Touch ID being Erratic

niccodeamus wrote:

I have had similar problems of frequent "try again" requests.

I have 90% solved the issue by scanning my finger again, but not deleting the first scan, so my unlock finger is stored twice. I may rescan it some more times in different conditions, damp, greasy etc and see if it gets up to 99% success.

anyway, summary, dont delete your scan, make an additional scan of your unlock finger. seems to help a lot

This has been tried already and will eventually not work either. Just give it time and the new prints will fail.

smilleresq wrote:

[psnip]

The control panel technique does not work at this time.

Also, I dont know if it's coincidence or not, but just like before my right thumb continues to work. Joe_Fo, how are you making out? Still satisfactory success?

To soon to say. Against my better judgement, on Saturday I installed the latest iTunes on my PC, backed the phone up, and upgraded to 7.0.4.

During the 7.0.4 upgrade, iTunes crashed, bricking the phone. After recovering via recovery, I had 2 of the totally non responsive TID events, with the control panel hack worked on one. The other did not work with pull down, put away only, but _did_ work after starting the calculator. All this without having to enter a passcode, so, there's that.

I also had 2 of the black screen, white Apple logo events on TID unlocks.

TID still worked 100% aside fron the above problems, but that's only 2 days so too early to say 7.0.4 made any change for me, good or bad.

Given the bricked upgrade attempt, today I decided to "Settings -> Settings -> Reset All Settings" and went through setting things up again. So, too early as well to say. I'd need to see weeks go by before saying it still works without a problem.

I've only registered one thumb, and so far it's worked for me as before, including seconds after washing my hands.

BTW, my phone serial number starts with "DN" as does Dreanmachine1's 2 phones, and he stated his now works with damp hands where his first did not. I don't know if there's a bad batch of sensors in one factory or not, but it's just odd some here have unlock problems after washing, and others do not. Might very well be something to it...

Message was edited by: Joe_Fo

paulfromhere wrote:

[snip]

I'm trying this too, but the after-shower scan from yesterday stopped working after today's shower, so I had to use the password for a while today. Perhaps you will get better results than I. Frankly, if I had a store nearby, I'd probably take it in for replacement today, with all the time I'm wasting with it.

Paul: If you do decide to replace it again, tell them to only bring out one with a serial number starting with "DN"...

Joe_Fo wrote:

Paul: If you do decide to replace it again, tell them to only bring out one with a serial number starting with "DN"...

I believe Dreanmachine1 said his wife's replacement was just as bad. Both of my current phones begin with DN and I cannot get them to work more than a day.

I decided to go for the mail replacement on one of them to see how that works out. If I get another bad phone, I may end up taking a day trip for service on it and the other DN.

BTW, did you guys see the poll on http://www.tuaw.com/2013/11/04/poll-how-well-does-the-iphone-5s-touch-id-work-fo r-you/ that says 7.5% can't get it working. If it's really hardware, then I suspect it'll take more than 1 replacement to finally get something working. Even the writer at tuaw has the problem.

I'm surprised that Apple hasn't notified the apple care folks about this, so they don't act surprised when I request a replacement.

My new in box replacement phone came today. I'll report back later.

I have had my 5s for about 2 weeks now and have not had any issues with the touch ID. I had my wife scan her finger to allow her access and it works fine too, however she was quick to raise and lower her finger when scanning it into memory. It took a couple of tries but I am 100% sure it was an issue with her not allowing the system to scan her finger. Once she did it correctly it works fine. I even had all my kids try to open my phone and they couldn't get in and then I tried and it worked like a charm. I also use it to purchase items from the App Store. I think it works great. Not sure if you guys did it wrong, but my wife's issue was she didn't wait for the phone to vibrate before removing her finger (also keep it still) and there is a point where it asks you to scan the SIDES of your finger. I am not convinced it is a software issue if it works for some and not for others.

Adding my experience to the mix:

1) works flawlessly 90% of the time; deprecates to that level after 1-2 days at 100%

2) 10% it is unresponsive to all registered fingers. No "try again", proceeds to "slide to unlock" after a few seconds

3) DO get a "try again" when attempting with an UNregistered finger

4) still unsuccessful with control panel technique; after using passcode it is again functional

Because of the unregistered phenomena I remain hopeful it is a software glitch that can be corrected. Glass half full view, yes, but want to stay positive.

I have the problem with the fingerprint not being recognized after a day or so. At first it works flawlessly but degrades over a period of time. I have restored the phone which made no difference.I tried scanning numerous different fingers with the same results. After a day or so, they are no longer recognized. I have tried all the suggestions that have been made on this thread with the exception of a replacement with no luck. I called Apple support who after having me reset my phone told me that perhaps the reader can't read my fingers? When I told the support assistant that I use a fingerprint scanner to sign in at work, he told me to go to an Apple Genius Bar for further assistance. It looks like those people who have gone to the local Apple store have either had their phones reset or replaced.

