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Touch ID inconsistently works on 5s

I've also been disappointed in how inconsistent and unreliable TouchID has been for me. Of the fingers I have registered, it recognizes 1 ~1% of the time and the other between 5-10%.

My fingers are not sweaty or wet at all when I use the sensor, or when I set it up. Maybe they're too dry? Could others who have trouble with TouchID speak on whether their fingers might be too dry?.

It works consistently for me the first ~5 times after I set up each finger, and then it stops working until I force it to learn my fingerprint from scratch again. It seems it can only retain my fingerprint for a short time.

Frustrating overall. I often just type in the passcode after fail 3 or 4 to stop wasting time.
 
goldengopher said:
I've also been disappointed in how inconsistent and unreliable TouchID has been for me. Of the fingers I have registered, it recognizes 1 ~1% of the time and the other between 5-10%.

My fingers are not sweaty or wet at all when I use the sensor, or when I set it up. Maybe they're too dry? Could others who have trouble with TouchID speak on whether their fingers might be too dry?.

It works consistently for me the first ~5 times after I set up each finger, and then it stops working until I force it to learn my fingerprint from scratch again. It seems it can only retain my fingerprint for a short time.

Frustrating overall. I often just type in the passcode after fail 3 or 4 to stop wasting time.
Click to expand...

Exactly the same experience here.
 
Mine works about 80% of the time but I have noticed that dry fingers make it not work very well.
 
Try re-registering your finger.

Mine has worked so perfectly it still amazes me. Push the home button, keep my finger on it (no need to lift up your finger!!!) and a quarter second later my phone is unlocked.

I've done it hundreds of times and it's worked perfectly every single time. Hasn't messed up once. Won't let me in with fingers I have not registered so it's not like it's broken and just letting anyone in every time. I'm amazingly impressed with it. Maybe I just got lucky and did a good job of reg'ing my fingerprints. Delete your finger and try again. Or register a different finger. I have my index finger and my thumb registered, and both work great though i use my index finger 95% of the time.

If you bite or chew your fingers and have screwed up fingerprints, perhaps that might reduce the accuracy.
 
kalt said:
Try re-registering your finger.

Mine has worked so perfectly it still amazes me. Push the home button, keep my finger on it (no need to lift up your finger!!!) and a quarter second later my phone is unlocked.

I've done it hundreds of times and it's worked perfectly every single time. Hasn't messed up once. Won't let me in with fingers I have not registered so it's not like it's broken and just letting anyone in every time. I'm amazingly impressed with it. Maybe I just got lucky and did a good job of reg'ing my fingerprints. Delete your finger and try again. Or register a different finger. I have my index finger and my thumb registered, and both work great though i use my index finger 95% of the time.

If you bite or chew your fingers and have screwed up fingerprints, perhaps that might reduce the accuracy.
Click to expand...

I've tried reregistering them, registering at different angles, registering two entries of the same thumb at different angles. The weird part is, it always works flawlessly after a fresh register, and it slowly gets worse over the course of the next day or so , until it flat out doesn't work at all and I have to reregister and start over. That makes me think it is somehow software related, but who knows.
 
That's odd, because I'm usually not lucky with this sort of stuff. If i'm going to get a new device and some of them aren't going to work right, I'll be getting a defective one. Maybe for once I got lucky.

Is your finger sensor/home button clean? Are your fingers dirty?

My fingers are usually a bit oily, and while it's something i hate, maybe it helps make a better print on the sensor (kinda like those old rubber-style fingerprint sensors).
 
I sold my iphone 5s Gold and just got another iPhone 5S in space grey. After setting up my finger print I have had zero issues with it working. Works 100% of the time on the space grey compared to the gold which never seemed to work on the first time. Don't know what to make of this.... Is the issue color specific? Or sensor specific?
 
Registered 4 fingers. Both thumbs and pointers.

