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 has happened
Every verification flow allows a limited number of tries at a step before it stops. You have reached that limit, so the flow will not offer you the camera or the form again on this attempt.
The limit is set by the business that asked you to verify, not by Persona, and it is different from one business to the next. That is why you might get several tries in one place and fewer somewhere else.
Reaching it is not a finding about you or your document. Someone with a worn ID and a dim kitchen can use up their tries without anything being wrong with either.
Why there is a limit at all
Unlimited retries are one of the ways people try to get a fake document past a check, by submitting slightly different versions until one gets through. A cap is one of the simplest defences against that, and it is there to protect the account or service you are verifying for. It catches genuine people occasionally, which is the honest trade being made.
What to do now
- Stop retrying. Reopening the link or starting again in a new tab will not reset the count, and in some flows repeated sessions cause the link itself to stop working.
- Contact the business that asked you to verify, not Persona. They are the only ones who can give you another attempt.
- Ask them to send you a new verification link, or to reopen the one you have. Both are ordinary requests that their support team handles routinely.
- Tell them what happened. Say which step you were on, what you had already tried, and the exact wording on the screen.
- Before you start the new one, change the conditions. Get to better light, put the document on a matte surface, wipe the lens, and set aside a few uninterrupted minutes.
Waiting on its own may not help
Some messages of this kind include wording like “please try again later”, which suggests time is the thing that fixes it. Sometimes it is. Often the count is tied to your verification rather than to a clock, and it clears when the business issues a new one rather than when an hour passes.
If a few hours pass and the link still refuses you, that is your answer, and the business is the next step. See How do I get a new verification link?.
If you were close to finishing
Ask whether the business can resume your verification rather than start it over. Resuming picks up where you left off, so the steps you already completed do not have to be redone. Not every business offers this, but it is worth asking for.