Touch ID being Erratic

Thanks Joe. Currently I do indeed enter one print at a time, mostly because it's less time consuming but also because it does indeed extend the lifetime of the print. But only a little. I have indeed tried your ingenious checking method and it does indeed darken the entry when a print is still "live" but eventually fails to darken when the print fails entirely.

Yes, I live in Canada but at one point I asked where she was and she said she was in the US. I was given this advice last night (Dec. 10).

Just an update. Tried the method in the you tube last night on one thumb and enrolled the other as I normally have in the last. The normally enrolled print is starting to fail fairly regularly and the one enrolled per the video's method is working perhaps more reliably than the other thumb but it has failed a few times as well. Will update tomorrow again.

Day three with (second) new phone, and it's still working perfectly. No noticeable degradation of the single print I registered on set up and no "brain dead" TID incidents, knock on wood.

Incidentally iMore, an Apple-related site a visit regularly, (finally) had an article today on Touch ID problems: http://www.imore.com/touch-id-not-working-well-you-heres-how-fix-it. Take it for what it's worth. Interesting reading through the comments though.

His comment about rotating the same finger and enrolling it again does not compute. It doesn't matter how you rotate any given finger once enrolled as it will work 360 degrees as long as the enrolled section is on the sensor. So, enrolling a finger twice 180 out is the same thing as enrolling twice in the same orientation. He did say though it was something on the web, but repeating something without fully understanding or testing it first leads to a lot of problems for those who will try anything, thinking it's true.

Good to hear you have a better phone.

I received my metal bumper case and am giving an update as promised. Understandably there have been many skeptics but, for those of you who haven't been following, I have theorized that the issues with TouchID are related to static electricity (and the evolution of fingerprint scan data) - installing the metal bumper case is an attempt to address this.

With the new case, the first thing I have done is, of course, remove the leather Apple case I had on my phone. In addition, I have gone ahead and removed my screen protector... As electrically insulated materials, I believe that these devices have contributed to static issues that may have effected TID on my phone.

With the new case put on my phone, I have washed my hands, cleaned my screen (and home button), and followed Apple's normal enrollment process for four fingers... Although I believe careful scanning is important, I decided not to do that because I want to get an idea of what effect the metal bumper case has on my TID experience.

So, what have I found? Well, I haven't had the new case on for long enough to draw any conclusions (it's been three hours) but I have made some interesting observations. First of all, after setting up TID, my unlock rate was only about 50% but it seems to have improved greatly over the last few hours as I have played with it. Secondly, unlocking seems to work best when I have part of my finger resting on the case and the tip of my finger touching the steel ring of TID. Thirdly, the case effects the way my finger contacts the sensor because, instead of laying my finger flat on the sensor and pressing down, the case pushes the tip of my finger forward for better contact with the sensor. Lastly, after playing with things for awhile, I noticed that I could get TID to work reliably for up to 20 attempts in a row and then I would have multiple fails in a row... Doing the "Control Panel Calculator hack" would usually resolve this.

What does this all mean? For now, I need to use this setup more to know for sure but TID does seem to be working quite well. There are a few holes in my experiment (such as adding a new case and taking off my screen protector at the same time) but I do have a life and am trying to balance fun with my responbilities. My experiment also raises some other questions: What effect does the pressure with which you are pushing down have on the reliability of TID? What effect does angle have? Could background processes really be having that much of an effect on reliability?

In the end, my answers to these questions will sound subjective but you guys can figure out whether or not any of this works for you. Ultimately that is all that matters because theories are just theories and most of us just want to be able to use our phones reliably. Further experiments are to come though.

Trying all the fixes listed. Just taken my case off. Fingers crossed

So far so good today... I have been really busy today with Christmas shopping, paying bills and doing other things on my day off. What is notable is that TID has worked well enough for me so far today that I haven't even noticed it... The experience has been transparent to me, like it should for a good Apple feature.

