mAadhaar & Unlocking your Aadhaar Biometrics

We all now have to accept the fact that Aadhaar has become the defacto method used for e-KYC for Mobile subscriptions and many other e-commerce matters. The introduction of the mAadhaar App has also ensured that we can display our Aadhaar Card through our Smart Phones without carrying a physical copy of the Card. Very recently it is also being accepted as an ID proof for entry to Indian Airports.

The mAadhaar App provides a unique feature / option to keep your Biometrics locked and only unlock it when you want to get yourself authorized for any kind of Aadhaar linked transactions. So if you have suddenly realized that your Aadhaar authentication was declined recently, its not due to your fingerprints (lol), but because your Biometrics are locked out.

The screenshot on the right (see bottom left hand corner) shows you how your mAadhaar App will display when your Biometrics are locked. On clicking "CLICK TO UNLOCK", your Biometrics will get unlocked for 10 mins, during which you can perform any number of Aadhaar related authorizations.

I learnt it the hard way when I had to spend 15 mins at Vodafone store without realizing why my Biometric authentication was getting declined.

While I have now got accustomed getting my Biometrics unlocked before I visit any store, the latest trouble is with heavy load on Aadhaar Servers. I faced a tremendous issue last Sunday while collecting my Jio Phone from Reliance Digital Express, since my Biometrics were not getting unlocked as the mAadhaar App kept flashing "Server Not Responding" or "Check your Internet connectivity".

Finally after applying some logic and looking across on Internet, I found that you can Unlock / Disable your Biometric lock directly from the UIDAI Biometric Link - https://resident.uidai.gov.in/biometric-lock .  

So in future if you see that you are unable to unlock your Aadhaar Biometrics using the mAadhaar App, don't panic, just visit the Portal above. Login using your Aadhaar number and OTP, and post login you will find 2 options - either to temporarily UNLOCK your Biometric Lock (for 10 mins) or permanently DISABLE the Biometric Lock.

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