Touch ID being Erratic

I'm having the same problem. Touch ID not recognized after a while. I love my iPhone 5S but £709 that I paid should give me access to error-free device.

The touch feature rarely works for me. 1 out of 20 at best. I have cleared and re-scanned several times. After each scan it works for a day, then stops again. Not very happy I upgraded for a feature that doesnt work...

I thought it was case related also but they tell me no at the apple store I took my case off this morning and it's working great all day long so far. Case is made by Apple

I'm using the Apple Case and after Jo's method it's been working fine for a couple of weeks now.

rogerfromparma wrote:

I thought it was case related also but they tell me no at the apple store I took my case off this morning and it's working great all day long so far. Case is made by Apple

Sorry, it's not your case. See this thread if you haven't already as well as the YouTube video link in it.

I am sorry Joe_Fo, but you can't control for all the factors that might be playing into it not working for him - the case on its own would not be causing his issues, but paired with other factors it might be. Either way, as good as your guide is it doesn't work for everybody - at least not on its own.

rogerfromparmayou should continue to do whatever actually works for you, regardless of what others say. 🙂

Griswaldo4g wrote:

I am sorry Joe_Fo, but you can't control for all the factors that might be playing into it not working for him - the case on its own would not be causing his issues,

[snip]

With 2 phones, both with the exact same Apple leather case, enrolling prints with a base phone with zero third party apps installed, using defaults settings installed with IOS, TID failed in minutes to at most 2 days. Simply changing the way a print was enrolled instantly made a 100% improvement, and ZERO TID failures for 2 months now.

Very easy to test on your own. Delete all fingers, enroll as randomly as you see the journalists or bloggers on YouTube show how easy it is to use TID, only to show up here saying Apple blew it and TID is not ready for print time. They publish their misinformed experience in what are supposed to be respectable financial rags.

Then try using TID for a day or two, and see how well it works.

Now, I will grant you there are many variables involved, but, take the bare bones example I cite above, and changing one variable you go from 100% failure to 100% success, it kind of convincing, at least to me.

BTW, post a video when you eat your metal case. Oops, sorry, when you eat your words 🙂

-Joe

Message was edited by: Joe_Fo

Joe,

I have already tried your enrollment method... In fact, I have very carefully watched your video, read your posts, cleaned my phone and scanned my right thumb (and only my right thumb) into the TouchID system twice. (Numerous other users have as well.) I have also made sure that I had no third-party apps like Twitter open that could be interfering.

The simple fact is that your specific method is not working for me and for others. (When I say it is not working, I mean that I literally couldn't use TouchID to access my phone for 15 minute blocks or more at a time.) So, while I would not say your solution doesn't work if it seems to be for many other people, your solution cannot be ruled as the solution for everybody, especially when others are trying different things that are working better for them.

If I am dead wrong about the static, I will admit it on my blog like I always do... Regardless, there is something else going on here and I have heard no other plausible explanations for it.

Jon

Jon,

My point was RE the Apple case not being an issue. I too have some knowledge of the effects of ESD after working over 30 years in the IC industry, both analog and digital layout. By no means an expert in the ESD field though 😉

If I may? I believe this is the first time I read your mention of the 15 minute or more block failures. Is that repeatable? If so, you could open a case with Apple asking for backline or second tier or whatever they call it support. I've written this before here and apologize to all for the repeat. They have a "profile" they can E-mail to you which, once installed, collects extensive TID data logs which you then send back after the failure. If it's random I don't know how they handle that as the person I spoke with went into hand holding mode while I tried to duplicate the issue I had.

One final note: It's not just Twitter that causes temporary TID to fail. I'm sure you read that here and know about the Control Panel calculator hack to reset whatever goes brain-dead and TID loses focus. It sounds as if that's not the case, and others here have recently had the same TID goes out to lunch for an extended time. It should also be noted that apps don't have to be in the foreground, or background, to (perhaps) cause a problem. If notifications are on for apps configured to receive push notices, you could have activity you had not thought of which could be affecting TID.

Question: When you were in the 15 min TID lockout mode, did you by chance go into the TID enrollment screen to see if an enrolled finger highlighted?

Okay, a final, final thought 🙂 I've seen in other threads where TID was not even available, and was greyed out. In this thread the advise was related to an App Store reset. Not clear to me why TID wants to have a proper App Store entry. What if one doesn't intend to purchase apps, or haven't set an acct up yet. I bring this up only because, it sounds as if IOS, for whatever reason, tries to validate an App Store acct, and if it fails, TID is disabled?!? Dunno about that as I haven't experienced it. So, if that's true, and for some reason the App Store was not responsive, for whatever reason, I guess I could see cases where TID could be broken. Beyond my pay grade 🙂

For what it's worth, I have not had a single incident of "brain dead" TID since getting my phone replaced yesterday. Nor have I experienced any print degradation in more than 24 hours with this phone, which is set up from backup of the previous phone with all the same apps. This is night-and-day different from my last phone, which I suspect had a hardware issue. There's no other way to explain a clean installation of firmware and software still causing issues (that I'm aware of).

Incidentally, I too have the Apple leather case. I doubt that it's the cause of any problems.

mrsnork wrote:

This is night-and-day different from my last phone, which I suspect had a hardware issue.

Even though this may be solved for you, there are a lot of us still struggling and trying to decide whether to replace it. Would you mind reporting back each day or after a couple weeks so we can know for sure that it works for the long term? If so, I'll definitely go for it.

Joe,

This is the first time I have mentioned being locked out for 15 minute blocks of time. The information about calling Apple is quite useful (though it is a challenge to predict when the phone is going to do that again).

Otherwise, I missed the information about the Control Panel Calculator hack and plan to thoroughly test it, as well as my theory about static.

In a few days, we should be able to put my theory to rest one way or another. (Having said that, everbody should know that I am not discrediting proper finger enrollment, as it is part of any solution.)

Thank you!

Jon

I've been to the apple store about 6 times regarding the touch ID. I am on my 3rd phone now because the others had the touch ID failure. This phone has also failed me yesterday. I'm not going to the apple store again because it is such a pain. I installed a new protection screen worth 40 bucks and a new case. I'm not taking off my protection screen and then ordering another one like I did with the other two phones. I have accepted defeat. Hopefully apple makes a update soon fixing this.

I feel your pain. From everything I read, it doesn't seem to be a hardware issue in the respect that replacing your phone won't help.

Joe_Fo's posts are helpful though and I am doing my own investigation into things to see if I can add to or disprove my previous comments about the issue.

I am reserving my judgement right now, but the Control Panel Calculator hack has not worked for me at several different times today... I am going to call Apple - probably on Thursday when I don't have to work - and see where that takes me, but I am also going to continue my investigation with the metal bumper as well.