[@clerk/clerk-expo]: Missing CAPTCHA token: Expo SDK 51.0.38

[ChrisMungiria]

Preliminary Checks

• I have reviewed the documentation: https://clerk.com/docs

• I have searched for existing issues: https://github.com/clerk/javascript/issues

• I have not already reached out to Clerk support via email or Discord (if you have, no need to open an issue here)

• This issue is not a question, general help request, or anything other than a bug report directly related to Clerk. Please ask questions in our Discord community: https://clerk.com/discord.

Reproduction

https://github.com/clerk/clerk-expo-quickstart

Publishable key

pk_test_bm9ybWFsLWxvY3VzdC00NC5jbGVyay5hY2NvdW50cy5kZXYk

Description

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create an Expo project
2. Use any of the Clerk Auth hooks

Expected behavior:

Should create a user on the Clerk dashboard

Actual behavior:

An error from clerk that says there's a missing CAPTCHA token

Environment

System:
  MacOS: 15.1.1 (24B91)
  Chip: M1

[MArtytraM99]

+1

[arifali123]

Getting this also for sign in with google

[chony13v]

+3

[MArtytraM99]

I got the following reply from support on a similar problem and it resolved the issue. It might help you too. Just go to clerk dashboard and disable Bot sign-up protection.

Hi Martin,

Based on the error you're encountering with Expo and Clerk authentication, this is a known issue with CAPTCHA in non-browser environments like Expo/React Native. The "Missing CAPTCHA token" error occurs because Clerk's bot protection feature is not supported in mobile environments. To resolve this, you'll need to disable bot protection in your Clerk Dashboard. Go to User & Authentication > Attack Protection and turn off the Bot sign-up protection. This should resolve the CAPTCHA token error and allow authentication to work properly in your Expo application.

[ChrisMungiria]

I got the following reply from support on a similar problem and it resolved the issue. It might help you too. Just go to clerk dashboard and disable Bot sign-up protection.

Hi Martin,
Based on the error you're encountering with Expo and Clerk authentication, this is a known issue with CAPTCHA in non-browser environments like Expo/React Native. The "Missing CAPTCHA token" error occurs because Clerk's bot protection feature is not supported in mobile environments. To resolve this, you'll need to disable bot protection in your Clerk Dashboard. Go to User & Authentication > Attack Protection and turn off the Bot sign-up protection. This should resolve the CAPTCHA token error and allow authentication to work properly in your Expo application.

Yes, this answer works for all auth. Although I'm not sure this is an optimal fix

[Jeet-Pattani]

Turning off the option works perfectly. But we can maybe continue with the bot protection by adding the following component in the UI

<div id="clerk-captcha" />

Reference: https://clerk.com/docs/custom-flows/bot-sign-up-protection

[ChrisMungiria]

Turning off the option works perfectly. But we can maybe continue with the bot protection by adding the following component in the UI

<div id="clerk-captcha" />

Reference: https://clerk.com/docs/custom-flows/bot-sign-up-protection

How about for mobile? Since I experienced this in mobile
EDIT: I am using Expo

[Jeet-Pattani]

Turning off the option works perfectly. But we can maybe continue with the bot protection by adding the following component in the UI
<div id="clerk-captcha" />
Reference: https://clerk.com/docs/custom-flows/bot-sign-up-protection

How about for mobile? Since I experienced this in mobile EDIT: I am using Expo

Sorry man no idea about that !

[ChrisMungiria]

Turning off the option works perfectly. But we can maybe continue with the bot protection by adding the following component in the UI
<div id="clerk-captcha" />
Reference: https://clerk.com/docs/custom-flows/bot-sign-up-protection

How about for mobile? Since I experienced this in mobile EDIT: I am using Expo

Sorry man no idea about that !

Turning off the bot protection on Clerk's dashboard solved that for me. But I'm not sure this is a secure approach. I hope this is fixed soon

[LekoArts]

Hello 👋

Currently the issue you describe is expected behavior. We have added it to the documentation here: https://clerk.com/docs/security/bot-protection#limitations

So the current recommended solution is:

You'll need to disable bot protection in your Clerk Dashboard. Go to User & Authentication > Attack Protection and turn off the Bot sign-up protection.

Once the feature is available you'll see a note in the release notes of @clerk/expo and/or in our changelog: https://clerk.com/changelog