Is Your Apple Wallet Failing to Save Passes? | What to Do When Wallet Fails

Apple Wallet is a convenient way to store passes such as airplane boarding passes, event tickets, and more. You can add these passes to the Wallet app on your phone or even share them with other people! Though Apple promises a seamless experience, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes saving or sharing a pass will fail. Here are a few things to try when your Apple Wallet just doesn’t work.

Your Wallet Is Likely Too Full

Do you go to a lot of concerts or events? Are you a frequent flier? If so, you likely have a ton of old and expired passes in your Wallet.

Your Wallet may be so stuffed full of passes that it cannot handle accepting any more passes.

If you are running iOS 14 or earlier, you will have to delete each unused pass individually which is time-consuming. When iOS 15 rolls out, Apple has added a feature that automatically archives expired passes. This feature will make it much easier to keep your Wallet under control.

Try Restarting Your iPhone or iPad

Sometimes the most effective fix is the easiest one. Before you go down the rabbit hole of changing all your settings and logging out of your accounts, you should simply power off your iOS device and then power it back on.

This simple procedure often fixes weird glitches like not being able to save a pass to your Wallet.

Check Your AirDrop Settings

The easiest way to send a pass is via AirDrop. Typically, if you can see the other person in AirDrop, then you can send them a pass. Nonetheless, it is worth checking the AirDrop settings to make sure they are correctly configured. You can find these settings in Settings > General > AirDrop.

• AirDrop can be set to “Receiving off,” which is useful when you are in a public area and don’t want people to see or send to your iOS device.
• When sharing between friends and family, you can set AirDrop to “Contacts Only,” which limits sharing to those people in your address book.

If the “Contacts Only” setting fails, then you can change AirDrop to “Everyone.” This setting allows everyone nearby to see and send an item to your phone.

“Everyone” is not very secure and should only be used temporarily when all else fails. When the transfer is complete, this setting should be changed back to the more secure Contacts Only or Receiving Off settings.

Check Your App Version

Not all apps support the exporting of a pass to the Apple Wallet. Before you send a scathing note to the developer demanding they support Apple Wallet, you should check to ensure you have the app’s latest version.

Open the iOS App Store and search for the app in question. If there is an update, the App Store listing will show an update button. For future updates, you can enable automatic downloads in Settings > App Store.

Check Your Storage Space

Entry-level or older iPhone models may have limited storage space. This onboard storage can fill up quickly, especially if you take a lot of photos. If you cannot save a pass on your iPhone, you may have run out of storage space.

You can find your available storage in the Settings app. Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Here you will see your available space and those apps that are hogging most of your space.

Login Again with Your Apple ID

Sometimes iOS will log you out of your Apple ID, causing all sorts of problems with iCloud services like backup, Wallet, and more. If you cannot save to your Wallet, you may want to log out and log back into your Apple account.

Begin by going to Settings > iTunes & App Store, then select your Apple ID and sign out. Once you are logged out, you can now choose to sign in again.