Touch ID being Erratic

I concur with your experience. I too did a full wipe of my iPhone and restarted from scratch. My registered fingerprints worked for about a day and a half, then I kept getting the dreaded "try again" message. Hopefully Apple will research and fix their "continually learning" algorithm so that it doesn't unlearn my registered fingerprint soon. Otherwise, the whole point of upgrading to the 5S model is lost on me.

I have a problem with TID. With me almost does not work at all, but three people tried it with my iP and it was absolutely fine. Am I a zombie when TID only works with living tissue? Does anyone have the same problem?

Exactly my situation. On my first phone and its replacemnt. 7.0.4 has not solved the problem either. Epic fail Apple. iOs 7 is so not ready for prime time.

It just amazes me how many people read the first post in this now well publicized thread (congrats, BTW. Over 300 hits on Google. Thanks, Forbes. Not) and reply "ME TOO" without bothering to read through it to see there is a solution.. Simply amazing.

Makes one wonder how many don't even own the phone. You know, like, troll much?

I read the entire thread. I own the phone (and tons of other Apple gear) and there is no verifiable fix mentioned anywhere in the thread. There's speculation, but none of it has yielded a solution. So what exactly was your point? Talk about troll much....

Bob,

actually, I think you are the troll. People have spent good money on a device that was advertised to work. To this point, Apple has not officially admitted that they produced an inferior product, but instead, is hush hush about replacing them. Out of frustration (from many users that have been given the run-around), a thread was started. I am guessing, in hopes that Apple will see how many are impacted by this, and hopefully, will resolve the issue. Then you come along. A long time Apple fan boy, that will never see anything wrong with Apple. And you attack someone that had a faulty device. That is the definition of trolling. You are here to take away attention from the real issue. Apple pushed out a device, where the main advertised improvement over the previous device, doesnt seem to work for everyone.

Jo,

In defense of the "Me Too" crowd. Maybe the solution that worked for you, did not work for them. I have tried the several solustions from this thread. They all seem to do the same thing for me. They work for a short period, then fail. My personal phone was not accepting finger prints at all yesterday afternoon and last night. I had to use my 4 digit password. This morning, they seem to be working.

Sorry, my intention was not to turn this into a flame war. Perhaps I should have stated "except for those who read more than the first post". I thought that would have been implicit...

I posted info on how to register a print that works, and has been verified by others. Posting helpful info in a user to user based forum isn't trolling. Having a 5S that unlock 100% without having to enter a passcode is not the result of speculation. Hard to argue with facts. Perhaps you missed those posts.

My point is, if the H/W and S/W works for some, then barring defective H/W, it should work for all.

While there are some issues that have not been solved yet with S/W interactions causing Touch ID to totally fail until your passcode is entered, notably but not limited to Twitter, this is vastly different than those whos prints work for only hours to a few days and then totally fail, For those who find thenselves in this situation, as I was back on launch day, they need to modify how the register and use Touch ID.

I started a thread on a fix as well. Hardly a troll.

Cooler044 wrote:

After updating to 7.0.4 cleaned the sensor and re-added the print. Worked as a charm five minutes ago even with wet fingers, and now it fails again!

Same here. And if I wait long enough it will work again for a while then stop again, all without ever changing the print scan.

Jo,

I was not suggesting that you were trolling, that was aimed at Bob, in another reply from me. Your advice seems to have worked for several, but does not seem to work for some. I appreciate this thread and I hope that it continues until the problem is resolved for all that are concerned.

Joe_Fo wrote:

they need to modify how the register and use Touch ID.

I added it yesterday and like the other prints I've created, it still fails and I have to enter the passcode to get in. So that suggestion does not work for me.

Now, what would you do in my situation? Should I start replacing my phone again or wait for future software updates in hopes that it will get fixed? Maybe there's another that I haven't thought of.

AbeFroeman wrote:

Jo,

In defense of the "Me Too" crowd. Maybe the solution that worked for you, did not work for them. I have tried the several solustions from this thread. They all seem to do the same thing for me. They work for a short period, then fail. My personal phone was not accepting finger prints at all yesterday afternoon and last night. I had to use my 4 digit password. This morning, they seem to be working.

HI Abe. Perhaps you point is correct, but you can't rule out there can be defective H/W. Some have bashed Apple here (BTW, I'm a PC user, mainly because I build my own, and not an Apple fanboy. For the record) and IMHO that detracts from the fact that the 5S can work as designed. Not suggesting it's perfect either.

The issue you had is being seen by others (note the Twitter comment above) and more recently FaceTime causing a "blackout" for Touch ID. That is a S/W problem, but is not the same issue as prints only working for a short time, only to have to be re-registered.

Knowing a picture's worth 1K words, I thought showing how those with "problem fingers" that don't appear to work well with Touch ID via YouTube might help, but have not had time or the means yet. Difficult to hold a camera and work the phone at the same time. 🙂 It's on the top of my todo list though.

Wow you really told me Joe. Maybe if we all sit here quietly for next moment (you know, when you have the time and means) of your sage advice, the problems so many are having will be solved.

Have a nice day, sounds like you need one.

paulfromhere wrote:

[snip]

I added it yesterday and like the other prints I've created, it still fails and I have to enter the passcode to get in. So that suggestion does not work for me.

Now, what would you do in my situation?

[snip]

And it fails 100%, or fails hours later, and then fails 100%?

Based on the picture you posted on Nov 10, if you have not changed the way you are positioning you thumb, both during training and unlocking, it is going to fail.

This is not directed to any one person here: If the H/W and S/W does not work, why is it working for me and others without problems? Again, there can be defective H/W which can fail either 100% of the time, or can be intermittent (think cold solder joints, loose cables, delaminating sensor etc.) as well as S/W interactions causing a temporary failuse some have noticed. Far cry from Touch ID does not work.

My wife and I also each got an iPhone 5S a few weeks ago and had the same experience as others with erratic Touch ID sensor activation after about two weeks. There are lot of posts on this explaining how they tried different solutions to no avail. Some of these were radical: reset the iPhone, reload iOS, swap for a new phone, etc.

I read Apple's Knowlege based artiicle http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5883. A lot of folks on this thread are concentrating on the method of registering their prints, but the small paragraph "Cleaning the Touch ID sensor" worked for me. If you hold the iPhone up to the light at the right angle you will probably see a grasing-looking smudge all over and around the sensor. This would be a no-no for the extremely high resolution scanning process. I just wiped the area with a soft dry cotton towel and the smudges came off easily. The phone now responds to every touch again. I would like to hear if this has worked for anyone else.