Touch ID being Erratic

mrsnork wrote:

have had any hint of trouble is when there is a low memory warning in the diagnostic log--which is almost daily. Killing apps in the multitasking mode seems to do the trick. I've had

I notice a lot of reports in the diagnostic log too. It looks like gibberish to me. Specifically, what words should I look for to see if I have this "low memory" warning, and does it appear in any particular place in the log (some of mine and quite long)? Maybe a screen shot would help, if you still have one to show.

So I can't convince you that, based on the picture you posted, you will have better results if you change the way you register your prints. That's okay, you'll get there eventually 🙂

Joe, I am wondering why how you scan your fignerprint matters, since touch id reads your print 100% successfully immediately after scanning but degrades after a period of time. In other words, after you scan your print, you can place your finger on the scanner every which way and touch id reads it. Give it some time though it doesn't.

I truly don't know, but I know what works, for me and those I've personally shown what works anyhow.

I have thoughts based on how it should logically work, and touched on it a little here, but won't go into detail as it's just conjecture, and logic.

What I will say is, the more of a print the system is trained with, lhe less is has to learn down the road. If it's given a narrow view initially, a narrow view is what it appears to use. Drift too far from that narrow view, and there's not enough of what it knows about your print to add to it as it has too little data for a match.

I've forced crashes, forced low memory conditions and ran up to 20 apps at a time enough now to convince me at least that it's not an issue.

My phone was less than an hour old after picking it up in Atlantic City on launch day, and training it at lunch, it failed by the time we were fininhed eating. After 2 weeks, looked here for a soultion, but found none. Spent a day or 2 and hit on a solution which works for me. And works for others.

If you look at the crook of paulfromhere thumb on the home button, there's far too much of the very end of the finger on the sensor. While I can't speak for those people who this limited exposure works for (are there any though, really?) I can say this does not work for me, and ALWAYS fails after time. Always.

So I'll stop posting as I have nothing else to add. Drink not does the horse led to water. Do, or do not.

Thanks, Joe

I observed that when my hand is little wet, the iPhone doesn't recognizes the fingerprint. I ask if this is the normal behaviour of the Touch ID or not. The particoular thing is that i replaced it the 31 of october for the same problem, and during the last week i didn't have any problem. So i ask, is normal that with my thumb that is little wet the touch ID doesn't work?

Joe is correct in that regardless of anything else, if you have not enrolled the finger properly it will absolutely fail over time. Look at the photo he posted earlier in this thread...you have to get the center of your print on the sensor during initial training. If you look at your print, find the "swirl" or "loop." A good portion of the loop must be on the sensor during training. For example, if using your thumb, try to completely center your nail on the button when training as Joe does in the photo. If you just use the very tip it will undoubtedly fail after a few hours, or days at best. With this method, I've had the same prints successfully enrolled for over a month without having to delete and redo them.

That said, I still occasionally get a few failures (maybe 10-15%) when I've got a low memory situation, but when I clear out the open apps in the multitasker it returns to near 100%. Look at settings->General->About->Diagnostics & Usage ->Diagnostic & Usage Data. The log will look like this:

You see I get a a low memory situation almost daily. This is a combination of issues with iOS 7 and third party apps. With all due respect to Joe--because he is absolutely correct about training of the prints--there could still be situations where the print is trained properly and you get some level of failure, and even though Joe has tested it extensively on his device he can't possibly know what apps and settings your particular phone is running. There are just way, way too many variables.

In my experience, with Touch ID properly trained per Joe's instructions, I get no more than 10-15% failure rate even with the low memory issues and other OS and app crashes, and when I free up memory by closing out apps it works almost perfectly. I never have to delete and re-enroll the print.

As I've written before, I still think it has something to do with the algorithm Touch ID uses to "learn" the print over time. As Joe touched on, the more of your print you give it to learn from at the initial training, the better it will work over time.

I've found that overly wet or dry fingers may impact the accuracy very slightly, but not in a really significant way if the prints have been enrolled properly from the start. If you haven't already, follow Joe_Fo's instructions earlier in this thread to train your prints.

If you continue to see issues, try closing apps by double-clicking the home button and swiping them up. Apps that run in the background can also be problematic, so disable background refresh for apps that you don't really need to have running constantly. I detail that earlier (way earlier) in this thread. It has the added bonus of saving battery life.

mrsnork wrote:

[snip]

You see I get a a low memory situation almost daily. This is a combination of issues with iOS 7 and third party apps. With all due respect to Joe--because he is absolutely correct about training of the prints--there could still be situations where the print is trained properly and you get some level of failure, and even though Joe has tested it extensively on his device he can't possibly know what apps and settings your particular phone is running. There are just way, way too many variables.

