MacBook Pro M5: Missing Touch ID for restored user

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Level 1

8 points

MacBook Pro M5: Missing Touch ID for restored user

This is a brand new MacBook Pro M5 to replace an older MBP M2 that suffered liquid damage. I restored it from the latest Time Machine backup, and everything works fine except that the Touch ID setting is missing from System Settings. Thinking it was an OS issue, I wiped the laptop clean and set up a new user, and Touch ID shows up fine in System Settings, and I can create a fingerprint that works fine. However, when I restore the user from the Time Machine backup, that user (which is an admin user) does not have Touch ID present in System Settings. It is missing completely. The old MBP had Touch ID and that user worked fine with Touch ID. Does anyone know how to reset the Touch ID settings for the restored user and return it to System Settings?

MacBook Pro (M5, 2025)

Posted on Feb 5, 2026 5:03 PM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

199,596 points

Feb 5, 2026 7:45 PM in response to oscarthedog

oscarthedog wrote:

This is a brand new MacBook Pro M5 to replace an older MBP M2 that suffered liquid damage. I restored it from the latest Time Machine backup, and everything works fine except that the Touch ID setting is missing from System Settings.

Thinking it was an OS issue, I wiped the laptop clean and set up a new user, and Touch ID shows up fine in System Settings, and I can create a fingerprint that works fine.

However, when I restore the user from the Time Machine backup, that user (which is an admin user) does not have Touch ID present in System Settings. It is missing completely.

The old MBP had Touch ID and that user worked fine with Touch ID. Does anyone know how to reset the Touch ID settings for the restored user and return it to System Settings?

Can you confirm this is the internal keyboard only— no external keyboard involved.

You have shut down and restarted more than once...?

>Shut Down

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

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.

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

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Answer 2

oscarthedog Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 6, 2026 5:09 AM in response to leroydouglas

I have done all of the above multiple times: restarted, shut down completely, safe boot, removed all startup/login items. I have also reinstalled the OS (Tahoe 26.2) and wiped the SSD and reinstalled the OS. The issue seems completely tied to this specific user account that I need to restore from the Time Machine backup. Any other users that I create have the Touch ID and Password present in their System Settings and can create a Touch ID. When logged into the user account transferred from Time Machine drive, there is no Touch ID and Password option in System Settings. It is completely missing. This user was from a Time Machine backup of an M2 MacBook Pro running the latest version of Sonoma. There were no issues with that user on the old laptop as far as I know.

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Answer 3

oscarthedog Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 6, 2026 5:11 AM in response to oscarthedog

Yes, this is on a the built in keyboard on the laptop. It works fine with any other users other than the one transferred from the Time Machine backup.

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