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.
Start here
Most error screens clear after one of a few small things. Work down this list before you tap try again:
- Write down the exact wording. If you end up contacting the business, the exact words on the screen are the single most useful thing you can give them.
- Check your signal. A weak connection, or a phone switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data, causes more mid-flow errors than anything else here.
- Let the verification flow use your camera. If you dismissed the camera prompt earlier, the step cannot start. See I see a “Can’t access your camera” error.
- Check you are in a real browser. A link tapped inside a social or messaging app can open in a cut down browser that cannot reach the camera. Look for an option to open the page in Safari or Chrome instead.
- Turn off Low Power Mode and plug in. Battery saving limits the camera and can stop a capture partway through.
Change one thing between attempts
Tapping try again with nothing changed usually gives the same result. Change one thing each time: move somewhere better lit, wipe the camera lens, take the case off your phone, or put the document on a different surface. How to take a photo the scan can read covers what is worth changing and in what order.
Leave through the flow, not the app switcher
If you have to stop, use the X or the cancel option inside the Persona experience rather than force quitting the app or closing the tab. Exiting through the flow records what happened. Force quitting can end the attempt with no record of the error, which leaves a support agent nothing to look at.
Why we cannot tell you exactly what failed
Persona builds the verification technology. The business that sent you decides what is required, and it is the one that can see your result.
We also keep the workings of our checks private. Spelling out what a check measures would tell someone attempting fraud precisely what to fake, and that would make verification less safe for you and for everyone else being protected by it. So the advice in this section stays on the things you control, such as light, focus, framing, and connection, rather than on what any check is looking for.