It reads them correctly 100% so far. I've only had the phone since 5pm, but it hasn't not worked yet.
 
topherg said:
I sold my iphone 5s Gold and just got another iPhone 5S in space grey. After setting up my finger print I have had zero issues with it working. Works 100% of the time on the space grey compared to the gold which never seemed to work on the first time. Don't know what to make of this.... Is the issue color specific? Or sensor specific?
Click to expand...

Well mine is space gray, so I don't think it has to do with the color. It almost seems like something isn't working right as far as "the learning process" on mine. Because whenever I reregister it works awesome for awhile, but the more I use it the worse it gets. I could also see this as something that gets better in time with future OS releases.
 
ToddH said:
Really? Then why buy the new iphone? Did you buy it just to fit in with others that have one? That is one of the selling points for the 5s.

Mine works perfectly every time with my right and left thumb. Sorry to hear that you don't plan to use it. Your missing out.
Click to expand...

Not missing anything as I have never passworded my phone. You yourself said it is just one of the selling points of the 5S:p

I bought the 5S because I could, the cost was not an issue.:eek:
 
wepiii said:
I've tried reregistering them, registering at different angles, registering two entries of the same thumb at different angles. The weird part is, it always works flawlessly after a fresh register, and it slowly gets worse over the course of the next day or so , until it flat out doesn't work at all and I have to reregister and start over. That makes me think it is somehow software related, but who knows.
Click to expand...
This is definitely true for me too. Gets progressively worse.
 
For me touch I'd has been nothing short of awesome. Very accurate. Nd I just click home button to unlock my phone leave my finger there and bam it's unlocked. Sometimes even before the screen lights up fully.
 
silly question but...

does touch ID unlock the homescreen by itself or do you need to put in a passcode afterwards too? Can't seem to find an option in settings to be fingerprint only....
 
shigily said:
does touch ID unlock the homescreen by itself or do you need to put in a passcode afterwards too? Can't seem to find an option in settings to be fingerprint only....
Click to expand...

If you unlock via Touch ID, there is no need for a passcode.

Edit: That was unclear, I should say if you unlock via Touch ID you will not be prompted for your passcode unless you have recently rebooted.
 
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Yeah , about that . My touch Id is garbage . It was working woderful at first . Now I can't say the same . So frustrating that I have up . I just use my passcode.
 
My touch ID has been horribly inconsistent no matter if my fingers are moist or dry or inbetween

I went to the Genius Bar and they did a diagnostic on it and they reinstalled my software. it worked great for about an hour and then the phone continued to fail to recognize my prints. So I called AppleCare and took a screenshot of the diagnostic codes that it put out. And I received a call from my AppleCare senior specialist last night because he had sent that information to the engineering team and they recommended replacing the phone because they believe that the equipment meaning the touch ID sensor is faulty. After I learned my prints on the phone it would work great and then about an hour later it would work inconsistently and the next day it fails to recognize my prints no matter how many impressions I have stored in it.. They told me when you do your prints your fingers have to be free from moisture and free from lotions etc. I never did my prints with any moisture on them or any lotion on my fingers or anything. There should be no reason why it won't learn my prints because it learns it perfectly initially and then like completely forgets it even got my prints later.

I am not trying to create a frenzy of iphone 5s product replacements for others. The Apple care specialist and the genius at the store said that because of the diagnostic failures and crashes my touch ID was not working. That's why they recommended reinstalling my software which we did twice and it still wasn't working. I always set my phones up as new and I never restore from a backup I simply just sync my music and the apps I need from the App Store as new. That's why at that point they made the determination it's a hardware issue and recommended to replace my phone

They are sending out a product replacement.

My touch ID worked 10% of the time failed 90% of the time and I have the gold iPhone ATT 32 gig
 
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mine works better now that I use the middle of the thumb

I was about to take mine into the Genius Bar as well, but I think I finally figured out the problem. It turns out that the part of the thumb (i.e. the edge of the thumb) where I traditionally use to activate the home/Touch ID ends up being really dry. I tried moisturizing it, and that didn't really help either

I am now using a different, more "normal" part of the thumb, in the middle, and now it works much more consistently.

