downloads and stores the complete blockchain history.
A lot of people recommend a lightweight wallet (that does not store the blockchain) as an alternative, but without the recovery seed phrase you cannot switch wallets.
Unfortunately you only option is get your Daedalus wallet fully synced so that you can then move your funds to another wallet (and this time I would highly recommend storing the recovery seed phrase safely).
Often when Daedalus is slow to sync its because its running on an insufficientlly high end machine or a machine that is too heavily loaded with other programs. It can also be a result of a poor network connection.
Please tell us the specs of your machine (CPU, RAM, spare disk space etc) and the OS you are using (ie Windows, Mac, Linux etc).
Also beware, scammers might try to contact you in a private message and try to scam you out of your funds. Do not rush and do not panic. While you have the password and the encryted recovery seed on disk your funds should still be recoverable.
While true, in this case the culprit can also be:
This Daedalus version is so old that it is not Vasil compatible. It will probably stop syncing at the 2022 hard fork.
So, the upgrade has to be done.
@erikd: Which files need to be backupped to be able to restore in case something goes sideways during the upgrade?
Yeah, you may be right about the version of Daedalus being too old.
The files that need to be backed up are almost certainly OS dependent. Even if they are backed up and restored, I am not 100% sure a wallet encrypted with an old version of Daedalus can be restored in a later version of Daedalus.
@PanBlbec What OS are you on?
Thank you very much. I’ll be patient. Is it safe to upgrade from 4.7.0 to 5.3.0 in this situation?
Intel(R) Core™ i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz 2.81 GHz
RAM 16,0 GB
Windows 10 Pro
spare disk 267 GB
Its probably safe to upgrade but prudent to backup the relevant files first. I do not use Windows so I do not know where the files that need to be backed up are located. Hopefully someone else can help.
Your machine seems file on all aspects but the RAM size. Daedalus in a RAM hog and the minimum requirement is 16G. You may get away with it.
My recommended steps:
- Wait until someone can tell you where the files are that need to be backed up and then wait for someone else to confirm it (remember there is no rush).
- Once the important files are backed up (preferably to another machine or thumb drive just to be safe) do the update.
- Sync the chain.
- The move the copy of the old wallet into place and try to open it.
Ok. Sounds good, thank you very much for your help. I am so nervous about the situation. You helped me a lot. So I’ll wait for information on what to back up.
Although, I doubt that I would eventually be able to use the back up in any way afterwards 
I’d be happy to pay someone who could solve my problem. Unfortunately, I’m not skilled in these matters. I ventured into something unknown and made a mistake.
This is basically asking for a scammer to scam you.
You should not trust anyone unless you have known them for a good number of years,
Ok. Thanks.
Assuming you’re sure you have your spending password for your wallet that you lost seed words for, I’d recommend below:
- Go to location:
%AppData%\Daedalus Mainnet - While you only need Wallets from this location, to be safe backup all folders except
chain(I assume you dont have a folder namedDB-1.0at the location, safe to ignore that folder if exists). Keep this backup safe and do not attempt to restore until you try the natural upgrade first (using below) and report back. - Download and install latest Daedalus version from official site, i.e. https://daedaluswallet.io/
- This should start a long (multiple days) procedure of revalidating old DB + starting sync. Please ensure your machine remains connected for the duration, interrupting sync will mean you need to restart the revalidating of DB, which can take a while.
PS: There are methods to accelerate sync (using mithril client OR using csnapshots.io), but it sounds like you prefer simplistic steps, so will avoid the other alternatives. - Once sync is complete, you should still have your old wallet in UI. Report back if that is not the case.
Again, avoid anyone sending you a direct message or accepting your offer for payment - usually ends up in source or target parties being scammed.
Edit: You can also opt to get in touch with dedicated team for Daedalus support by using menu from within Daedalus wallet or via ‘Get Support’ on https://daedaluswallet.io
Thank you very much. Does that mean I don’t have to run the update from the menu when I start Daedalus? See attachment.
Oh yeah - You can run the update from there too. Should have same effect