I am crossing my fingers but I hope it continues to go like this. A metal bumper case is not a solution for everybody (because not everybody has the same needs and sensibilities as me) but if my experiment pans out it will give us an idea of what we can do to improve the experience for ourselves.

TID is still going strong for me. The only time it fails for me is when the oil from my skin builds up on it. To fix this, I just wipe it off and it works immediately. To put this in perspective, when I wiped out my fingerprints and re-enrolled them twice this week, TID would begin to have problems in 3-24 hours.

Now, I am going put my regular case on my phone to see if it begins to fail again. In the meantime, if anybody could corroborate my not purely scientific observations, that would certainly help this thread move forward.

Griswaldo4g wrote:

[snip]

Now, I am going put my regular case on my phone to see if it begins to fail again. In the meantime, if anybody could corroborate my not purely scientific observations, that would certainly help this thread move forward.

Yesterday I removed my leather Apple case added to my one right thumb enrolled in the video Dec 1.

1. Added 12/1 Right thumb with case installed.

2. Added 12/12 Left thumb, no case following my method, no "angled" tip.

3. Added 12/13 early AM: Left thumb, my method but included angled tip.

4. Added 13/13 late afternoon: Right index, including angled tip.

Results late 12/13 afternoon unlock and TID Add a Fingerprint tested:

1. Right thumb still okay.

2. Fails unless very precisely placed. Worked however early 12/13.

3. Total failure,

4. Too early to tell after 30 minutes still okay.

Was using waze and pc2me this afternoon. No clue if that had an effect on 2 and 3 failures.

Going out to buy mega millions ticket and will hire someone to operate phone for me if I win it all.

🙂

Bottom line for me: Sticking with my single finger, methodical enrollment method.

Guys I installed 7.1 beta 2 a couple of hours ago. Wiped my finger (I couldn't add more then one). Didn't fail me once since then. Now I added 3 fingers. They all seam to work. I'll update what happens. Btw you can't skip "Adjust your grip" anymore :)

Mine seems to be working better, don't know if it's the new iphone. Just have right thumb enrolled & left index finger. Right thumb fails on occasion on the first try but usually works on the second try. Left index works most of the time. Been 3 days since I enrolled these prints on the new phone. I don't use a case on my phone but do have a screen protector (Steinheil Ultra Crystal).

I am glad your method works for you (and I have nothing against it) but it doesn't work for many of us on its own.

Also, whereas your post (#2) seems to imply that enrolling your finger with your case off can contribute to failure, I have had a different experience... I think it is up to the people who we are supposed to be helping to decide for themselves what works for them.

That being said, I have an observation and request for those who care to listen...

My observation is that, having put a case back on my phone*** (but not a screen protector), my TID has continued to improve to what seems like 90%+ reliability. What is interesting about this result to me is that it is completely unexpected. In otherwords, after I got past the initial 24 hours of worrying about static electricity (whereby I took off my screen protector and electrically insulated case), my choice of cases seems not to matter... It is as if the initial enrollment and subsequent unlocks in the following 24 hours are most critical to success.

My request follows this line of thinking... Would anybody else care to test my theory? Would anybody be willing to remove their case, remove their screen protector, carefully clean their phone, wash their hands, get off the carpet onto a less staticky surface, enroll their fingers as described by Apple and keep the plastic/rubber/wood case/screen protector off their phone for 24 hours? Is there anybody with nothing to lose (who understands that doing this experiment is their choice and I am not responsible for dropped phones)?

I think many of us would be indebted to such a person... (As of right now, their are a lot of detractors to my theory but nobody else has a solution good enough to resolve the issue for everybody.) Why not find out if I am a kook or not for the sake of the discussion?

***Note: My case is carbon fiber with a polymer coating - there is an outside chance that it is conductive... I also still don't have a screen protector so that may play into varying results.

It's now 36 hours since I took my Apple case off and re enrolled my fingers.

Yesterday no problems all three fingers worked every time. This morning still working but only if I get the center of my finger on the scanner.