Touch ID being Erratic

Here are my most recent observations following deleting all my prints and resetting all settings in 7.0.3.

I did a scan of the center of my thumb (basically the thickest part). It seemed to work 80% for a few days. This morning I could not get it to work until I force rebooted the phone.

At that time, I added a second print registration of the same thumb, using more of the tip. This worked 100% for a few hours. I made sure to try it often using many different angles and positions. I had 0 problems until just a few minutes ago when it refused to unlock.

I couldn't get it to work until I was very careful about placement, using the middle of my thumb, everything perfectly lined up.

I checked my diagnostics logs and there's nothing crashing that coincides with the time when I began to have trouble.

My observations are that It seems like there is a "dumbing down" of the identification the longer it is untried. Right now, after the successful unlock using the middle of my thumb mentioned above, I'm able to start using all angles and parts of my thumb again with an extremely high success rate.

Perhaps this the intended aim of TID or a "feature" of it learning your thumb the longer you use it. It is frustrating though. The phone should better remember the training it is given.

I have this problem repeatedly! I have to delete my finger print and rescan it

There's an interesting suggestion about how to train TouchID here without constantly deleting and Namely:

Go into the System Settings —> General —> Touch ID & Passcode —> Touch ID

If you now place your finger on the sensor, the slot that the finger is registered to will flash. If you move your finger a tiny bit every time (wait for it to flash), you can dramatically increase the recognized area. My thumb is now recognized almost from the nail down to the crook of the joint.

The training isn't documented because Touch ID learns "on the job" and improves its accuracy by doing the same thing over time, but it works.

Is this true, and does this help some of you?

odysseus wrote:

There's an interesting suggestion about how to train TouchID here without constantly deleting and Namely:

Go into the System Settings —> General —> Touch ID & Passcode —> Touch ID

[snip]

Is this true, and does this help some of you?

I believe it's true that it helps with training. I do it, and mentioned it here 2 pages back.

While I don't know for sure it helps, I said it was my gut feel that it did. Maybe that's why I have a 99.9% hit rate? Don't know for sure, but, it can't hurt 🙂

Well then the training methods recommended in this thread need to be revised somewhat. Instead of insisting unduly on the importance of the initial registration (or on deleting the registrations and trying again), users need to perform the initial registration carefully, but then quickly go to System Settings —> General —> Touch ID & Passcode —> Touch ID and test the registered fingers in as many positions as possible until virtually all positions are recognized correctly.

Make sense?

odysseus wrote:

Well then the training methods recommended in this thread need to be revised somewhat.

[snip]

Make sense?

Yes and no. It would make sense if it were a different thread that wasn't full of "I have the same problem too, and nothing works!", which as many have discovered, isn't always the case. Can't discount Apple detractors posting FUD either. Hopefully there's been none here though...

I tried to create such a thread, but didn't touch on the above aspect as I didn't know it was available until I spoke with Apple support in reporting a related issue. It wasn't explained officially as an aid in learning though. I just thought, if it's scanning, maybe it's learning, and did it a few times.

Sadly that thread got burried, and it seems new folks seeking help see this thread, which due to activity is always on the first page of the 5S forum, reads the first post (probably only the first post) replys with "me too!" and perhaps not much else.

Either need to request "sticky posts" or put something in the User Tips tab section (do people even look there?) to spread the word. Since there's no Apple video, and I feel it really needs one, is why I thought YouTube would be the answer. Need to find time.

Go into the System Settings —> General —> Touch ID & Passcode —> Touch ID

If you now place your finger on the sensor, the slot that the finger is registered to will flash. If you move your finger a tiny bit every time (wait for it to flash), you can dramatically increase the recognized area. My thumb is now recognized almost from the nail down to the crook of the joint.

The training isn't documented because Touch ID learns "on the job" and improves its accuracy by doing the same thing over time, but it works.

We'll I need to try that because as of now, my phone is only recognizing my right thumb and not my left, despite both working perfectly after scanning them yesterday.

My issue is that actually doesn't try to scan anymore. Worked perfectly for a week, now it is NOT a matter of it not liking the scan, it is that it doesn't even do the scan. Rebooting the phone fixes it, but then a few hours later it is back to the same problem

I apologize, that was ill-worded and rash. I meant frustrating and confusing. This forum kinda blows for things like stickies, editing, moderation, etc.

The recent suggestion to scan exterior print bits in settings rather than letting the learning algorithm do it on its own seems noteworthy. Maybe someone can compile a list of best practices.

Thanks for this. At least for now, I do see an improvement. Hopefully it will last.

Add me to the list. It works good after re scan of print then blah. Have an open case with apple care about this issue like many others do.

I have to say that this seems to work:

Go into the System Settings —> General —> Touch ID & Passcode —> Touch ID

If you now place your finger on the sensor, the slot that the finger is registered to will flash. If you move your finger a tiny bit every time (wait for it to flash), you can dramatically increase the recognized area. My thumb is now recognized almost from the nail down to the crook of the joint.

The training isn't documented because Touch ID learns "on the job" and improves its accuracy by doing the same thing over time, but it works.

With one addition to the steps to this procedure, when you get to the touch id screen, select edit and then follow the rest of the instructions. It does seem to help the phone learn your fingerprints, at least for me it seems better right now.

I tried it Thursday afternoon. Did 150 presses and about 140 worked, right after creating a new print enrollment. Unfortunately, by Friday morning my success dropped to 50% and got worse as the day progressed. I got so frustrated that I swapped my 2 phones for new at Bestbuy. I now have tried 4 different phones. So far, the touch id is still 100% on both new phones, but after just 1 night. But, having new phones did NOT FIX the 0% after washing my hands. So, for a few minutes after washing, I still can't use touch id.

I also had a genius bar visit Friday. He told me that apple will not replace the phones for complaints like mine because they don't believe a new phone will be any better. He demonstrated that his index finger on my phone worked every time. Seeing this made me accept his point and I agreed to keep them. I demonstrated my enrollment and failures and he couldn't argue that I'm having problems with my thumb. His suggestions were along the lines of the article they publish, which suggests using a different finger when the one you try has a low success rate. He also said that washing should not cause a loss of touch id, and actually is encouraged if you have any dirt on your finger.

Although Bestbuy did exchange them under their normal return policy, she also demonstrated that her finger worked 100%. So they will probably use them in their warranty replacement program and not even return them to apple.

So here's the problem we face. Is it us? Based on what the genius said, I suspect they've stopped working on any software changes to deal with our problems. Maybe AquaPhor is what we need.

I'll let you know when my new phones drop below 100%, so you'll have to stay tuned for that.

Forgot that I also asked the genius why the success rate changes with time and goes to zero at times, and he couldn't answer, but still insisted that using a different finger should lead me to success.

One other thing, I also asked the genius why my phone has so many crash reports and whether they might be related and he said he had no information to suggest that. I now have decided to send mine to apple. Maybe they really don't know they're happening.