I think my Touch ID may be starting to fail

[sixrom]

I have. It didn't seem to help.

Mine does it so frequently, the Genius at Apple today, replaced my phone. I was pretty happy till I got home & the new 5S they gave me began doing it too.

Luckily I'm not too far from the Apple store so I returned. They gave me another so now I'm on phone number three. I've lost confidence at this point. But at least I know that I'll only have to put up with it till iPhone 6.

It's a clever way for Apple to sell phones. It's always in their favor.

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

Mine does it so frequently, the Genius at Apple today, replaced my phone. I was pretty happy till I got home & the new 5S they gave me began doing it too.

Luckily I'm not too far from the Apple store so I returned. They gave me another so now I'm on phone number three. I've lost confidence at this point. But at least I know that I'll only have to put up with it till iPhone 6.

It's a clever way for Apple to sell phones. It's always in their favor.

Did you notice any of the above posts that talk about issues with the twitter app? I know that's what happened in my case.

I'd like to understand how an app can prevent touch id from reading.

 

[socbrian]

Did you notice any of the above posts that talk about issues with the twitter app? I know that's what happened in my case.

I'd like to understand how an app can prevent touch id from reading.

So I took my phone to apple yesterday, they replaced mine and was kinda shocked my touchID was not working properly.

I told them about twitter and they said that should never happen because its not tired to any apps... I think twitter/apple might be sneaking code in..

 

[sclawis300]

Mine does it so frequently, the Genius at Apple today, replaced my phone. I was pretty happy till I got home & the new 5S they gave me began doing it too.

Luckily I'm not too far from the Apple store so I returned. They gave me another so now I'm on phone number three. I've lost confidence at this point. But at least I know that I'll only have to put up with it till iPhone 6.

It's a clever way for Apple to sell phones. It's always in their favor.

I have a feeling this isn't a hardware issue.

 

[sixrom]

Did you notice any of the above posts that talk about issues with the twitter app? I know that's what happened in my case.

I'd like to understand how an app can prevent touch id from reading.

I don't use Twitter, plus I overheard the genius telling his partner that it was hardware as he had it plugged into their test analyzer

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

I don't use Twitter, plus I overheard the genius telling his partner that it was hardware as he had it plugged into their test analyzer

We'll now that your replacement is doing it too that becomes less likely. Make note of what you were doing when the phone went to sleep before the touch id fails again and post here so we can all see what sort of pattern might be developing

Once I noticed it with twitter on mine I could easily replicate it.

 

[sixrom]

Make note of what you were doing when the phone went to sleep before the touch id fails again

That's precisely what I've been doing. In the eight occurrence thus far, it's been very random and not related either launching or quitting a certain app. I'll keep tabs on it.

 

[iWooz]

I realized that Touch ID works significantly worse when the finger is cold, which is often the case these days (we have temperatures of around 0° C).

 

[Phish311]

Thought id give my 2 cents, but after having the same issue, swapping 2 phones and then reading this thread, I started using a different Twitter client. Since that time, i haven't had the issue occur.

 

[mstadnik59]

I just hD my phone replaced Monday. Touch ID worked perfectly for about 15 hrs and has gotten progressively worse and is now to the point where it almost never works. Have cleaned the sensor and after reading this thread even tried closing most apps (twitter was not open tho) and it made no difference. I'm about ready to just disable it. More frustration than its worth

 

[darkfiber]

I installed 7.0.4 today and a few hours later TouchID failed to work again (and by failed I mean it doesn't even try to read my fingerprint, no "try again" or anything). After I manually unlocked the phone with my passcode Twitter was the app that was running.

So 7.0.4 didn't fix the issue and Twitter may be the issue as had been previously mentioned. I went ahead and deleted the Twitter app and I will see if TouchID fails in the next few days.

 

[Ironimages]

Same thing here, just re-registered my prints and now things are working as they should.

 

[T2Rife]

The springboard crashed. The springboard is a little crashy in iOS 7 and if it crashes and restarts without your knowing it, it will not let you use the fingerprint scanner and forces you to input your password.

 

[yogibeartacodog]

I've experienced this problem. Touch ID occasionally will not acknowledge my thumb on the sensor. No 'Try Again', nothing.

Immediately after, I've tried an unregistered finger and the phone has displayed 'Try Again'. If I switch back to the registered finger, no response. I still end up unlocking with my passcode.

So, next time you have this problem, check to see if it responds to an unregistered finger. I'm not sure how this will help, I'm just curious.

 

[Kiloa]

It's confirmed on my iPhone. I Used the phone the entire day and did not use twitter. the touch ID works at 100 %.
Now I used it and the touch I'd did not recognize my thumb. Something is happening with that app.

