At a 12306 self-service kiosk you scan your passport and the screen shows "document not recognized" or no ticket prints.
Station kiosks read the passport MRZ strip via optical scanner; smudged, laminated, or older-format passports fail OCR, and some machines accept only mainland ID cards.
Go to the manual ticket counter with passport and order number, or use the 12306 mobile app with the e-ticket QR code and pass through the ID gate directly.
If this guide did not fix it, our editors answer every email personally — usually within 12 hours. Tell us your model, provider, and what you have already tried.
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"Bank rejected" fix, backup methods, Tour Pass stopping mid-trip.
Why bookings get canceled on arrival and last-minute alternatives.
Refunds from Viator, Klook, GYG, and what to do the morning of.
The questions we get most often by email, with short answers. If yours is not here, write to shike13@gmail.com.
Yes — about 14% of first-time visitors hit this in their first week. Most cases are fixable in under 10 minutes with the steps above.
Yes, from every major provider. Open a support chat with your order number and a screenshot. Refunds typically land in 3-7 business days.
Not yet. Most cases are configuration issues, not app issues. Walk through the 30-minute fixes first; only switch if those fail.
Hotel front desk. They have walkie-talkies to night staff, can call a local provider, and may lend a phone. This is exactly the case they staff for.
Usually not — bookings on platforms are independent of the app you use to view them. But keep screenshots and order numbers as backup.
If the same app works on someone else's phone in the same location, it is a configuration issue on your device. If it fails on every device, it is a network-side issue.
