Macbook Pro M1 touch id

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Level 3

512 points

Macbook Pro M1 touch id

The touch id on my Macbook Pro 13" M1 only holds one day. After i put it to sleep it won't work anymore the next day. This does not happen when I put it asleep for a short time. Closing the lid and put my Macbook aside doesn't give any problems.

However having slept for a few hours overnight, results in a not working touch id. I must admit that I never got a problem with touch id on an iPhone 6s years ago. Until they started to improve the feature with a software upgrade. Then it did not work anymore and it never worked after that.

So it is possible that my fingers don't want this kind of modernized log in feature. And that my fingers and touch id simply don't match. But it is odd that this only happens after a few hours of sleep.

I know that you have to give in your password anyway after 48 hours or so. But then the touch id feature should work again. This is not what is happening.

When I give in a new finger it works again for a couple of hours. Until the next sleep.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Dec 27, 2020 7:03 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

nickjvturner

Level 1

16 points

Feb 6, 2021 9:46 AM in response to Peter Almere

I have been using my M1 Mac for 48 hours, touchID seems to be hit and miss!

I have found the solution to my problem, it seems that if my palm is not touching the body of my MacBook Pro touchID fails.

When my hand is in contact with the body of the MacBook Pro touchID reads my finger instantly.

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Answer 2

Mar 7, 2021 2:19 PM in response to nickjvturner

Hello, i am having the same problem with my M1 macbook pro, if my palm is not touching the body of the macbook touch id won't take a reading... did you find any solution for that? should i return it to be serviced? thank you

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Answer 3

Peter Almere Author

Level 3

512 points

Dec 30, 2020 5:55 AM in response to Peter Almere

So I have found the answer on the Touch ID problem. I started to get an insight when I wanted to enable Touch ID while managing my account in the app store. Because when I did enable it I received the message that I first had to set up touch id on my computer. However I just HAD set touch id up on my computer.

So somehow the fingerprint wasn't saved to my MacBook Pro M1. I did some googling around and found the solution. Enabling Quick User Switch in the Users And Groups settings solved the problem. Even tough I don't have set another user on my Mac.

https://i.imgur.com/nyw4fNd.png

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Answer 4

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,666 points

Dec 30, 2020 6:08 AM in response to Peter Almere

Interesting but I can't reproduce your observation, even with the Fast User Switching disabled at login preferences. That might mean it is sensitive to some additional factor we have not yet found, maybe software version, or (your guess is as good as mine).

If it helps anyone, I'm on MacOS v11.1 with a MacBook Air - not that it should make a difference between Airt and Pro for the login and finger sensor.

Do you have the live url for the report and graphic you found?

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Answer 5

Peter Almere Author

Level 3

512 points

Jan 17, 2021 11:07 AM in response to Peter Almere

@Branta_uk

So now I've been trying it for a prolonged time, I can say the there is indeed another additional factor thats keeps Touch ID from working. Because it started to fail again.

After contact with apple support, and resetting smc, start up in safe mode and more interesting things, it worked for a few days to become unresponsive again. Now I wait for an update of big sur. Now I am on 11.1

If it still acts problematic I start to think about a hardware issue.

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Answer 6

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,666 points

Feb 6, 2021 3:56 PM in response to Peter Almere

Mine is the MB Air M1 so we have almost identical hardware, and software should be identical.

What I have noticed is that all the anti-Covid hand scrubbing is wrecking my fingerprints for TouchID on all my devices. What used to work for months at a time during slack periods of lockdown on 2x iPhones and an iPad now lasts a day or two (with increased working and more washing) before I need to re-enrol a finger. The Touch ID scan is extremely sensitive to small changes, which is not a bad thing overall. I think we just need to live with it until we get back to a more normal life.

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Answer 7

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,666 points

Feb 6, 2021 3:58 PM in response to nickjvturner

nickjvturner wrote:

I have been using my M1 Mac for 48 hours, touchID seems to be hit and miss!

I have found the solution to my problem, it seems that if my palm is not touching the body of my MacBook Pro touchID fails.

When my hand is in contact with the body of the MacBook Pro touchID reads my finger instantly.

Interesting, but so far it doesn't work for me. As I have noted above in this thread my fingerprints (actually whole hands) have taken a beating recently with increased workload and a lot of extra hand washing so that might also be a factor.

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Answer 8

Mar 9, 2021 4:37 AM in response to charbel-n

I don't consider this behaviour to be due to faulty hardware.

If you find this dissatisfying, I would call Apple and raise your concern with them. I have not returned mine and I do not find this to be too disruptive.

I suspect this has something to do with grounding and the power supply mechanism. For example, in my office the laptop is powered by an LG monitor and I stand on a rubber mat, this is when I experience the 'palm resting on laptop body' is required.

However plug the laptop into a grounded power supply (fyi. the included UK plug does not ground the power supply) and I would be interested to know if you continue to experience the same behaviour.

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Answer 9

Mar 9, 2021 8:46 AM in response to nickjvturner

In fact, i noticed that the problem is not always present. sometimes it just works on its own without any intervention...

I believe the power supply thing could be a logical explanation of the problem.... Today however it has been working all day without any issues while the Macbook pro is plugged in to the power and i didn't change any setting (i work in my office i stand directly on the pavement with no rugs.

i will not return the macbook pro to service for the time being, i will keep on monitoring the problem to try to understand the cause...

thank you for your reply,

really appreciate it

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