How to recover the PUK of the Electronic Identity Card (CIE)

Have you lost the PUK of your Electronic Identity Card (CIE)?
Find out how to recover it.

If you have lost your PUK code and provided your contact details (e-mail address or mobile number) when requesting your Card at the Municipality, you can retrieve it directly from the CieID app

  • Download or update the CieID app on an NFC-enabled smartphone;
  • Access the app menu item “Recupero PUK”;
  • Move the Card close to your NFC-enabled smartphone;
  • Enter the Serial Number of your Electronic Identity Card (CIE);
  • Enter the contact details you have provided to the Municipality at the time of application;
  • For your security, 48 hours after entering your data you will receive an SMS or an e-mail notification to complete the operation and visualize your PUK code.

 

Take careful note of your PUK code, you will need it to set the new PIN code requested to access online services with your Electronic Identity Card (CIE).

If you don’t remember or have not provided your contact details at the time of application for your Card (CIE), you can go to any Municipality and request an update of your contacts as well as the reprint of your PIN and PUK codes.

Frequent questions

If you have lost your PIN code you can reset it using:

  • CieID smartphone app, following the instructions in «Card Management» section
  • CIE Software from computer, using the dedicated function.

If you have lost your PUK code, you can recover it using CieID app. From the app’s main menu, select “Recupero PUK” and follow the steps to recover it.

You must use the e-mail address or mobile phone number that you communicated when applying for the Electronic Identity Card (CIE) at the Municipality.

The PUK code recovery feature using the CieID app is only enabled if you have set up a security lock on your smartphone, such as an unlock code or biometric recognition. Make sure you have activated a security lock on your smartphone before carrying out the PUK recovery procedure.

The PUK code recovery process of Electronic Identity Card (CIE), for security reasons, takes 48 hours. During this period of time, if you have successfully submitted the request and are waiting to recover the PUK code, you cannot submit another request.

OTP is an acronym for one-time password, or password to be used only once. This is a security code that will be sent to you via SMS or email and which you will need to enter when prompted to confirm the operation.

After 3 consecutive entries of the incorrect PIN code, the Electronic Identity Card (CIE) is blocked and does not allow authentication to online services.

To be able to use it again, you must unlock it using the PUK code and:

  • CieID app on smartphone, following the instructions in the «Gestione Carta» section;
  • CIE Software from computer, using the dedicated functionality.
  •  

After 10 consecutive entries of wrong PUK code, the Electronic Identity Card (CIE) is irreversibly blocked and does not allow authentication to online services.

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