Using Wallet.app to open doors with NFC reader

Question

Created Jan ’21

Replies 36

Boosts 12

Views 80k

Participants 44

G'day.

At my office the doors are locked with an NFC reader. We carry around a little NFC tag on our key chains which will read out a number and this then will open the door if the number matches a number in the database.

I am tired of carrying around the tag, people keep loosing it, forgetting it and it would be nice to open the door using a Phone - which we tend to always have on us.

So I used a credit card which is NFC enabled to readout the NFC information, added this number to the database and can now open doors using my credit card. This is pretty cool. If I forget my keys (most likely they will be on the desk but silly me left the desk without them), I may have my wallet with me.

Then I tried Wallet.app on my iPhone and select the same credit card. However the door doesn't open. When looking in the door software I noticed that the tags will always transmit the same number. So does my credit card. However Wallet.app will read out 4 readings (or maybe just one very long one) and they are always different. So I can not make them match with the door database.

Any ideas how to make this work? Can I give somehow wallet.app an NFC number which I can then add to my door database? Or how come the credit card and the very same one in wallet.app don't match?

Thanks for your help! Would be neat if I could make this work out. This will make a lot of people happy at my office!

Cheers!

Boost

Answer 1

iPadProPerson OP

Jan ’21

Make sure that you have NFC on, which is obvious but may not be on. Then, may I ask how you are trying to unlock the door. If you are not, I think that you should try double-clicking the side button like when you would do it by an NFC cash register, as that would transmit NFC data.

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Answer 2

HaloZheng OP

Jan ’21

The number of credit card on iPhone is dynamic, so you cannot get the same number in multiple reads. Fortunately, just replace the credit card to a transit card (Suica), and the card number will be fixed.

1

Answer 3

sjdhskjalfjsd OP

Jan ’21

hello! The same question to Apple company. 21 century and we can not use NFC on the full power. Normally just one solve - add transport card to wallet and use ID of this card in your base. Transport card have static ID.

2

Answer 4

futaim OP

Jul ’21

I have similar issue, I would like to open door using apple wallet. Currently the door opens using card (RFID). I was able to add a card to apple wallet. I want a guide on the following next steps :

How I add ID or number to the pass? to transmit the number to the NFC reader to allow access ?
is there a specific type of NFC reader to use with apple wallet? or can I use any NFC reader?

Thank you

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Answer 5

Nivek_J OP

Sep ’21

The credit/debit cards stored on your iPhone/Apple Watch uses a dynamic system to avoid fraud. However, if you open up any transit card, it will only show one static serial.

That said, open up any transit card, read it on the NFC reader, add it to your database, done.

0

Answer 6

zahreva OP

Dec ’21

Hello!

Had anyone a chance to make this work? Maybe there is an application that can emit static cards?

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Answer 7

Sule1 OP

Dec ’21

Same problem with me, I have tryed transit “TAP” card, but this card has also dynamic number which changes all the time. I think that all apple wallet transit card have dynamic number…

When I hold this transit “TAP” card close to my access door which works on 13.56 mhz NFC cards, keychains, tags…it continues to beep all the time because it chages the code every second or faster.

Please can someone explain me why apple dosen’t allow us users to issue virtual NFC card where we can write ten digit number to that card and add logo by our choise and add card name?

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Answer 8

wiebelbeet OP

Feb ’22

I totally agree I have the same problem. But I couldn’t find a solution. Maybe there is some one who can create an app that could do this

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Answer 9

jannisg4g OP

Jun ’22

Hi, I had the same thought. The problem is the NFC Entitlement (=> you cannot generate custom NFC-Passes) and the Apple VAS protocol. As it‘s proprietary and only available for MFi members. In such case, I‘d love to be such member, but the process behind seems to be complicated :/ I guess, walket encrypts the data sent by the pass using a key every time, so it can’t be shared always the same string…

would love to see more flexibility here!

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Answer 10

michal_bany OP

Jun ’22

Hello, Why I can not make a NCF tag from my iPhone? Why iPhone can not write NFC in shortcuts? Maybe for sharing quick information about yourself just tapping another iPhone. Michal

1

Answer 11

Soap223 OP

Jun ’22

Did you ever figure this out? I’d like to use my phone to function as my employee access card!

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Answer 12

Larry_BML OP

Jun ’22

I'm trying the same thing also, but Apple did not think on this. It was very useful if we could set something in wallet to act as an regular NFC card.

1

Answer 13

tsdfsdf OP

Jun ’22

Unbelievable... Is there really no way to get a static UUID back from a transit-card?

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Answer 14

bdgBerkshire OP

Jun ’22

I tried a year or so ago to add my iPhone 12 Pro to my access control system. I was to grab ids from the phone and add them to user records. I was never able to get them to work. Today for no good reason I tried with the same iPhone and os 15.5.

I was able to unlock my doors. It took multiple attempts as the iPhone cycled through ids before it hits the matching id in my access control software. I was pretty surprised and I'm now wondering how to get it to use correct sooner/consistently.

While attempting to gain access my Apple Card is the visible card in the interface...

I'm opening to trying any ideas.

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Answer 15

bdg2015 OP

Jul ’22

I found new to me documentation on how to build a pass for Wallet.

It had this detail which looks like what I want to work on.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/walletpasses/pass/nfc?language=objc

I need to finish up a pressing project but I will definitely dig into this as my next project.

This should work. I can already unlock the my doors with my phone it just runs through a series of keys before it sends a matching key. I think I just need to establish which key belongs to my building so that there are fewer errors or turn off the beep on failure...

3