Touch ID being Erratic

My sincerest apologies for my misguided attempt at humor. It was inappropriate, especially since I was struggling with Touch ID myself and came looking for a solution here.

I do believe however that the technology just works. It is elegant and functional and works 100% of the time. You just have to learn how to use the device properly. I did not find the solution here, but I did find it online and I shared what I found here a couple of days ago.

Follow the instructions I posted a few days ago, and you may be successful also.

My apologies as well Abrasha. It's just been a frutrating issue for me, and a lot of others.

For what it's worth--though you mocked it--I've finally got it working 100% after doing what I described last night. Checked my diagnosict log and there are no more crashes. Now that it's working properly, I am really happy with Touch ID. It works even better than I thought it would. My advice: watch for rogue apps that are causing springboard crashes (which may be in the background), delete them and re-download from the App store. Genius at local Apple store told me springboard crashes cause Touch ID to go awry and Apple is investigating.

Bottom line, you need to set it up correctly and watch for overly wet or dry hands, but it should work at least 9 out of 10 times or you've got a software or hardware issue.

Excellent advice! I've had major problems with the touch log-in, and your suggestions just gave me a much higher rate of success when I attempt touch validation. Multiple smileys...

Steve Jolly wrote:

Excellent advice! I've had major problems with the touch log-in, and your suggestions just gave me a much higher rate of success when I attempt touch validation. Multiple smileys...

You may want to metion whose advice and suggestions you are referring to, so others can try them also.

BTW, I have also noticed that right after washing my hands when they are still damp, Touch ID does not seem to work as well.

Your post is the closest to a possible solution. 7 out of 10 times it works following your method.

Props for the gentlemanly response. The part about the ring being a conductive sensor to initiate the finger scan is interesting and might shed light on why some users have a higher fail ratio. A careful, centered thumb push seems to be working most of the time after considering:

▪ Behind the Touch ID sensor is a similar feeling mechanical switch to what you’d find on the iPhone 5 or 5c. You still get the same click and same resistance.

▪ The only physical differences are a lack of the home square printed on the button, and the presence of a steel ring around the button. The steel ring ACTS AS A CONDUCTIVE SENSOR for your finger.

▪ Make contact with the steel ring and Touch ID wakes up (when your phone is in a state where Touch ID interactions are expected).

▪ Without making contact with the ring, Touch ID won’t work.

I am having the same issues. I am an electrical contractor and I have work hands. Especially thumbs, which have a few scratches and light cuts due to work. I will try and re teach thumbs I the way a few people have posted on here.

I just hope the hardware is up to it and things can be improved in the future with a software update when more people start to discover this problem over time. Apple can't really expect their new touch ID system to only work efficiently for people with perfect thumb prints!!

I have also been to my local apple store and they ran a diagnostics check on my first handset. To say that the sensor wasn't functioning properly so they replaced the handset with a brand new one. I am still having the same issue. So I can only put it down to the fact that work worn thumbs are a real problem for the sensor. I would appreciate any further info on anybody else having the same issue or if anyone else is also on their second handset.

Also stumbled on this post and this pretty much fixes the random issues. Touch ID is now about 99 percent acurate... good tips and nice job

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5446246

A couple important things to note: There are two main issues people on this thread are having. One involves how the user is operating the device, i.e. user error. You must set up Touch ID properly in the scanning phase, and then present your print properly for it to work. There is good advice in this thread in that regard--like making sure you contact the metal ring, fingers not too wet or dry--that ought to teach you how to operate Touch ID properly. Once you've done that, it should work almost every time.

The second issue--whether others wants to acknowledge it or not--is those people for which Touch ID works fine for a while and then suddenly stops working. That's the problem I had, and I see from the descriptions here that several others experienced the same issue. If you solved your issue just by learning how to operate Touch ID properly, that's great. You can ignore what follows. For those that are using it properly, where it will work fine for a while and then suddenly fail, this is for you:

I've done a lot of troubleshooting with this, both on my own and with the Apple Genius at my local store. It's most certainly a software issue. What we found was that certain apps, both native iOS 7 apps and third party apps (particularly third party apps) cause a lot of crashing. Check your diagnostic log (Go to settings-> general-> about-> diagnostics and usage-> diagnostic and usage data). Apps crashing, the phone randomly resetting, etc. can cause Touch ID to temporarily stop working. If you see a lot of app crashes, backboard crashes and low memory warnings, then these steps might work for you. You can try these in order, because you may not have to do all of them.

1. Reset the phone by pressing home and sleep button together until you see Apple logo.

2. Close any apps that have been crashing (double-click home button and swipe the window for that app up) then reset phone by pressing home and sleep button together until you see Apple logo.

3. If you have multiple windows open in Safari close all of them. This causeed a low memory warning for me.

4. Delete any third party apps that are crashing regularly and re-download them, reset phone.

5. Turn off background app refresh (settings-> general-> Background App Refresh) or you can selectively do it for problem apps, reset phone.

6. Diable any crashing apps in notification center and/or location services, reset phone.

7. Last resort - plug phone into iTunes, do a backup, restore software and set up as a new phone. Don't reinstall all the apps, partciulcalry those that have been crashing. Run it for a while and see how it works, then add troublesome apps back one-at-a-time.

iOS 7 is really buggy, particularly with third party apps. That diagnostic log is invaluable for troubleshooting and should help you pinpoint problems. I had Touch ID working perfectly for four days, the OS crashed while I was reviewing photos in the native photos app (meaning all the phone reset itself and the Apple logo came up). Suddenly, Touch ID wasn't working again. Looked at the log and saw a bunch of crashes and low memory warnings. I went in and closed all open apps, cleared out open Safari windows, resset the phone. Touch ID magically worked again. You should not have to re-register your prints.

This, of course, is a bit of a bandaid because the next crash will cause it to go haywire again. Apple software engineers (and the app developers) need to work on iOS 7 to get this right. Hopefully an update is coming soon that will fix this and many other bugs.

I have registered my prints several times and it only seems to recognize them for one day before it forgets. I delete, add, delete, add, delete add and it's the same day after day. This would not happen if Steve were still alive.

Spoke to soon. After a few days, its back to not recognizing again.... oh well. I guess Touch ID needs an update. Firmware or Software... not ready for primetime it seems.

traceyishere wrote:

I have registered my prints several times and it only seems to recognize them for one day before it forgets. I delete, add, delete, add, delete add and it's the same day after day.

Yep, the same thing still continues to happen for me too.

This would not happen if Steve were still alive.

You don't know that.

SuperSizeIt wrote:

Spoke to soon. After a few days, its back to not recognizing again.... oh well. I guess Touch ID needs an update. Firmware or Software... not ready for primetime it seems.

Yep. I spoke too soon too. Same thing is happening for me too.

I sent an email directly to the corporate office (I have a few emails of upper level people there). I received a respnse via email and a phone call from an upper level tech support guy. Since I was not in front of my computer at the time, he could not do much other then downloading the crash logs from my phone. He told me that he will call me back tomorrow to deal with this issue as well as several others (Compass, Level/Accelerometer, Voice Memos) I hope he does call me back.

One thing the tech guy told me, is that it is always a good idea to leave feedback regarding any issues at http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html. That way the issues/complaints will directly be brought to the attention of the engineers. The more complaints about issues to faster Apple will work on a fix.