akhil1982

[akhil1982]

Aadhaar Locking Issue - Solved

"Dear Resident you are either trying to lock a locked UID or trying to unlock an unlocked UID."

If you are seeing this message while verifying or unlocking your Aadhaar number, then please read this complete post. I have faced this issue for more than 3 years and I know the pain. More importantly, I’ll tell you the solution of this issue, which you wouldn’t get from any of the self-proclaimed Aadhaar expert on YouTube.

I faced this problem for the first time in 2018 when Maadhaar app on my mobile stopped working. I didn’t care much as this seemed to be a temporary issue to me. But when this issue didn’t get resolved after 2 months, I wrote a review (giving one star) in Google Playstore. They replied back saying that the issue is with my mobile or internet connection. So, I tried with different mobile set and different SIM, but still was not able to open Maadhaar app.

Then I thought that I might have done something wrong, for example I might have mistakenly enabled Aadhaar lock or biometric lock. So, I tried logging into the UIDAI portal using my Aadhaar number. But every time I got “UID is already locked” error.

UIDAI portal has an option of logging in using VID instead on Aadhaar number, if the Aadhaar is locked. So, I retrieved my VID using SMS service (RVID XXXX to 1947, where XXXX is the last 4 digit of Aadhaar). And I was finally able to login to UIDAI portal. I went through all the options available in the portal, but was not able to unlock my Aadhaar. It always gave me this message - "Dear Resident you are either trying to lock a locked UID or trying to unlock an unlocked UID."

This is when I realized that my Aadhaar number somehow has become “corrupted” and it’s neither locked nor unlocked. Since this issue happened for unknown reason, I assumed this would get resolved automatically. Believe it or not, I logged in to UIDAI portal almost in every week for last 2 years just to check if the issue got resolved, but was left disappointed every time. I started searching in google with this error message hoping that someone else might be facing same issue just like me, unfortunately there was none (back in 2019/2020).

Finally, I started calling/emailing UIDAI customer care. I took the screenshots of the issue and shared a document with customer care. But no one from customer care bothered to check the issue and they were sending same reply again and again mentioning the same unlocking steps which I already tried. I couldn’t make them believe that my issue is different and as a result those steps were completely useless to me. In fact, no one from Aadhaar department or UIDAI was aware that such issue is there in their system! Please see below the reply that I always received from UIDAI customer care whenever I contacted them.

I became very agitated and escalated it in “Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System” (pgportal.gov.in). But they gave me steps for unlocking biometric! These idiots think that they know everything and they are not even aware of the issues in their own system. Here is the reply from the grievance department. I don't know how these f*ckers managed to bag Govt. jobs 😒

After losing all hope I went back to Google and started searching the error message again. But this time (in November 2021) I was “glad” to found that the issue is happening for others as well. I found some Reddit blogs, Twitter posts, YouTube comments where same issue was reported. Almost all the replies/responses were useless, just like UIDAI customer care. But I noticed couple of replies which suggested that updating Aadhaar in an Enrolment Center might resolve this. I decided to give it a try as I didn’t have any other option left.

I had all the correct information already available in my Aadhaar. So biometric update was the only option me. My home is about 50 km away for Kolkata. I booked an online appointment at a center in Salt Lake Sector V, on 24th January after paying Rs. 100.00/- online (https://appointments.uidai.gov.in/bookappointment.aspx). I carried the print out of the appointment slip and my original Aadhaar card, and visited the center. I entered the building after showing the appointment slip, they gave me a token and asked me to wait. When my turn came, they took me to a desk and took my photo, eye scan and finger print. They told me that it would take 15 days to get the details updated. I didn’t mention anything about my locking issue to them as I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t understand it. The whole process (from entering the building till leaving) took around 20 mins.

The first thing I did after coming back home was to check if I can login to UIDAI using my Aadhaar. But that didn’t work and my Aadhaar was still locked, so I decided to wait for 15 days. But on 30th Jan I tried again and this time it worked. I was able to login to UIDAI using my Aadhaar. I was able to login to Maadhaar App without any issue. After living for more than 3 years with this frustrating issue which created lots of trouble for me (not able to link my PF account with my Aadhaar, failing Aadhaar verification etc.), finally I can confirm that the issue has been resolved. No one from Aadhaar department or UIDAI was able to help as those morons don’t even know about this problem in their own system. UIDAI portal is still showing my old picture, but I’m expecting that to be resolved after 10/15 days 😊

I hope this post helps someone, as I don’t want anyone else to feel helpless and suffer like I did.