 

[McRumour]

Couldn't find this thread (or the other threads dealing with this issue) earlier because the Forum Search is down....so started another thread with this discovery:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1672318/

Delighted as I am to have a way round this frustrating issue - I do have to wonder about its implications regarding iPhone security (or lack of....)
What do you think?
And....does that "solution" work for you as well?

 

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I have a feeling this isn't a hardware issue.

My mom is on her third 5S now. When she told me the second phone was still having trouble with TouchID, I thought maybe it was something weird with her fingers. I went with her to the Apple Store yesterday when she exchanged for the third phone. I watched her set it up, and it worked fine all day yesterday and this morning. Suddenly this afternoon it quit working again. It will not recognize her finger and keeps saying to Try Again. This was the same way it worked with the first two phones. They worked fine for a day and then quit until redoing the fingers as a new fingerprint. I had her setup TouchID again today, leaving the old finger on there. It worked great for an hour and now it won't let her in again. Entering her password doesn't fix it. Once it stops working it's done and never works again. I have no idea what the problem is. I've had my 5S for two weeks and I've never had a problem with TouchID on mine. It lets me in immediately every time.

It's confirmed on my iPhone. I Used the phone the entire day and did not use twitter. the touch ID works at 100 %.
Now I used it and the touch I'd did not recognize my thumb. Something is happening with that app.

I use Twitter and don't have a problem. My mom doesn't use Twitter and has trouble. I need to ask her what apps she's using when it quits working though, just in case there is an app causing it.

 

[kapolani]

Interesting...

I've had my phone for a couple of weeks. Didn't have a single problem with TouchID.

Finally started using Twitter.

Couldn't unlock unless I used the passcode.

Twitter was open in the background both times it failed to register.

Uninstalled Twitter since I rarely use it on my phone.

Haven't had a problem since.

 

[JonMPLS]

Way better for me . . .

. . . since I changed the way I use the home button. I used to use my thumb at about a 45 degree angle to push the home button. Not exactly the tip, but not the "flat" part either. So I set my scans up for this and had about a 25-30% success rate on first scan.

I erased these scans and rescanned with the more flat part of my thumb. More or less like being fingerprinted. (before you ask, it was for a job interview . . .)

Now I have been at 100% for a full day, my best results ever. Realistically, I don't expect a phone scanner to be 100% anyway, but just good enough to avoid being frustrated.

 

[hexon]

I never have problems with TouchID, but I can replicate the problem you all are having with twitter being opened before locking leading to the "try again" or nothing error. Very odd.

 

[wxman2003]

I have had problems occasionally when I first push power button and then put my finger on home button to unlock. If I don't bother tapping power button, and instead depress home button to wake screen, the unlock works every time. Depress button, leave finger on button, and works without fail.

 

[Solitude1984]

Luckily I've never had a single problem with Touch ID, but I'm really hoping that Apple finds out about the Twitter glitch. It makes me a bit uneasy.

 

[Lava Lamp Freak]

Luckily I've never had a single problem with Touch ID, but I'm really hoping that Apple finds out about the Twitter glitch. It makes me a bit uneasy.

I think this Twitter thing is completely coincidental. I use Twitter app a lot throughout the day and I haven't had a single problem with Touch ID. I just tested it leaving it as the active app when locking the phone. It starts right up without an issue. My mom doesn't use Twitter at all and she is having a lot of problems with Touch ID.

 

[sclawis300]

My mom is on her third 5S now. When she told me the second phone was still having trouble with TouchID, I thought maybe it was something weird with her fingers. I went with her to the Apple Store yesterday when she exchanged for the third phone. I watched her set it up, and it worked fine all day yesterday and this morning. Suddenly this afternoon it quit working again. It will not recognize her finger and keeps saying to Try Again. This was the same way it worked with the first two phones. They worked fine for a day and then quit until redoing the fingers as a new fingerprint. I had her setup TouchID again today, leaving the old finger on there. It worked great for an hour and now it won't let her in again. Entering her password doesn't fix it. Once it stops working it's done and never works again. I have no idea what the problem is. I've had my 5S for two weeks and I've never had a problem with TouchID on mine. It lets me in immediately every time.



I use Twitter and don't have a problem. My mom doesn't use Twitter and has trouble. I need to ask her what apps she's using when it quits working though, just in case there is an app causing it.

This is not the type of issue that this thread is about. We are talking about when the phone does jot even tell you to try again.

 

[Solitude1984]

I think this Twitter thing is completely coincidental. I use Twitter app a lot throughout the day and I haven't had a single problem with Touch ID. I just tested it leaving it as the active app when locking the phone. It starts right up without an issue. My mom doesn't use Twitter at all and she is having a lot of problems with Touch ID.

You may be right. I did not have Twitter installed since I use Tweetbot. I decided to install Twitter to try to replicate the issue and I could not. I tried many times. It's rather confusing.