I think why it works initially great and then has problems later on has to do with the fact that over time, as I wash my hands, etc., etc., the parts of the skin that are dry, etc., may change over time, which may cause the "fingerprint" to evolve over time.
 
andrewj said:
I was about to take mine into the Genius Bar as well, but I think I finally figured out the problem. It turns out that the part of the thumb (i.e. the edge of the thumb) where I traditionally use to activate the home/Touch ID ends up being really dry. I tried moisturizing it, and that didn't really help either

I am now using a different, more "normal" part of the thumb, in the middle, and now it works much more consistently.

I think why it works initially great and then has problems later on has to do with the fact that over time, as I wash my hands, etc., etc., the parts of the skin that are dry, etc., may change over time, which may cause the "fingerprint" to evolve over time.
Click to expand...

I have tried that too. I used the middle part of my thumb and made sure not to just use the edges. It works for awhile as I said in my post but then it completely forgets my thumb and any finger i use entirely. Should not do that. My friends who have either the silver or space grey dont have this issue. I am the only one who got the gold and it has not worked for me consistently since i got the phone.
 
No problems here whatsoever. As promised it "just works", a lot faster than swiping to unlock, even without a passcode, I might add.

Unfortunately, with how-many billion people in the world it's never going to work with everyone no matter how advanced the technology gets. If you're one of the 1% with fingers that don't read, I realize it's ****, but you can't expect it to work for everybody and judging by the minimal numbers of complaints it looks like it works for 99% of people so what can you do?!...not much...maybe, moisturize more, clean your hands more or some **** and see what happens. My best friend's hands sweat like **** and touchID doesn't work all that well, but it ain't Apple's fault.
 
eleven7 said:
No problems here whatsoever. As promised it "just works", a lot faster than swiping to unlock, even without a passcode, I might add.

Unfortunately, with how-many billion people in the world it's never going to work with everyone no matter how advanced the technology gets. If you're one of the 1% with fingers that don't read, I realize it's ****, but you can't expect it to work for everybody and judging by the minimal numbers of complaints it looks like it works for 99% of people so what can you do?!...not much...maybe, moisturize more, clean your hands more or some **** and see what happens. My best friend's hands sweat like **** and touchID doesn't work all that well, but it ain't Apple's fault.
Click to expand...

in my case according to apple engineers with whom my apple care senior specialist submitted my diagnostic log to, my touch id is failing because of consistent software corruptions as shown on this log. restoring the software did not work, and they elected to replace it.
 
I just wanted to share my findings. I too like several here have had the touch id work great only to fail several hours later. 1st trip to genius bar we blew away the software image and installed a fresh new copy. fixed issue for 4 hours. 2nd trip to genius bar, they issued me a new phone. worked for 5 hours then failed. 3rd trip back yesterday to genius bar they researched and called engineering and said it is a known software issue/bug and the fix will be released on the next software update. They think by end of month. With so many more fingerprints to read and fine tune they will now revise the touch ID software to handle issues we've been having. Hope this helps!
 
goldengopher said:
I've also been disappointed in how inconsistent and unreliable TouchID has been for me. Of the fingers I have registered, it recognizes 1 ~1% of the time and the other between 5-10%.

My fingers are not sweaty or wet at all when I use the sensor, or when I set it up. Maybe they're too dry? Could others who have trouble with TouchID speak on whether their fingers might be too dry?.

It works consistently for me the first ~5 times after I set up each finger, and then it stops working until I force it to learn my fingerprint from scratch again. It seems it can only retain my fingerprint for a short time.

Frustrating overall. I often just type in the passcode after fail 3 or 4 to stop wasting time.
Click to expand...

Some days it works great otherdays not at all, i think this will be improved in the next iphone, tech needs to mature
 
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