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touch id to unlock on power up

Hello: I thought the touch ID could be used to unlock your Mac when you first powered it on? If so my MacBook pro keeps asking for me to type in my password and doesn't seem to respond to touching the touch ID pad. It does seem to work elsewhere. When I looked in system preferences>touch iD everything was checked so that didnt seem to be the issue. Any help appreciated.


Steve

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 5, 2021 6:45 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 5, 2021 7:39 PM

coopmax wrote:

Hello: I thought the touch ID could be used to unlock your Mac when you first powered it on? If so my MacBook pro keeps asking for me to type in my password and doesn't seem to respond to touching the touch ID pad. It does seem to work elsewhere. When I looked in system preferences>touch iD everything was checked so that didnt seem to be the issue. Any help appreciated.

Steve



No.


There are a few instances where Touch ID will not be accepted by macOS:


If you restarted your Mac, or if you're not logged into your user account.

• If you have not unlocked your Mac for 48 hours.

• If you are trying to unlock Security & Privacy

• If you are trying to unlock Users & Groups Preferences (when FileVault is on)

• If 5 wrong fingerprints attempts


"If you have problems with Touch ID"

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/touch-id-mchl16fbf90a/mac


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 5, 2021 7:39 PM in response to coopmax

coopmax wrote:

Hello: I thought the touch ID could be used to unlock your Mac when you first powered it on? If so my MacBook pro keeps asking for me to type in my password and doesn't seem to respond to touching the touch ID pad. It does seem to work elsewhere. When I looked in system preferences>touch iD everything was checked so that didnt seem to be the issue. Any help appreciated.

Steve



No.


There are a few instances where Touch ID will not be accepted by macOS:


If you restarted your Mac, or if you're not logged into your user account.

• If you have not unlocked your Mac for 48 hours.

• If you are trying to unlock Security & Privacy

• If you are trying to unlock Users & Groups Preferences (when FileVault is on)

• If 5 wrong fingerprints attempts


"If you have problems with Touch ID"

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/touch-id-mchl16fbf90a/mac


Jul 5, 2021 8:05 PM in response to leroydouglas

This is in reference to when I first power on the Mac it won’t let me use the touch ID sensor to unlock it. It gives me some error message like you need to enter your password in order for touch ID to work. So entering the password unlocks the computer and the start up proceeds, but the touch ID does nothing here. Elsewhere in the system the touch ID seems to work fine.

Jul 5, 2021 8:09 PM in response to coopmax

coopmax wrote:

This is in reference to when I first power on the Mac it won’t let me use the touch ID sensor to unlock it. It gives me some error message like you need to enter your password in order for touch ID to work. So entering the password unlocks the computer and the start up proceeds, but the touch ID does nothing here. Elsewhere in the system the touch ID seems to work fine.



I do not know how else to say it—

There are a few instances where Touch ID will not be accepted by macOS:

If you restarted your Mac, or if you're not logged into your user account.


If your Mac is shut down, and you restart your Mac (read: "I first power on the Mac",) the TouchID will not work until you get logged into your account.



touch id to unlock on power up

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