Seeing “Your password is required to enable Touch ID” when I shouldn't be

Pseudotechie wrote:

The other (closed) thread is here How do I fix 'Your password is required t… - Apple Community

The solution in that linked thread appears to have been deleting some third party software that was running in the background to allow remote access to the system (a legit third party app & service). It may be worthwhile to run the third party app EtreCheck and post the complete report here like in that linked thread so we can examine it for possible clues.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting an EtreCheck Report - Apple Community

Also, Have you tried creating a new macOS user account and testing the TouchID behavior while using that new macOS user account? It may narrow the issue down to an issue with your main user account and a system wide issue.

Testing TouchID behavior with a clean install may show you whether it is a macOS bug or hardware issue, or whether you have a configuration issue, or some third party software interfering. However, you must test the system without any third party software and without migrating/restoring from a backup which may bring the problem back & confuse the results.

Pseudotechie wrote:

The EtreCheck report is attached. One surprising Major Issue: "Low disk space - This computer is running critically low on free hard drive space." My Mac has almost 27 GB available. That doesn't seem critically low.

Unfortunately with macOS "Available" storage space is not synonymous with Free storage space. From the EtreCheck report you have only 13.44GB of Free storage space at the time of the EtreCheck was run. You need to always have at least 20GB+ of Free storage space at all times.....even that 20GB can disappear quite quickly even with light workloads. A general rule is having at least 20%+ of your boot drive with Free storage space. You are running dangerously low on Free storage space on your boot drive especially when you are using about 6GB of Swap at the time of the report.

Unfortunately macOS shows the very misleading "Available" storage everywhere while hiding the Free storage space value in Disk Utility or the Apple System Profiler.

From EtreCheck report:

disk3s5 - Macintosh HD - Data [APFS Virtual drive]

Filesystem: APFS

Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data

Encrypted

Used: 195.30 GB

Shared values

Size: 245.11 GB

Free: 13.44 GB

Available: 25.19 GB

The 6GB of Swap usage leads me to the next point that you may not have enough memory in your laptop for your current workloads. While an M-series Mac's SSD is fast, it does slow down considerably when you start running low on Free storage space....the SSD must work harder & it tends to wear out more quickly.

You should uninstall BitDefender by following the developer's instructions since anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software are not needed on a Mac. These types of apps usually cause more problems than they solve since they interfere with the normal operation of macOS. I would also advise you to uninstall MalwareBytes as well, but at least turn off the MalwareBytes realtime scanner since that is not needed and while it is more well behaved than other such software, it is still prone to the same issues. macOS already has great built-in security as long as users practice safe computing habits such as those outlined in the following article:

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

I also see you are using LogMeIn. IIRC, LogMeIn was the source of the OP's issue in the thread you linked earlier. Try uninstalling LogMeIn by following the developer's instructions. You most likely need to run the LogMeIn uninstaller (may be an option on a LogMeIn menu, or perhaps a separate uninstaller app from the LogMeIn developers) since LogMeIn has placed multiple files throughout the system so that LogMeIn is always running in the background.

See the post by @BDAqua here regarding LogMeIn:

Post by @BDAqua regarding LogMeIn

And @matt-ribeiro's (the OP's) reply to @BDAqua saying the issue was due to LogMeIn and resolved:

@matt-ribeiro's reply confirming LogMeIn was the source of the problem- Apple Community

While not related to your issue here, I just want to make you aware that most VPNs do not provide the security or privacy you think they do. VPNs are only useful for connecting to an employer's network, or to bypass regional restrictions.

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

Make sure the laptop did not reboot. This has become much more difficult to determine. I believe the following Terminal command will show when the system has powered on:

pmset  -g  log  |  grep  -iE  'Start  '

It is best to copy & paste the command I posted here since it is critical that there are two spaces and only two spaces after "Start ".

Can you provide a link to the other thread that you mentioned?

Pseudotechie wrote:

Thanks, HWTech. I entered the command in Terminal, and nothing happened. Does it show something only if my laptop rebooted? FYI, this morning my laptop did not show the “Your password is required...." message and I opened it with Touch ID, even though it was in sleep mode all night. This problem shows up randomly.

If it did not reboot, then there would be no output from the command. You can reboot the computer & run the command again to see what would be displayed.

Have you tried the TouchID troubleshooting steps outlined in the following Apple article?

If Touch ID isn't working on Mac - Apple Support