South Tyrol residents face IO app error uploading licenses with umlaut characters

The Italian government’s digital wallet app IO, which allows citizens to upload identity documents, fails to recognise names containing the German umlaut characters ä, ö and ü. The problem, reported by South Tyrol provincial councilor Maria Elisabeth Rieder (Team K), blocks the uploading of driver’s licences and other documents for many residents of the autonomous province.

Rieder raised the issue in a council interrogation to the centre‑right provincial government led by President Arno Kompatscher on 23 June. Kompatscher replied that the administration has already investigated the matter, contacted the Interior Ministry and discussed it with Minister Matteo Piantedosi in Rome. He said technical solutions are being examined, though no specific timeline was given. PagoPA, the company that develops IO, did not comment. The app currently has about 15 million active users who have uploaded more than 20 million documents, including over 10 million driver’s licences.

Rieder warned that the bug “represents a clear disadvantage, given that the IO app will increasingly be used for various services.”