This guide is for individuals going through a Persona-powered identity verification flow. While we’ve included helpful tips, the verification was set up by the business, service, or organization that asked you to verify. They use Persona as a tool, and they ultimately decide what’s required and can assist with your specific situation, if you’re having trouble.
What is happening
Before it captures, the verification flow has to find the document in the picture. When nothing happens at all, no countdown and no automatic capture, the camera has not located the edges of a card yet. It is looking for a rectangle it can lock on to.
That is a framing and contrast problem far more often than a document problem.
Give it edges to find
- Change the surface. This is the fix that works most often. A dark, matte, plain surface makes the outline of a pale card obvious. A white countertop, a glass table, a patterned cloth, or your lap all hide the edges.
- Show the whole card. All four corners inside the frame, with a little space around them. A document that runs off the edge of the screen has no complete outline.
- Fill the frame anyway. Close enough that the card reaches the guide, far enough that no corner is cut off.
- Straight on, not tilted. Hold the phone parallel to the card so it looks like a rectangle rather than a wedge.
- Move your fingers to the edges, or lay the card flat and take your hands out of the shot entirely.
- Clear everything else away. A second card, a wallet, or a busy background in the same shot gives the camera competing shapes.
Then check the basics
- Wipe the camera lens. A smudged lens makes every edge soft, and soft edges are hard to find.
- Add light. In a dim room the card and the surface blur into each other. Even indirect light separates them.
- Cut the glare. A reflection across the middle of the card can hide an edge. See There is glare on my ID photo.
- Take it out of the sleeve. A plastic holder adds its own edges and its own reflections.
- Hold still. Constant movement means the camera never gets a stable view. Rest the phone, or set the card down and steady your hands.
If the camera itself looks wrong
A frozen, black, or missing preview is a different problem. See My camera shows a black screen and I see a “Can’t access your camera” error.
If it still finds nothing
Try the same document on a different device, or try a different document if the flow accepts one. A badly worn, bent, or cracked card can be hard to detect however you frame it. See My ID or passport is damaged, and if none of it helps, ask the business that asked you to verify what other documents they accept.