Touch ID being Erratic

for me the touch id works good when it is working but just stops functioning at times with no response with my finger on it. I have to power the phone off and on again and it works fine again. I'll have to pay attention to it more now but it does seem to stop working after it charges.

I have been complaining about this issue for a while. I have had to return two iphones. Both seem to reboot 3-4 times a day. I have noticed that after a few reboots, the scanner does not reconize finger prints as well. I will scan both thumbs and both index fingers. The fingers scans seem to go one by one. Not all at once. But I usually have to rescan each finger after about 7-10 days

A few other things that I noticed.

The scanner does not work on cold fingers. Does not work on sweaty fingers. Does not work just after you wash your hands (even after using air driers). Wont work if you are holding a cold drink and immediately try to scan.

Apple is clearly aware of these issues, why else would they offer to replace phones without very little trouble shooting. The last time that I took the phone in for reboots and finger scan issues, I was told that "hopefully" it would be fixed with the next iOS update. I didnt notice any imporvement. I guess I will just keep returning my phone every month when it gets bad.

i was going to try the exact same thing, but decided to stand on one foot, count backwards from 53, then randomly delete 4 apps. neither seemed to work

It has been about 3 hours since I last deleted a crashing app and rebooted and so far it is working for the 3 fingers I scanned. This is different then before, in which it would stop recognizing figerprints after about 1/2 hour.

We'll see about tonight and tomorrow, and about that trip to the apple store...

Nice one. I honestly don't care if you believe it or not, but it may help others out who are willing to spend five minutes on it rather than try to think of a smartass reply.

Piece of advice for everyone with iPhone 5s's.

If your scanner isn't working 100% of the time it is most likely the phone, not the way you have set it up.

I have been through 4 5s in the past month and finally I have one that has a zero percent fail rate.

I have awful thumbs with worn out prints.

1st 5s: worked occasionally

2nd 5s: barely worked at all

3rd 5s: if there was any hint of moisture on my thumbs wouldn't work at all. When thumbs dry worked about 70percent of the time.

4th 5s: absolutely perfect 100% success rate. This phone is build week number 42 and bought new from apple store 6/11/13.

I have tried numerous amounts of times setting up differently with all of the devices I've owned, I've used all the setting up techniques ect ect.

I have set this current phone up quickly without usin the techniques and it hasn't failed once.

Apple use so many different suppliers for their parts and I believe all three previous devices have a lower quality scanner or parts used for the scanner. Much like the displays used in apple

Devices. Go into an apple store and turn your brightness up, place it against a display model and notice how cruddy your display is in comparison to their premium displays with higher contrasts and brighter whites.

Nevertheless I like apple products and buy all of them, I am seriously fed up with exchanging them 100's of times

Just to get one up to 'reasonable' quality.

If I wasn't paying such a high premium for these devices I wouldn't care half as

Much.

Take your phone back or sell it on eBay and buy another one from a later manufacture week, you will thank me afterwards.

I had the same basic issue as many community people. I registered my middle finger print (odd choice), Touch ID worked perfectly and progressively arrived to no recognition at all.

The 23rd of Sept I looked at this community discussion. I decided to delete the initial fingerprint and to register my forefinger only and once (the flesh of its top in the middle of the detection ring) without following any specific guideline.

Since this action, I have 100% success with Touch ID, in 1 or 2 step(s).

iOS 7.0.3 did not modify anything for me regarding Touch ID.

There are three ways to get to the App Icons screen :

1) Press the Home Button - the unlocked screen with a personnal photo appears and I have just to put my forefinger gently on the Home Button, the flesh of its top in the middle of the detection ring

2) Put my forefinger gently on the Home Button, the flesh of its top in the middle of the detectionr ring then press the Home Button and keep the finger down during about 1 second

3) In case 2, if I keep my finger pressing the Home Button too long a time SIRI pops up and I have just to leave SIRI and put my forefinger gently on the Home Button, the flesh of its top in the middle of the detectionr ring.

Most of time I am successful with case 2.

I would appreciate to be able to postpone SIRI arrival. Is this possibility really included in iOS 7.0.3?

I am sure Apple is aware of the Touch ID difficulties for some people, knows what to do and will provide some corrections.

My TouchID worked fine for the first few weeks, but I now find it to be very faulty. Sometimes my phone can be opened by quickly pressing the home button, WITHOUT registering my fingerprint. It seems to work better with my left thumb as opposed to my right, but it seems that the registering of both thumbs has degraded since I got the phone on launch day. I haven't tried erasing them and rescanning, but maybe I will. But, what's the point if you periodically have to do this? I would NEVER trust TouchID to protect my phone! I'm thinking about disabling it altogether. Also, I don't find it useful for making iTunes purchases- most of the time I'm still asked to enter my AppleID, as well, when I make a purchase. So, again, what's the point? I think this is still in beta testing, just as Siri was on the 4S. I'm VERY happy Apple didn't put it on my new iPad Air. At this point, I'm finding it to be very annoying. But, I'm sure it will improve over time. Still in beta!

I have the same issue. Sometimes my touchID stops working, it doesn't even say try again. It starts working only if I write my passcode and lock the phone again or press the sleep/wake button until seeing "slide to power off" and press cancel. It seems like this is a software issue, anyone knows if Apple adress this issue? I think there are a lot of people who has this issue.

How long have you owned your 4th 5s?

Same exact issues as all the above. Glad I'm not the only one! Worked for about a month and now doesn't work at all. I have tried re-registering my fingers many times, still does not work.

I want to also add this bit of information. Anytime you shut your phone off or Reset it. The phone will require you to use your pass code as well as you password in iTunes. After that you should be able to use Touch ID again without issues.

I have replied to this thread many times while waiting for my phone to arrive. I have had my phone for 3days and fortunately have had no issue with using Touch ID. No I have received the blue screen of death the second day I had my phone but my touch I'd still worked:). Good luck folks.

Its back to working erratically again. Out of the 3 fingers I registered, I can only now get 1 to work, and sporadically at that. So its a trip to the apple store.

I admit I did not read all 15 pages (only read a few posts, actually), but I'm having the fingerprint scanner problem. I've had the phone less than a month and upgrades to iOS 7.0.3 right away. It worked fine for about a week then forgot my thumb and then index finger. Delete and re-enter lasted a day or so. Went to the Apple Store and they reinstalled iOS 7.0.3 and reinstalled my settings from the iCloud backup. This seemed to work for almost a week, but it's erratic and mostly doesn't recognize my index finger (I've given up on the thumb).

Just wanted to add my name to the list of folks have this problem.

One question, though; if they replace your phone at the Apple Store because of this problem, do you get a brand new, sealed in the box (of course, they would open it and give you just the phone) or do they give you a phone by itself that comes from the backroom ("refurbished" or who-knows-what)?

Thanks.

Googling on the fingerprint sensor because it is frustrating as **** for me. I program a finger, it works OK for 2-3 days, then degrades from there. Reprogram the finger and the cycle begins again.

Feeling like I did not get what I paid for.