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TouchID on Magic Keyboard not working to unlock screensaver - solution

This isn't so much of a question but rather a post to let the broader Apple community know what worked for me.


A few days ago I upgraded from macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 to macOS Sequoia 15.1.1. This morning, I noticed TouchID wasn't working on my external Magic keyboard attached to my Mac Studio to unlock my computer, even when I'd been using the computer just 5 minutes before (screensaver had enabled which I have setup to require authentication to get back to the computer from). I knew this was new behavior because I love unlocking my Mac using TouchID and do it all the time. I went to follow the suggested solution by leroydouglas in this post (Touch ID not working - Apple Community), and when attempting to perform Step 5 ("Choose Apple menu  > System Settings (or System Preferences), click Touch ID & Password, then turn on the setting to use Touch ID to unlock your Mac."), I noticed that I could not change any of the toggle controls on that screen; they were all off and grayed out (disabled). So, I rebooted, and went back to that screen, and they were all enabled again, and modifiable.


So, if you run into this, a simple reboot may do the trick.


I couldn't say if TouchID for general uses e.g. purchases wasn't working because I rebooted before I thought to test that, but I suspect it would have failed also, so I suspect this would be as solution for that as well. It's like the secure authentication between the Mac and keyboard wasn't there until I rebooted.


Mac Studio

Posted on Dec 4, 2024 6:35 AM

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5 replies

Dec 4, 2024 11:09 AM in response to Krishen

Krishen wrote:

This isn't so much of a question but rather a post to let the broader Apple community know what worked for me.

A few days ago I upgraded from macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 to macOS Sequoia 15.1.1. This morning, I noticed TouchID wasn't working on my external Magic keyboard attached to my Mac Studio to unlock my computer,

So, I rebooted, and went back to that screen, and they were all enabled again, and modifiable.


rebooting is always the first recommendation to sort issues.



if you continue to have an issue—


A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies


Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.


Dec 9, 2024 5:20 AM in response to Phargo

Hey Phargo, that makes sense. After writing up this post I remembered that earlier in the day, I'd unplugged my keyboard (it's a Bluetooth-enabled but I use it wired) to use the Lightning cable to charge my AirPods, so I'm wondering if that disconnection messed up the keyboard's authentication with the computer. If I see the problem again I will definitely try unplug-replug USB and/or Bluetooth disable/enable and report back :)

TouchID on Magic Keyboard not working to unlock screensaver - solution

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