Coinbase Wallet extension not working? Start here

The site cannot see the extension. Work through these in order — the first two solve most cases.

• Is the extension enabled and pinned? Open your browser's extension menu, confirm the wallet is on, and pin it to the toolbar so you can see its state.
• Refresh the page after enabling. A site checks for a wallet when it loads, so it will not notice an extension you switched on afterwards.
• Is the site using a different connection method? Some dapps expect a phone wallet and show a QR code. Look for a "browser wallet" or "extension" option, or use WalletConnect.
• Are you in a private window or a separate profile? Extensions usually have to be allowed explicitly in incognito, and each browser profile is separate.
• Check for a blocking extension. Script and ad blockers can stop the code a dapp uses to detect wallets. Try the site with blockers paused.

• Look for the extension's badge on the toolbar icon: a small number or dot means a request is waiting behind your current window.
• Move the browser window aside — approval prompts sometimes open in a separate small window that got lost behind other windows.
• Check that you are on the site's canonical domain. A mirror site on a different domain often cannot talk to the wallet.
• Close extra wallet tabs and reload once. Two pending connection attempts can leave a dapp confused about which was answered.
• If nothing works, disconnect the site inside the wallet, then connect again from scratch.

Every network is a separate chain with its own state and its own fee token. A dapp running on one network cannot read the wallet's activity on another.

• Open the network picker in the extension and switch to the network the dapp displays.
• If the network is not listed, check whether the dapp documents the correct details before adding anything custom.
• Confirm you actually hold the fee token for that network — otherwise nothing will move.
• If the dapp insists on switching, read the prompt: it is a legitimate request when it matches the app you are using, and a red flag when it does not.

Warning sign: a "network switch" request on a site you opened from a message or an ad. Check the domain first.

A pending transaction is one the network has not included in a block yet — usually because the fee offered was below what the network is currently paying, or because the network is congested.

• Wait a few minutes and re-check the activity list: congestion often clears on its own.
• Find the transaction on a block explorer to see whether it is actually pending or already confirmed.
• If the wallet offers to speed up or cancel by replacing the transaction with a higher fee, use that.
• Do not send a duplicate transaction just because it is slow — you may end up with two.

Balances come from network endpoints, not from a central database, so they can lag, rate limit or look at the wrong portion of the chain.

• Check the network picker: funds on one chain do not show on another.
• Confirm the address you sent to matches the address the wallet shows for that network.
• Refresh, or pull to refresh once — a stale response is a common cause.
• Find the address on a block explorer. If the explorer shows the funds and the wallet does not, it is a display or endpoint problem, not a loss.
• Give a recent transaction a few minutes: some networks confirm quickly, others queue.

Wallets do not index every token ever deployed; the long tail is added by importing it. You need the token's contract address, taken from the project's official documentation or a reputable explorer — never from a message or a random comment.

• Confirm the network first, then add the token by contract address.
• If a token arrived by surprise and you cannot identify the issuer, treat it as spam and hide it rather than interacting with it.
• Remember that spam tokens cannot drain a wallet on their own — only what you sign or approve can.

• Check the browser's extension manager: a browser update can disable or hide extensions.
• Look for a second browser profile — extensions are installed per profile.
• Verify the extension was not removed by security software, then reinstall only from the official source.
• If the icon is greyed out on a page, the site may be one where extensions cannot run (browser internal pages, some store pages).

The password only unlocks the local copy of your keys. Restoring from the recovery phrase rebuilds the wallet from scratch, with a new password and identical addresses.

• Restore the wallet inside the extension using your written recovery phrase, then set a new password.
• Do not accept help from anyone offering to unlock the wallet for you — they cannot, and they are after the phrase.
• If you no longer have the phrase, that wallet is unrecoverable. There is no exception, and nobody who says otherwise is telling the truth.

• Heavy networks and popular endpoints slow down together during busy periods. Wait and retry.
• Too many open tabs, or dozens of connected dapps, can make the extension sluggish.
• Reconnecting a site, or disconnecting old sites, often clears odd request failures.
• A very slow router or a filtering network can break calls to endpoints. Try a different connection.

NFT indexes are incomplete, and new collections can take a while to be picked up. Verify ownership with the contract address on a block explorer, then add the collectible manually if the wallet allows it — or wait; appearing late is normal and not a sign of loss.

If someone offers to "help recover" a missing NFT, that is a scam script. Missing display is not missing ownership.

Resetting removes the wallet's local data — accounts, cached activity and settings — and returns the extension to a fresh state, so you can restore a wallet from its phrase. It does not touch anything on-chain, and it cannot undo a transaction.

• Confirm first that you have the recovery phrase written down correctly. Without it, a reset is permanent loss.
• Expect pending transactions to look as though they never happened — the chain, not the wallet, is the record.
• After restoring, re-add any custom networks and reconnect the dapps you actually use.

• Verify the restored address matches the address you had before — a mismatch means the phrase belongs to a different wallet.
• Wait for balances and token lists to repopulate; indexing is not instant.
• Reconnect only the dapps you still use, and revoke approvals held by the old setup if you left it behind on purpose.
• Reinstall a hardware wallet connection and test with a small transaction before moving anything large.

• Funds left the wallet that you did not authorise.
• A token you never used shows a spend approval you do not recognise.
• A prompt appeared while you were not interacting with any dapp.
• Someone has seen your recovery phrase — even briefly, even if nothing is missing yet.

Any of these means: create a new wallet, move what you can, and follow the compromise checklist. Do not spend time investigating before you move funds.