[snip]

Thanks for the confirmation, and I agree: There's no way I can duplicate the same combination of apps, and acknowledge there is something to it based on your experience.

That's a ton of low memory warnings! Running a data intensive app you can share? I have 20 open, way more than anyone should or needs, and unlock is working fine.

To the previous poster, you never want to use you phone with wet hands. Damp, but not wet. Get water in the wrong place used to invalidate the warranty. Don't know if that still true or not.

Joe_Fo wrote:

That's a ton of low memory warnings! Running a data intensive app you can share? I have 20 open, way more than anyone should or needs, and unlock is working fine.

I don't think it's any specific, single app. It even happened after I set up a brand new device as a new phone (not from backup) after I installed all my apps and put in all my usual settings. I've had mail crash a few times with an MS Exchange account and Yahoo mail, both on push. Also have Exchange contacts and calendar running. These all seem to cause some issues. A bunch of apps have either crashed or shown up in the log somewhere, everything from NYTimes to MobileStore, MobileMail, HBO Go, Disney Jr, Verizon FiOS, Music, Washington Post, itunescloudd, MobileCal, Weather, SpringBoard, MLB AtBat, MobileSMS, Preferences...you name it.

Most of the time when I check the particular low memory warning it shows "backboardd" as "largest process." Here's a link that describes what backboardd does: http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Backboardd. Occaisonally the largest process is "mediaserverd" or even "Weather." Something about the combination of apps and settings I'm using is apparently causing issues. iOS 7 is supposed to clear out memory as-needed, but I'm not sure it's working as-designed. I should note, however, that this all seems to have minimal impact on my regular use of the iPhone, despite the plethora of issues seemingly going on under the hood.

And as I wrote earlier, even with all that I'm getting good results with Touch ID most of the time, so I still think the first step is completing the initial training properly. After that, look to these software issues.

Got it. I don't use Exchange, just POP from Verizon and Gmail. Little overlap in what I run compared to you. Just added FIOS Remote and HBO GO to the 21 I was running. Will see how these 23 make out.

BTW, I'm stock, non jailbroken IOS. Looking at backboardd description and SSH and lsof (old UNIX admin here) made me think of jailbreak, although none here mentioned they were.

Don't normally use it for music, but fired it up and locked/unlocked it okay. Ruling out music as an issue.

My thumb is failing now again. The other fingers seem to be holding up just fine. I am wondering if its just my funky thumb that is making it do this? going to re enroll based upon your suggestions joe. If theres any others you can offer to me for success please do. thanks.

Fingerprint registration steps:

Makre sure you're using the latest IOS, currently 7.0.3 as of 11/11/2013

Only register a given finger once. Make sure to delete it first if already registered. There's no need to record multiples of the same finger. Been there, done that. Solved nothing.

Don't "roll" it like ink fingerprints on paper. It's not the same thing.

Keep your thumb flat; Don't bend at the first joint. Make sure you're covering the outer home button ring fully.

Start the first register scan almost at the base of the nail, slightly towards the tip of the finger.

With each scan, move slightly towards the tip, as well as closer to the base of the nail, and both left and right to capture as much area as possible.

Under no case should you bother with the very tip of the finger as I believe it's unreliable for those of us who have problematic fingers.

Don't exert a lot of pressure during the scan. Not too hard, not too soft.. Think Goldielocks.

Completely lift the finger straight up after the each training scan, move to the next spot, and place it straight down without sliding around or moving once you make contact.

Finally, contrary to what I once thought, there should be no need to rotate a finger "clockkwise" or "counterwise" while registering. Given that the sensor will read a print, once recorded properly, in any orientation, that was unnecessary. Thanks to supersizeit for the tip.

Note that this should give you a great starting point. It does not address IOS components, which I've personally not experienced, that are apparently responsible for handeling screen and home button operations, from crashing. That is reported as requiring a reboot to fix. That should be an easy S/W fix however. Maybe 7.0.4

Using to unlock:

Keep the finger as flat as it was during registration, briefly press the home button to wake the phone up, and ease up pressure while keeping the finger in full contact with the ring. If it fails to unlock, which it may it there was movement during the release, lift your finger and place it back down, making sure you are in the area you registered.

Enjoy Touch ID with the angst.

Let us know how you made out after a few days use 🙂

Message was edited by: Joe_Fo darn fat finger typos

Hello everyone if you tried all these troubleshooting steps & still have issues save yourself time & go to Apple Store & swap your phone did that yesterday my Touch ID in my new iPhone been working 100% FYI they didn't give me any hard time to replace it, my feeling is that they know it's a hardware issue & they will replace your iPhone no questions ask