Hello,
my NitroKey Pro is locked due to several wrong login attempts with the admin PIN.
According to the documentation, a factory reset is only possible with known admin PIN.
Is there any possibility to reset the NitroKey Pro without knowing the admin PIN?
Or have I just wasted € 50 and increased the amount of electronic waste?!
Regards,
Bernie
Hey!
You can factory reset the Nitrokey Pro without knowing the Admin PIN - use GnuPG to run the procedure there:
As far as I remember Nitrokey App does require Admin PIN to do so, but rather as a confirmation, not necessity. GnuPG does it anyways.
thank you very much!
It didn’t work on my Windows PC but worked fine using Linux. I can now also use the NitroKey app.
Bernie
Hello. I’d like to chime in on this discussion, if I may.
I, too, am experiencing the same or similar circumstances. I have X230 Lenovo Thinkpad with Qubes 4.1 installed on it, and I need to reset my Nitrokey Pro and have 0 attempts left trying to use the Nitrokey App.
Can anyone suggest a way through this for I have tried everything I could find on how to fix it but have come out empty handed.
A factory reset requires the GnuPG utility.
The “reset functionality” in the Nitrokey App does not reset the smartcard component
If the instructions from Factory Reset - Nitrokey Documentation fail on Windows, you might try it on a Linux computer. In my case, using gpg on Linux was finally successful.
Good luck 
Thank you bernie. I will try when I’m able and get back to you on my success or failure. 
Okay, I downloaded Passwords and Keys app and this has within it GnuPG keys. The problem is it doesn’t recognize the Nitrokey Pro when I attach it to a USB port and that’s as far as I can take it.
I am new to Qubes OS and Nitrokey Pro procedures but I can follow instructions well.
Is the app I have the correct one? Thanks.
does the os list the device if you execute “lsusb -v” as root?
Here are a few links to fix device detection issues (mostly a few years old but might be worth a try):
https://docs.nitrokey.com/software/nitropy/linux/udev.html
https://docs.nitrokey.com/nitrokey3/linux/troubleshooting
HTH
Again, thank you much. Will let you know.
I executed the two lines in the first link and they seemed to take. I opened up Passwords and Keys but it did not recognize there being a USB attached. So I rebooted and it still did not see the USB Nitrokey Pro.
I ran ‘lsusb -v’ and it indicated it could not open the port.
Is it possible to simply format the Nitrokey Pro and start from scratch or are there too many securities in place to be able to accomplish this?
Could you post the error message you get from lsusb?
Did you run the command as root (sudo)?
I think the only option to reset the key is using gpg. I did not find an alternative solution.
If the key is not recognized as a USB device anymore (meaning not listed using sudo lsusb -v or sudo dmesg), it might indicate a hw problem.
