Retrying ID checks
Sometimes a customer fails their ID check and you'd like to give them another chance — for example, they used a document that isn't supported, their ID was damaged, or the photos came out too poorly to read.
Real ID handles this in two ways: soft retries during a single check, and hard retries that start a fresh check.
Soft retries (automatic)
Within a single ID check, customers are given 3 attempts per stage to capture a high quality, readable photo. If a customer requires both an ID photo and a portrait photo, they get 3 attempts for each.
Soft retries do not incur extra charges — you're only charged once for the entire check, no matter how many soft attempts the customer uses. If a customer uses all 3 attempts in a stage, they're allowed to continue on to the next stage so they can still complete the flow.
Learn more about soft retries.
Hard retries (a fresh ID check)
A hard retry lets a customer start over with a brand new ID check after their previous one is complete — useful when the original check went In Review or was manually rejected and you want to let the customer try again.
Because a hard retry creates a new ID check, it is treated as a separate check throughout Real ID.
Sending a hard retry
You can send the customer a fresh ID check the same way you'd send any ID check:
- Open the customer or order in the Real ID dashboard and send a new ID check, or
- On platforms that support it, enable automatic retries so Real ID sends a new check automatically when a customer fails.
The customer receives a new ID check link and starts the flow again from the beginning, with a fresh set of soft retries.
A hard retry is a new ID check. Unlike soft retries, a new check may be billable depending on your plan. Review the original submission first — in many cases overriding the result is faster than asking the customer to start over.
Which should I use?
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| Customer is mid-check and a stage failed | Soft retries (automatic, no action needed) |
| Check is complete but you believe the ID is actually valid | Override the result |
| Check is complete and you want the customer to submit again from scratch | Hard retry |