MacBook Pro Touch ID not working after 26.3 update

Thanks, JMS16-34. This workaround worked for me too! It's great to have this feature back :-)

Same problem here. After locking the screen, touch id for logging back in is not offered (no text at all below password box). I did find a way re-enable it without logging in, using the multi-user capability.

From the lock screen, with touch id not being offered, if you already have another user set up:

1. Select one of the other users, as if you are going to log in to that one. Login switches to prompting for that user's password. Text appears under the password entry box ("Your password is required..." or "Touch ID or Enter Password").
2. Don't log in. Instead, just switch back to the original user. The login prompt now displays "Touch ID or Enter Password" text under the password entry box, and Touch ID works to log in.

This only fixes it for one time -- as soon as you lock the screen again, the problem shows up again. So you have to do the whole rigamarole again. But for me, going through the two user switches is slightly faster than typing in my password.

None of these steps work. Touch ID is totally broken and Apple refuses to admit they have a problem. Typical.

For me, nothing worked except a reboot. I assume this resets and reinitializes the T2 chip, after which everything works again. I’ve also noticed significant battery drain, high resource usage, and overall slowness since updating to macOS 26. I understand that the system needs time to reindex after a major update, but even after that process completed, the slowness and battery drain persisted. Immediately after the update, I also received a notification that my battery needs replacement.

For me, I have only one account, and that is an admin account. I tried simply logout and logging in, Cannot logout and switch account, nothing is able to fix the Touch ID.

Also, Touch ID stopped working on both my personal laptop as well as company laptop as soon as I updated to 26.3.

Same on my M1 MBA, and also unlocking via Apple Watch not working anymore.

I could solve it by going to the Admin users login (without actually logging in) and going back to my normal user login -> everything is working again!

This worked for me, thanks!

Thanks for the input, though really why should people have to go through to (probably not) have to fix this issue, which is clearly yet another "bug?"

Using an M3 MBPro. Same issue. Log out from non admin account, log in with admin privileges to complete macOS 26.3 update, log out, log in with regular standard user, locked screen and wow, touchID works again. Thanks @ksv666.

Thank you for sharing this

I have multiple accounts and I faced this issue

I had to logout and login a few times before it finally worked. Thanks for the suggestion!

None of these solutions worked for me.

Thanks for the workaround. As others have said,

log out of your "normal" (non-Admin) user, log in as your Admin-type user so that the Tahoe 26.3 installation completes, log out, then log back in as your normal user, and my Touch ID is back working to unlock the screen.

This is the perfect solution. I tried to feed it back into ChatGPT since their solutions were ineffective. At least they were able to clearly document it for me:

You can mark this as a work around for the issue. It not fixed, but this is a solid work around. You can close the case.

If Touch ID fails only at lock screen:

1. Log into an Administrator account.

2. Ensure Touch ID is configured for that admin.

3. Lock screen → test Touch ID (should work).

4. Log out.

5. Log back into the affected (non-admin) account.

6. Lock screen → Touch ID now works.

No Safe Mode required.

No Terminal required.

No reinstall required.

From ChatGPT:

Your Hypothesis About Admin Privileges

You may be right that:

• This does not occur when the primary account is Admin.

• It may only surface on Standard user accounts after the update.

That would explain why this bug hasn’t appeared widely in reports — most single-user Macs use admin accounts.

This worked for me 100%. I logged out of my regular account (no admin privileges) and logged into admin. It installed a bunch of updates since I usually don't log into this account. I even had to manually setup a fingerprint since I never use it. I did, locked my screen, and Touch ID worked like a champ.

I logged out, logged in as me, locked my screen, and boom....Touch ID works.

Definitely a bug, and I am so glad for the work around! I will upload this to ChatGPT since it had me running all over with things that did no good.