Fingerprint sensor not working

[petsounds]

The success rate for me is about 10-20%. I've re-registered my prints at least five times, including the 7.0.2 update. It always works great just after registering, and then within an hour or less it's back to failure. I think this has nothing to do with any specific period of time, I think this sensor easily fails as your fingers change in some minor way -- humidity, oils, dirt, etc. At least that's been my experience, perhaps we all have defective sensors with this first batch of phones.

I'm extremely disappointed and don't understand why reviewers were saying it works perfectly. I'm about ready to just turn it off and use a passcode again, because it's causing way more frustration and wasted time.

 

[wepiii]

The success rate for me is about 10-20%. I've re-registered my prints at least five times, including the 7.0.2 update. It always works great just after registering, and then within an hour or less it's back to failure. I think this has nothing to do with any specific period of time, I think this sensor easily fails as your fingers change in some minor way -- humidity, oils, dirt, etc. At least that's been my experience, perhaps we all have defective sensors with this first batch of phones.

I'm extremely disappointed and don't understand why reviewers were saying it works perfectly. I'm about ready to just turn it off and use a passcode again, because it's causing way more frustration and wasted time.

Not to be offensive, but do you have clammy hands by chance? Anytime I wash my hands, even if I dry them really well, I still have trouble getting it to work reliably for the next 10 minutes or so. I wash my hands a lot because I own a restaurant, so that is why I have noticed this. I actually had the thought today at the store that this might be a real problem for anyone with sweaty hands.

 

[melman101]

The success rate for me is about 10-20%. I've re-registered my prints at least five times, including the 7.0.2 update. It always works great just after registering, and then within an hour or less it's back to failure. I think this has nothing to do with any specific period of time, I think this sensor easily fails as your fingers change in some minor way -- humidity, oils, dirt, etc. At least that's been my experience, perhaps we all have defective sensors with this first batch of phones.

I'm extremely disappointed and don't understand why reviewers were saying it works perfectly. I'm about ready to just turn it off and use a passcode again, because it's causing way more frustration and wasted time.

I wouldn't keep resetting your fingerprint.

As you use Touch ID, it will continue to learn and improve recognition of your fingerprint.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5883

Everytime you reset the fingerprints you restart this process.

 

[CooKieMoNs7eR]

I realized if you take 2 scans of each finger the phone can actually have a better read on your fingers and it won't say try again like it does sometimes...

 

[verwon]

Mine works really well. The only time it failed was when my hands were very cold, because the temp dropped this morning and I had walked to Starbucks.

 

[petsounds]

Not to be offensive, but do you have clammy hands by chance? Anytime I wash my hands, even if I dry them really well, I still have trouble getting it to work reliably for the next 10 minutes or so. I wash my hands a lot because I own a restaurant, so that is why I have noticed this. I actually had the thought today at the store that this might be a real problem for anyone with sweaty hands.

Hm, no my hands don't really get sweaty or stay cold very much. I do have fairly thin fingers, and wonder if it's because I don't always completely cover the home button. But even when I do, it still fails. To your point though, I noticed this morning that after I got out of the shower and my hands were still a bit damp, I could not get TouchID to recognize any finger once. It seems like a very finicky feature for a mainstream product.

As you use Touch ID, it will continue to learn and improve recognition of your fingerprint.

Thanks, that's good to know. But I'm not sure how well it can learn when the failure rate is 80-90%. I keep thinking that I must be doing the setup wrong, but no matter how I let it scan my fingers the results are always the same. I think they need a more pictorial tutorial that shows you exactly how to place your fingers.

Somewhat off-topic to this thread, but it's also annoying that I can no longer just power-off my screen without it locking. It seems that when you have TouchID active, it overrides the lock timeout and makes it always instant.

Oh, and I haven't been able to get the App Store to show a fingerprint login -- it still makes me type my Apple ID every time.