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Touch ID sometimes refuses to work/respond

There isn't going to be a fix. It's not a software problem, it's the limitation of the fingerprint sensor. It sucks, but that's how it is. Clean your phone off, then try the fingerprint scanner, it'll work perfectly fine. Now try it 3 more times. Look at the scanner and see how many fingerprints are all over it. This matter is made much worse if you touch anything (computer keys, house keys, steering wheel, mouse, textbook, desk) - assuming you don't wash your hands after every single one of these the sensor is going to have problems picking up your print every once in a while. I will admit I have about 4-12 "try again" situations per day with this sensor. And I wash my hands regularly (maybe 5-7 times).

I wish the sensor was able to pick up the print a little more easily but it appears it cannot. Having the flat home button just means that there is more opportunity for reminiscent smudges and dirt to collect (lowering reliability) and the only solution seems to be wiping off the home button daily and washing my hands even more often..

If the problem gets worse in the future I'm just going to take off Touch ID because I've never used a password for my phone in the past (it's always on my person), so right now it's just a novelty.
 
This has been happening to me about once every day or two. Actually occurred once today while I put it to sleep from the Twitter app.

Very annoying.

Don't recall this being an issue before 7.0.3.
 
VanillaCracker said:
There isn't going to be a fix. It's not a software problem, it's the limitation of the fingerprint sensor. It sucks, but that's how it is. Clean your phone off, then try the fingerprint scanner, it'll work perfectly fine. Now try it 3 more times. Look at the scanner and see how many fingerprints are all over it. This matter is made much worse if you touch anything (computer keys, house keys, steering wheel, mouse, textbook, desk) - assuming you don't wash your hands after every single one of these the sensor is going to have problems picking up your print every once in a while. I will admit I have about 4-12 "try again" situations per day with this sensor. And I wash my hands regularly (maybe 5-7 times).

I wish the sensor was able to pick up the print a little more easily but it appears it cannot. Having the flat home button just means that there is more opportunity for reminiscent smudges and dirt to collect (lowering reliability) and the only solution seems to be wiping off the home button daily and washing my hands even more often..

If the problem gets worse in the future I'm just going to take off Touch ID because I've never used a password for my phone in the past (it's always on my person), so right now it's just a novelty.
Click to expand...

why even post in the thread if you don't have anything constructive to add? The phone thinking an incorrect finger is on the scanner is not the issue being discussed.

bwapod said:
This has been happening to me about once every day or two. Actually occurred once today while I put it to sleep from the Twitter app.

Very annoying.

Don't recall this being an issue before 7.0.3.
Click to expand...

I have had it happen a couple of more times now and when the phone opens it is in the twitter app but it does not fail every time that it goes to sleep while accessing that app. Who knows.
 
I figured it must be a cold weather problem, but who knows.

First few weeks owning the phone things were great. This whole past week I'd say 3/4 of the time or more it fails and I have to enter the password. I've cleaned the button and my hands. I've deleted all my fingerprints and reset up all 5 I had set up. They sometimes work but still, most of the time not.

The only thing I can think that has changed is that the weather has gotten a lot colder where I am recently. I'm wondering if this just won't work in the winter. When I warm up my hands a bit the touch ID works almost perfectly, but the rest of the time, nope.
 
Same problem here and I can replicate in when the phone sleeps with the twitter app open.

It's interesting that an app can interfere with this function.

Maybe my prints are being tweeted to the NSA. ;)
 
I had this happen to me today. It would not unlock my phone with my finger...would not even detect the finger or scanned it. I tried all my fingers, when I slid to unlock with pass code then it started working fine again.

I never had problems with the sensor detecting my phone as it usually unlocks on first try.
 
sclawis300 said:
why even post in the thread if you don't have anything constructive to add? The phone thinking an incorrect finger is on the scanner is not the issue being discussed.
Click to expand...

????? I never mentioned that in my post. Thanks for being a dick though, and I believe there is a place for comments other than those which give false hope. You can have your opinion too, though.
 
VanillaCracker said:
????? I never mentioned that in my post. Thanks for being a dick though, and I believe there is a place for comments other than those which give false hope. You can have your opinion too, though.
Click to expand...

the issue is that the sensor being dirty is not the problem...the problem we're getting is the sensor is not even recognizing our fingerprints at times. In my case, the fingerprint scanner is not even trying to scan like its not working at all. I have to slide to unlock then the button sensor starts recognizing my finger again. Seems like a bug to me...
 
I've had this problem a time or two. We're talking less than 1 percent of the time. A lot of the time I just hit the lock button again and it works fine. A few times I just put in the darn passcode.

What bugs me more is it seemed like every time I bought a purchase through iTunes it wanted me to put in my password so I could use Touch ID the next time. I was finally able to make a couple of purchases this way, but grr.

I think we're figuring out why it's just for unlocking the system and iTunes purchases right now. A lot of bugs to work out. But as it improves, wow. I hate unlocking my iPad because I can't just hold my finger over the home button. I hope Apple can eventually get those sensors in MacBooks and on the desktops somehow. I figure for the MacBooks the sensor can just be placed somewhere. My wireless Apple keyboard probably has room at the top for the sensor to be placed.
 
I have the same problem, it's like touchid isn't even trying, as opposed to trying and failing. Anyway, I found a workaround that seems to disprove the "sensor is dirty" argument. Whenever I get this problem:
-swipe up to open the control panel from the lock screen
-launch the calculator
-close the calculator
-touchid now works fine
 
I give some merit to the idea that Touch ID seems to degrade over time. After a while I relaize its only working correctly 50% of the time so when I see that happening, I delete and readd my prints then it seems to return to the 99% success level.

Touch ID's not a failure but it surely has room for improvment. Now I see why its wasn't put on the new iPads and why its abilities are very limited.
 
For me it works perfectly...but then again my hands and fingertips are in perfect condition. It's fast and convenient, I wonder how any of the complainers have terrible fingertips. Eg. Cracked, broken and dry skin. Or they simply are not setting up the prints properly.
 
I blame iOS 7. :) If I had the problem I would restore as new and immediately see if the problem persists (before installing any apps or setting up accounts or restoring backups, etc.). As said before, Twitter was/is a problem and I'd also reset the phone to see if that does any good.

alphaod said:
My solution is to lick my finger if it's clean enough.
Click to expand...

TWSS
 
7.1 might fix some of the issues with touch ID.
There are many tips in the 5 forums available.
Best bet would be to take it into and Apple Store and let a Genius check it out. Sometimes theres a problem with the scanner.
 
In my case, I was using iPhone 6 (jailbroken) and out of the blue, the touchid started to work about half of the times. I thought it was a software bug so I waited for iOS 8.1. 8.1 came and the problem remained. After 8.3 came out I really thought it was a hardware problem.
I decided to spend some time trying to figure it out. I searched the web, I visited and read almost all topics about touchid but I couldn't find a solution for my problem. When I was almost quitting, I made a respring in safe mode and the problem finished.
After I tested disabling each and every tweak I had installed, I realized that the problem IN MY CASE was Activator.
Actually, the problem was not the tweak itself but some wrong settings that I did. After resetting the settings, the touchid started to work as it should.
I hope this can help someone.
Regards
 
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