Can someone tell me that a replacement solved their problem 100%? It looks like most have continued having the same problem after a replacement. There definitely is a problem for some of us and Apple needs to come up with a solution.

I switched from thumb to index finger and it works much better. Not good after washing hands though.

Although there is more than one type of problem being presented in this thread the issue of the touch sensor losing its ability to match a fingerprint over use prevails. Clearly this in not a hardware problem since all works fine for the first 20 to 30 uses although with more difficulty as the use count rises. I have 2 phones and multiple users have tried new scans after clearing all. The results are always the same. After use the successful hit ratio dimishishes and the senor eventual requires a very specific placement of the finger to function properly. All "solutions" from this thread have been tried yet the problem persists unchanged. It seems obvious that the software which refines the stored scan in fact forces the user to apply the finger to such an exacting placement that the sensor is rendered nearly useless. After a new scan nearly any reasonable placement provides an immediate hit. After many uses the placement becomes more demanding until the user is better served by keying in the PIN. We have cleared and rescanned over 50 times on the two phones and have observed this behavior unfailingly in critical observations. If the software would simply leave the origianl scan untouched I suspect that the issue would no longer occur.

After 2 weeks of use, my initial 5s right thumb-scan is still working consistently, at least 95% on my first try. Luck of the draw, I guess!

Same problem here. Fingerprint recognition worked well when iPhone5S was new. Now it works fewer than 30% of the time. Cleaning sensor and rescanning makes no difference. Maybe it's worth getting a warranty replacement while we all can unless Apple can fix this with an update!

tdavis312 explained it spot on! altough sometimes cleaning my sensor help for a few scans after i'm sure it's not really the main problem, really think it's something to do with the latest few ios updates wich make the prints unusable over time, really frustrating i loved the 3 weeks it worked so much that now i can't live without it anymore but getting realy frustrated re-programming scans all the time only to work for a few days tops 😟

by the way, bit off topic but replying on these treads gave me headaches b4 as all my input was gone clicking on "Reply to original post" instead of Add Reply, answering on an ipad or iphone the add reply button is out of sight and when u think u will post using the right side button ur scrwed and can start type all over *_*

tdavis312 wrote:

two phones and have observed this behavior unfailingly in critical observations. If the software would simply leave the origianl scan untouched I suspect that the issue would no longer occur.

I agree and I'd even be willing to test it for them.

This is my first experience with apple early in a product cycle .. have you ever found a way to get past the apple care / support folks and get to give feedback to the people who would fix it? In the old days they used to claim they could email Steve Jobs. I'm aware of the bug / wish list, but it seems like they're ignoring that, and just don't know it's an issue.

On the other hand, it could be that the sapphire crystal is too thick on some phones and changes the image going to the sensor. Have you wondered why apple delayed adding touch id to the ipad refresh at the same time they announced a new technology to shave sapphire thinner, to be built it Arizona? If it's hardware and suppose that half of the phones are bad, it could take a year for us to get through all the junk to get a working unit. Each day, more people buy the phone and more people discover this thread, and each day the number of people posting bad phones increases. If you wait too long, you could run out of time and get stuck with it. It probably is only possible to get one mail turnaround in 30 days .. that means you could run out of warranty after only 11 swaps. And remember a poster in macrumors forums who actually claimed his 5th phone worked perfectly. I don't know whether to believe it or not.

I've concluded that replacing the phone is what apple wants us to do. They just expanded there repair capability by adding a facility in Carlisle, and I think my replacement will be a repaired unit. Maybe it's one of the ones that had a bad battery and now is in their replacement stock with a new battery of course (just kidding).

While there's no doubt the TID S/W changes over time in its attempt to improve, there are many who do not have a problem with degrading prints. If it were the S/W at fault, how does that explain those who don't have a pproblem?

On odd things happening, I just had one minutes ago which was reported in this thread a while ago by others, that being, an unlock attempt which appears to not work at all, no try again, no swipe to unlock, and no prompt to input a passcode. I don't remember the exact details of what had been reported, but in my case just now it happened after a (silent) banner notification poped up on a locked screen, and I placed a registered thumb on the sensor without depressing, and _nothing_ happened. Replaced thumb several times (more than 5) and still nothing happened. Notification messages were still displayed.

I then swiped the screen to see if I could get to the enter passcode screen, and was greeted with a fully unlocked phone. No indication the thumb was accepted, and no prompt to enter a passcode.

Will keep an eye on it to see if it's repeatable.