Move & Unlink Flow for Motics tickets in Google Wallet
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This page describes implementing a move and unlink ticket flow for Motics
tickets. To provide a good user experience, a user should be able to move their
Motics ticket from one device to another, within certain limits defined by the
issuer. The issuer has to restrict a ticket to one device. The user must delete
the original ticket before saving it to a new device. If the user cannot delete
the original ticket (perhaps because they lost the device), the issuer must
unlink the ticket from the old device.
Move & Unlink Flow Requirements
The Move & Unlink flow has to fulfil the following requirements:
- A Motics ticket must only be usable on one device at a time.
- The user must be able to move the Motics ticket to a new device in these
cases:
- Access to old device, for example when upgrading to a new device.
- No access to old device, for example when a device is lost or stolen.
- The number of moves or ticket activations should be limited by suitable
controls on the Motics ticket issuer side, as defined by the PTO's business
requirements.
User Experience
This section describes in more detail the two different scenarios for the User
Experience, depending on whether the user still has access to their old device
when attempting to move a Motics ticket.
User has access to old device
In such cases, the user can initiate the move flow from their old device:
- The user deletes the Motics ticket from the Wallet app on their old device.
- The user finds the confirmation email from the issuer on their new device or
logs in to the ticketing webshop or portal and clicks a Save to
Google Wallet link to resave the ticket to the Google Wallet app.
User does not have access to old device
When the user does not have access to their old device, they need to initiate
the unlink and move flow from either the webshop ticketing portal, or by
contacting the customer support of the issuer, that can initiate the unlink flow
on the user's behalf.
- The user finds the confirmation email from the issuer with instructions to
call customer service for assistance or starts an unlink flow from the
issuer website or ticketing portal. This could be an unlink button on the
ticketing portal.
- The issuer unlinks the ticket from the old device on behalf of the user
(more details in the Issuer Responsibilities section).
- The ticket will be unusable (barcode won't scan) on the original device as
soon as the issuer unlinks it.
- The issuer should denylist the old ticket, to ensure it can no longer be
scanned by inspection devices.
- The ticket will automatically be deleted from the original device as soon as
it comes online again (best-effort).
- The user finds the confirmation email from the issuer on their new device or
logs in to the ticketing webshop or portal and clicks a Save to
Google Wallet link to resave the ticket to the Google Wallet app.
Issuer Responsibilities
- During initial setup the issuer must insert the transitClass with
multipleDevicesAndHoldersAllowedStatus=ONE_USER_ONE_DEVICE.
- The confirmation email that the issuer sends to the user at purchase time
has to contain instructions for how to move the ticket to a new device.
- The confirmation email has to contain an identifier for the ticket to the
help in the support process.
- To keep contact volume to a minimum, the issuer should also have an unlink
button on their webshop or ticket portal where a user can manage their
ticket.
- The issuer is responsible for limiting the number of times a ticket can be
activated. This is to avoid users moving the same ticket back and forth
between devices (both logged into the same account on Wallet) indefinitely.
- The issuer has to keep track of how many times the activation endpoint
is called for the same objectId, and reject the activation request if it
exceeds the limit.
- Since each issuer has its own rules on how many times a ticket can be
moved, Google requires that issuers handle limiting ticket moves on
their end.
- If the user wants to unlink the ticket through contacting customer support:
- If the user cannot remove the ticket from the old device, the issuer
unlinks the ticket by calling
transitObject:patch with
{hasLinkedDevice:false} for the objectId of the ticket.
- The issuer will need to find the objectId for the given ticket. They
should look this up based on the identifier given to the user in the
confirmation email.
- If the user initiates the unlink flow on the webshop or ticket portal:
- The issuer unlinks the ticket by calling
transitObject:patch with
{hasLinkedDevice:false} for the objectId of the ticket.
- The issuer should denylist the old ticket, so that it can no longer be
scanned by inspection devices.
Google Responsibilities
In response to receiving the transitObject:patch with
{hasLinkedDevice:false} call, Google will revoke the existing certificate (if
there is one) with the Motics server. If the user does still have their old
device with the original ticket, the barcode will no longer work as it will be
deleted from the old device as long as it is online or comes online again.
Sequence Diagram
Figure 1. Motics Ticket Unlink Flow 
Figure 1 shows the transitObject:patch and pruneTree() calls that take place
to unlink a ticket when the user no longer has access to their old device.
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Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC.
