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Other Touch ID with sweaty fingers?

Nikomanz

Nikomanz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 9, 2012
129
6
Washington, D.C.
My hands get sweaty through the day and I've noticed that even the tiniest amount of wetness in my thumb completely renders the Touch ID useless...Yes, I understand I can wash my hands and dry my fingers but I doing so every time I want to unlock my phone seems like a hassle.



Anybody else have this problem?
 
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I noticed this, not when I'm sweating but when my fingers are a tad moist. I have my recipes on my phone and after washing them, trying to use the phone doesn't work too well, unless I make sure my fingers (thumb really) is very dry.
 
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Interesting. I use my phone in the gym and often had issues with the 5S. The 6 plus is much more responsive. I find my finger has to be downright drenched for touch ID not to work.
 
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I don't find TouchID all that responsive on my iPhone 6 in a number of situations - if my hands are wet, dirty, if some of the skin has come off my thumb, etc - and frankly after hearing it hyped so much, it's been a bit of a disappointment. Even when it does recognize my thumb correctly, often it takes longer for it to recognize than it would have taken for me just to type in my password.

It's probably just my thumbs that are the problem since it seems to work much better with my index finger, but obviously the thumb is what you use to interact with the home button most often, so it should be optimized for that digit.
 
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I've saved multi prints of both my thumbs.

Print one is both left and right thumbs
Print two is both but dry hands
Print three is both with damp hands
Print four is both dirty hands
Print five is both index fingers clean dry hands
 
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Yeah I'm the kind of person that gets clammy hands really easy, especially if I get stressed or nervous in the slightest amount. Touch ID immediately becomes useless and it's kind of annoying. Washing my hands makes it worse because it makes my hands more moist, even after drying. So I pretty much have to wipe my hands on something, clean the Touch ID sensor, and try again. Most of the time if I can feel my hands are even slightly sweaty, I immediately punch in my passcode and don't even bother with Touch ID. This issue is pretty annoying but it doesn't upset me because it's not anybody's fault. Touch ID just doesn't play well with moisture. When my hands are dry though I love Touch ID, it's extremely fast. Sometimes the screen is still fading on and my phone is already unlocking. Amazing. Hopefully they can make improvements to the sensor to make it more versatile/less picky in the future?
 
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It works perfectly fine even when my fingers are sweaty. (6 plus). My friend's 5s however, has trouble with his sweaty hands. It simply refuses to recognize his fingerprints.
He has registered his fingerprints on my phone and whenever his phone refuses to unlock (due to sweaty fingers), he tries it on my phone immediately, without wiping his finger, and it works 100% of the time.
Either Apple has improved Touch ID on 6(plus), or some phones have a faulty sensor.
 
GoingDark said:
I don't find TouchID all that responsive on my iPhone 6 in a number of situations - if my hands are wet, dirty, if some of the skin has come off my thumb, etc - and frankly after hearing it hyped so much, it's been a bit of a disappointment. Even when it does recognize my thumb correctly, often it takes longer for it to recognize than it would have taken for me just to type in my password.

It's probably just my thumbs that are the problem since it seems to work much better with my index finger, but obviously the thumb is what you use to interact with the home button most often, so it should be optimized for that digit.
Click to expand...

You think? It's not gonna prepare your taxes either.
 
Big time issue,.. Iphone 5s was much worse though...8-10 never read my fingerprints.. 6 better but still an issue..
 
lordofthereef said:
Does wiping your finger, quickly, first not help?

(don't read that as snarky, it's not meant to be :) )
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong sometimes it does work but other times I need to swipe my fingers and the touch ID on the phone making the process way longer than just submitting my four digit passcode (and maybe even just taking out my card and swiping manually).
 
techspin said:
You think? It's not gonna prepare your taxes either.
Click to expand...

I don't expect something designed to read my thumbprint to prepare my taxes, but I do expect it to, you know, read my thumbprint.

Or maybe I'm just holding it wrong? :p
 
lordofthereef said:
Interesting. I use my phone in the gym and often had issues with the 5S. The 6 plus is much more responsive. I find my finger has to be downright drenched for touch ID not to work.
Click to expand...

Yup, it works great at the gym for me on my 6+
 
Nikomanz said:
My hands get sweaty through the day and I've noticed that even the tiniest amount of wetness in my thumb completely renders the Touch ID useless...Yes, I understand I can wash my hands and dry my fingers but I doing so every time I want to unlock my phone seems like a hassle.



Anybody else have this problem?
Click to expand...

so... im just wondering, so this "hassle" appeared when apple started the TouchID?

it was never a hassle before?
 
My touchid is a little flaky when my fingers are damp but if I am patient and leave my finger/thumb there it ends up unlocking.
 
ttmrn said:
so... im just wondering, so this "hassle" appeared when apple started the TouchID?

it was never a hassle before?
Click to expand...

Well, sure. There is a new feature that should help save time (and add security) and the user has to go back to the old way.

if the power steering on my car went out intermittently I would consider it a hassle too, despite the fact that it wasn't around at all 40 years ago.
 
Nikomanz said:
I'm just saying that such an advertised feature of the iPhone becomes pretty much useless with damp hands...
Click to expand...

It works perfectly fine for me, even with sweaty fingers. Either some people have a faulty sensor or there is something about their fingers making sensor go crazy.
 
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