In this guide we will cover every aspect of interacting with the Ledger Nano S in the following three sections:

#1. Setting up Ledger for the first time — start here if you have a new or unused Ledger Nano S.

#2. Installing Ledger manager / ARK wallet app on Ledger —if you already have Ledger setup, but have not yet installed the Ledger manager or ARK wallet app on it, follow this process.

#3. Using Ledger with ARK Desktop wallet — here we will explain how to use Ledger with ARK desktop wallet.

At the end of these articles there are also Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). If that still doesn’t answer your questions, you can join the ARK Slack (#help channel) for community or ARK team help.

#1 Setting Up Ledger for the First Time

(if you already have it set up or have interacted with it you can skip to #2 or #3)

So you’ve got your Ledger Nano S device — congratulations! First, connect it to your computer with the mini USB cable. You will be welcomed by Ledger and asked to press both buttons (Ledger only has 2 buttons).

press both buttons at the same time to get started

Press both buttons again to start configuration, you will be shown this screen:

press right button to setup new device (if you previously broke or lost Ledger you’d chose left button to input your recovery passphrase to regain access to your wallets)

After you press on ‘configure as new device’ a new message will show prompting you to ‘Choose a PIN code’.

Press both buttons at the same time to open PIN selection screen

At the PIN selection menu you are choosing numbers for your desired PIN. Press the right button to increase the current number and the left button to decrease it. To confirm a number at each stage press both buttons to move to the next number. If you want to delete an already confirmed number scroll through until the little icon for X (delete current number) appears, moving you back one spot.

When you enter 4 numbers a checkmark icon will appear letting you know that a 4 number PIN is ok (you can choose up to an 8 numbered PIN)— press both buttons to confirm. If you want to have more than a 4 number PIN, press the right or left button to choose your 5th PIN number. Make sure to choose a PIN number you will remember as if you forget it or input it wrong 3 times in a row you lose access to Ledger and will need to configure it again from the passphrase, which will be one of the next steps.

Once you are OK with your PIN click both buttons at the check icon, which will move you onto the ‘Confirm your PIN code’ window.

Press both buttons and enter your PIN that you chose in the previous step to confirm you really wrote the one you want to have.

Useful tip: If at any stage of configuration you feel like you did something wrong or are not sure — unplug Ledger and start over.

Once you have successfully confirmed your PIN it is time for the most important step — ‘Writing down your recovery phrase’.

Press both buttons at the same time to begin. When purchasing a Ledger, you will get a little paper to write down your 24 words passphrase. You can use that or write them on your own piece of a paper (we don’t recommend writing them down on a computer).

When you start you will be presented with word #1 — write it down exactly as shown and write them in the same order as shown (word order matters so write it down exactly as shown starting with #1 through #24). To move to the next word press the right button, to return to the previous word press the left button.

Once you’ve written down all the 24 words, you will confirm by pressing both buttons.

Now Ledger will ask you to select random words from your passphrase — to move in this list use left and right buttons, to confirm it press both buttons at the same time — if you select wrong word, you will need to begin ‘Confirm your recovery phrase’ section again.

If you select the wrong word from the list, this message will show ‘Recovery words do not match’ and you will need to start over (pressing both buttons at the same time) from step 4. ‘Confirm your recovery phrase’.

Once you have completed the confirmation step — this is it, ‘Your device is now ready’, press both buttons to move into the Ledger main menu.

P.S. : Once in the main menu, you are moving through it with left and right buttons, and confirming by pressing both buttons, just like with all other interactions.

Play a bit with the Ledger and get the hang of it, if you unplug it and plug it in again you’ll need to enter your PIN code that you chose in step one of this course. This is how you will access your Ledger from now on, there is no need to enter the 24 word passphrase, only enter your PIN. Your 24 word passphrase is safely secured in the Ledger device itself. Make sure you properly save your recovery sheet with 24 words in case the Ledger gets broken or you input your PIN number wrong 3 times and need to reset it! You’ll need to input those 24 words again to open that same Ledger wallet.

Now it is time to move to the next phase — installing ARK Ledger wallet app.

#2 Installing Ledger Manager and ARK Ledger App Wallet

Now it is time to install Ledger ARK app onto the Ledger device itself. First start with plugging in your Ledger Nano S. Input your PIN code (still remember? Left button numbers down, right button numbers up, both buttons at the same time to confirm).

#2.1 Installing Ledger manager Chrome App

(if you already have it installed you can skip to 2.2 of this section)

If you don’t have Ledger manager installed yet, follow this : head over to https://www.ledgerwallet.com/apps/manager#get-the-apps and click on Install, which will open the Chrome app store. This is a Google Chrome Browser APP.