[null,null,["Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eMotics tickets are designed for single-device use, requiring users to move a ticket from their old device to a new one when switching devices.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers with access to their old device can move a ticket by deleting it from the old device and then resaving it to their new device via a confirmation email or the issuer's platform.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIf the old device is inaccessible, users must initiate an unlink flow through the issuer's customer support or online portal, after which they can resave the ticket to their new device.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIssuers are responsible for implementing controls to limit the number of times a ticket can be moved and for unlinking tickets from lost or stolen devices using the \u003ccode\u003etransitObject:patch\u003c/code\u003e API call.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle assists in the unlink flow by revoking the old ticket's certificate and ensuring it's unusable, with the old ticket automatically deleted from the device when it comes online.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Motics ticket issuers must enable users to move tickets between devices, limiting usage to one device at a time. When a user has access to the old device, they must delete the ticket before saving it to a new device. Without access, the issuer must unlink the ticket via a web portal or customer support. The issuer updates the ticket status via an API call, which revokes the old device's ticket certificate, deletes the ticket from the old device and then should also denylist it to prevent it from being scanned. The issuer is also responsible for limiting the number of ticket moves.\n"],null,["# Move & Unlink Flow for Motics tickets in Google Wallet\n\nThis page describes implementing a move and unlink ticket flow for Motics\ntickets. To provide a good user experience, a user should be able to move their\nMotics ticket from one device to another, within certain limits defined by the\nissuer. The issuer has to restrict a ticket to one device. The user must delete\nthe original ticket before saving it to a new device. If the user cannot delete\nthe original ticket (perhaps because they lost the device), the issuer must\nunlink the ticket from the old device.\n\nMove \\& Unlink Flow Requirements\n--------------------------------\n\nThe Move \\& Unlink flow has to fulfil the following requirements:\n\n- A Motics ticket must only be usable on one device at a time.\n- The user must be able to move the Motics ticket to a new device in these cases:\n - Access to old device, for example when upgrading to a new device.\n - No access to old device, for example when a device is lost or stolen.\n- The number of moves or ticket activations should be limited by suitable controls on the Motics ticket issuer side, as defined by the PTO's business requirements.\n\nUser Experience\n---------------\n\nThis section describes in more detail the two different scenarios for the User\nExperience, depending on whether the user still has access to their old device\nwhen attempting to move a Motics ticket.\n\n### User has access to old device\n\nIn such cases, the user can initiate the move flow from their old device:\n\n1. The user deletes the Motics ticket from the Wallet app on their old device.\n2. The user finds the confirmation email from the issuer on their new device or logs in to the ticketing webshop or portal and clicks a Save to Google Wallet link to resave the ticket to the Google Wallet app.\n\n### User does not have access to old device\n\nWhen the user does not have access to their old device, they need to initiate\nthe unlink and move flow from either the webshop ticketing portal, or by\ncontacting the customer support of the issuer, that can initiate the unlink flow\non the user's behalf.\n\n1. The user finds the confirmation email from the issuer with instructions to call customer service for assistance or starts an unlink flow from the issuer website or ticketing portal. This could be an unlink button on the ticketing portal.\n2. The issuer unlinks the ticket from the old device on behalf of the user (more details in the [Issuer Responsibilities](#issuer-responsibilities) section).\n3. The ticket will be unusable (barcode won't scan) on the original device as soon as the issuer unlinks it.\n4. The issuer should denylist the old ticket, to ensure it can no longer be scanned by inspection devices.\n5. The ticket will automatically be deleted from the original device as soon as it comes online again (best-effort).\n6. The user finds the confirmation email from the issuer on their new device or logs in to the ticketing webshop or portal and clicks a Save to Google Wallet link to resave the ticket to the Google Wallet app.\n\nIssuer Responsibilities\n-----------------------\n\n- During initial setup the issuer must [insert the transitClass](/wallet/tickets/transit-passes/qr-code/motics/technical-details#transitClassInsert) with `multipleDevicesAndHoldersAllowedStatus=ONE_USER_ONE_DEVICE`.\n- The confirmation email that the issuer sends to the user at purchase time has to contain instructions for how to move the ticket to a new device.\n- The confirmation email has to contain an identifier for the ticket to the help in the support process.\n- To keep contact volume to a minimum, the issuer should also have an unlink button on their webshop or ticket portal where a user can manage their ticket.\n- The issuer is responsible for limiting the number of times a ticket can be activated. This is to avoid users moving the same ticket back and forth between devices (both logged into the same account on Wallet) indefinitely.\n - The issuer has to keep track of how many times the activation endpoint is called for the same objectId, and reject the activation request if it exceeds the limit.\n - Since each issuer has its own rules on how many times a ticket can be moved, Google requires that issuers handle limiting ticket moves on their end.\n- If the user wants to unlink the ticket through contacting customer support:\n - If the user cannot remove the ticket from the old device, the issuer unlinks the ticket by calling `transitObject:patch` with `{hasLinkedDevice:false}` for the `objectId` of the ticket.\n - The issuer will need to find the objectId for the given ticket. They should look this up based on the identifier given to the user in the confirmation email.\n- If the user initiates the unlink flow on the webshop or ticket portal:\n - The issuer unlinks the ticket by calling `transitObject:patch` with `{hasLinkedDevice:false}` for the `objectId` of the ticket.\n- The issuer should denylist the old ticket, so that it can no longer be scanned by inspection devices.\n\nGoogle Responsibilities\n-----------------------\n\nIn response to receiving the `transitObject:patch` with\n`{hasLinkedDevice:false}` call, Google will revoke the existing certificate (if\nthere is one) with the Motics server. If the user does still have their old\ndevice with the original ticket, the barcode will no longer work as it will be\ndeleted from the old device as long as it is online or comes online again.\n\n### Sequence Diagram\n\n**Figure 1.** Motics Ticket Unlink Flow\n\nFigure 1 shows the `transitObject:patch` and `pruneTree()` calls that take place\nto unlink a ticket when the user no longer has access to their old device."]]
