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I don't think the TouchID wears out. Rather, it's the finger that gets drier due to seasonal changes.

Some here have two prints of the same finger stored, one taken when it's cooler and one taken when it's warmer. So if you find your finger drying out, just take another print of the same finger but don't erase the old one. That way, it'll work year round.
 
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shrug, my wife never had any degradation issues with her 5S touch ID. Always worked perfectly for her.
 
Guess I was more or less asking if any 5s owners have noticed decreasing sensing in their touchID?

There is no way for the CMOS sensor to "wear out". The only wear that can occur is the physical button press, but that is separate from the fingerprint scanner mechanism.
 
I imagine there might be an issue if the home button was all scratched up, but since it is made of sapphire that'd be pretty difficult to do.
 
The surface is sapphire, approaching the hardness of diamond. Put the phone in the ground for 1000 years, the rest of the phone will rust away, leaving only the two lenses.
 
Wear what out? Sensor? Glass surface? Sensor is silicon chip, there's no mechanical part to wear out and Glass is made out of sapphire glass.
 
My 5s touch id became unusable after updating to iOS 8. It only worked 30% of the time. I have yet to have a failed read on the 6 plus in two weeks of using it. What an improvement!

I agree that seasonal changes in the dryness of your fingers can affect performance, but this was something different. Not sure if it was iOS related or was caused by the sensor being damaged somehow. There were no scratches or other signs of damage.
 
New York Magazine also noted that complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors such as those found on Touch ID generally wear out and become unusable after some period of time. The magazine said that while Apple may have found a way to manufacture the sensors better, if they stop working, users may just switch back to using their passcode, making fingerprint recognition a non-starter once again. It also notes that fingerprint technology still has some issues, such as the potential to be hacked, or of the device not recognizing the fingerprint (for example when the finger has been injured).[14]

This is probably what they were talking about.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_ID
 
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