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Am I the only one who's Touch ID almost NEVER works?

Steve.P.JobsFan

Steve.P.JobsFan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
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Columbus
iPhone 6s Plus here, bought it on launch day at the Apple Store.

My Touch ID sensor has NEVER worked like Apple claims it should. If I delete and re-add a fingerprint, it works great for a few hours... and then back to it saying "try again" because it doesn't recognize my fingerprint. Re-adding a fingerprint is tricky at times too, as it loves to say "this fingerprint cannot be read."

I brought it up to a Genius about two months or so ago when I took my mom's 6s in for service (and her Touch ID is flawless AFAIK), he ran diagnostics on my phone and it showed Touch ID as a "pass" and nothing found wrong.

Is this just me or no? Contemplating going the 40 minutes to the Apple Store before they close tonight to try and get a new phone, but I don't really have $40 to replace my screen protector. But that's small potatoes...
 
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Steve.P.JobsFan said:
iPhone 6s Plus here, bought it on launch day at the Apple Store.

My Touch ID sensor has NEVER worked like Apple claims it should. If I delete and re-add a fingerprint, it works great for a few hours... and then back to it saying "try again" because it doesn't recognize my fingerprint. Re-adding a fingerprint is tricky at times too, as it loves to say "this fingerprint cannot be read."

I brought it up to a Genius about two months or so ago when I took my mom's 6s in for service (and her Touch ID is flawless AFAIK), he ran diagnostics on my phone and it showed Touch ID as a "pass" and nothing found wrong.

Is this just me or no? Contemplating going the 40 minutes to the Apple Store before they close tonight to try and get a new phone, but I don't really have $40 to replace my screen protector. But that's small potatoes...
Click to expand...

Careful. You're about to be re-activated as a spy/assassin by a nefarious secret agency who whittled away your fingerprints and wiped your memory ;)

In all seriousness, that's not normal. Insist on a replacement.
 
Alright, here's something interesting. I went into a chat session with AppleCare and they ran diagnostics. Obviously, they found nothing wrong and suggested I go to the store and ask for a new iPhone.

I got ready to get in the car... and now it seems to be working. I did 35 lock/unlock cycles on my iPhone and it unlocked my phone every single time except for one.

Going to give it until this time tomorrow to see how it pans out.
 
Do you have a somewhat thick screen protector?

Mine failed more often than not before I replaced my screen protector with a different one that is thinner, and doesn't put the home button into as much of a recess.

Works much better now.
 
I've so far owned 3 devices with the 1st gen Touch ID; iPhones 5s and 6, and iPad Mini 4. Failures to recognize my finger have been incredibly rare.
 
Last edited:
It works so good that it's annoying... When I click the button to check notifications it unlocks it instead. iOS 10 feature should fix this...
 
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TheIntruder said:
Do you have a somewhat thick screen protector?

Mine failed more often than not before I replaced my screen protector with a different one that is thinner, and doesn't put the home button into as much of a recess.

Works much better now.
Click to expand...

I do have the Belkin screen protector Apple installs with that cool machine at the store. It has plenty of clearance around the home button.

giancarlo007 said:
Have you tried it with someone else's fingerprints? Could be yours that are "hard to read"?
Click to expand...

No, I haven't... that is a good idea. I may try that.

joeblow7777 said:
I've so far owned 3 devices with the 1st gen Touch ID; iPhones 5s and 6, and iPad Mini 4. Failures to recognize my finger have been incredible rare.
Click to expand...

I don't remember if it worked very well on my iPhone 6 or not. It works absolutely perfect on my iPad Pro.
 
Unsure if the issues may be similar but my mom isn't hardly able to get Touch ID to work, ever. She did manual labor all her life and her fingerprints are very worn and I can only assume this makes it difficult for the sensor to read.

It isn't s case of setting up and working well for s few hours though. She gets past the setup and its immediately problematic. Fails well over 50% of the time. We opted, unfortunately, for a passcode only. She wanted four but I talked her into six digits.
 
Seems to work great for me tbh. Granted mine is new but it has been consistent about 99 percent of the time.
 
lordofthereef said:
Unsure if the issues may be similar but my mom isn't hardly able to get Touch ID to work, ever. She did manual labor all her life and her fingerprints are very worn and I can only assume this makes it difficult for the sensor to read.

It isn't s case of setting up and working well for s few hours though. She gets past the setup and its immediately problematic. Fails well over 50% of the time. We opted, unfortunately, for a passcode only. She wanted four but I talked her into six digits.
Click to expand...

My mom has a problem with things recognizing her fingerprints too. Not just TouchID either. We went to universal a little while back and they scan your finger to correspond with your ticket in case you go park-to-park and whatnot, and also for renting lockers. My mom's wouldn't work at any point throughout the day. She also had trouble when she had to submit a background check for her job and they did finger prints. They couldn't get them to work at all. And she can't use TouchID on her phone, it just literally won't even set up without issues. I'm not sure why it's the case for her really, they just don't work. Lol.
 
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I'm a mom, too. Must be a mom thing, but I've always had a fingerprint recognition problem on my Apple devices. My 6S Plus however, usually works well for me but since winter I find every few weeks or so I need to rescan. My SE so far has been nearly flawless with my thumbprint, even though it hasn't got the latest and greatest version of Touch-ID.

I could never get the Touch ID on my iPhone 5s or my 6Plus to work for me. I have a bit of trouble on my iPad mini 4 so I don't even bother with it and use my passcode.
 
I've had problems in the past and I'd delete and re-add my fingerprints and that seemed to cure the problem. Have you tried that
 
chasonstone said:
She also had trouble when she had to submit a background check for her job and they did finger prints. They couldn't get them to work at all.
Click to expand...


+1

My job sometimes has trouble getting a background check because the fingerprints won't read. It is most common in the more mature job applicants. I guess a lifetime of use wears down some people's fingerprints. How old are you, OP?
 
I had the problem with my 6. I deleted the first set of prints and reentered them. I learned to just touch the reader for a second, then release. If I held my finger there too long, it did not read. Now works about 98% of the time.
 
It's probably just you. My 6s plus unlocks virtually every time. It didn't work very well on my 5s, but the 6s Plus is completely different. I don't use a screen protector. I use an Otterbox Defender case sometimes though, and that can be a problem with touch ID because there's a cover over the button and it's recessed which makes it hard to make good contact. But I don't use that case very often.

I had some issues initially, but I made multiple copies of the same finger and that fixed everything. I agree about the "working too well", this has been discussed here before. Finally forced myself into the habit of clicking the power button if I just want to check notifications.

FWIW, I am 67 and work with my hands a lot, so they are pretty rough.
 
I have had the Touch ID on my 5S and now the SE and both work great. The only time I have ever had a problem is if my thumbs are wet. Other than that works almost every time. It could be the screen protector. I don't use s screen protector on mine. Just a case that has a edge around it no if you drop it the edge hits the ground instead of the screen.
 
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