Touch ID being Erratic

I scanned two thumbs on the first day of the new update and both are still working 99% of the time. One thumb I use constantly the other only occassionaly.

However very occassionally TID stops working completely. If I give up trying and put the phone down, when I come back to it, it again works flawlessly.

I cant tie this down to having had a shower or something similar yet, because it works when I have had wet hands and dried them off after washing up for instance.

well .. a lot of pepole are having the same problem but we tried to wibe the touch id sensor (home button) and its work all the time

It is clear from reading the recents posts that some users are having success with their TID, however there is also a group that continues to see the TID fail. I have replaced my phone twice and continue to have TID problems with recognition failure within a day of creating a new print ID. I do not see any reason to congratulate Apple on a fix. The TID is flawed and I recommend others who are having failure with their TID to return their phones to Apple. Apple must resolve the problem.

So the initial scan my wife did back in early Oct is still working, and has never been re-enrolled, even after the 7.1 update.

As I've been writing since December, I have no failures if I only enroll one finger. Still true after 7.1, although after 7.1 failed 3 non-primary fingers after a few days, I've had better luck with both thumbs. However, while my primary thumb works as well as it has always, my left thumb, rarely used, loses area down to a single point only. Having said that though, a quick retrain from simply hitting sleep/wake a few times and enlarging the area brings it back to 100% again.

As I've been writing here and in my thread for 4 months now, one finger works (for me) flawlessly. Glad others are finding that true for them as well.

Joe - please explain exactly what you mean by " a quick retrain from simply hitting sleep/wake a few times". Do you mean repeatedly unlocking/locking the phone? Thanks!

Frank - Same as described 2 weeks ago RE creeping up on new areas and learning on the fly. See March 13 for details.

Nothing has changed for me...my phone forgets ANY scanned print or prints in a matter of hours or less. Doesn't work worth a **** still. It MUST be some kind of interaction with software I have installed. This is my third phone.

😟

Wonder if they'll EVER get mine working...

Cheers,

Cameron

Sorry you are experiencing TID problems. Originally TID worked about 60% of the time but close to 100% after 7.1. In order to rule you out and the phone in, if you haven't already done this, delete your print and let someone else register their print. Someone that has a 5S and is not having a problem with TID would be ideal. Have them use TID to access the phone as often as you did. If their print doesn't degrade as yours does then something else is going on which is not related to the 5S hardware or software. I have found that pausing momentarily and not letting my finger move while pressing the TID button makes a huge difference.

Cambo III, I went thru the same experience as you more or less - ie 3 new phones. When the new software update came out it was working 100% better but after a week it died after only 1 day or even a matter of hours. So I tried a complete reset by holding down the ON/OFF button and now I'm into my 3rd day with no problems on a single finger recognition. Go figure!! So I suggest you try a complete reset before throwing in the towel.

Got it. Thanks, Joe.

Success! I am on my third iPhone 5s. I have tried everything to fix the TID problem. LIke others, newly enrolled scans would start to deteriorate after 2 hours and fail completely within 8 to 24. I gave up. Then, a few weeks ago I learned from Joe_Fo that the sleep button in Settings/Touch ID could be used to expand the dwindling recognizable area, as kindly explained by Joe:

1. Unlock with known area, then hit sleep.

2. Slightly reposition finger moving away from known area, but not so far that you move completely off of it, maybe a little less than half the home button diameter. A slow creep is what you want to do.

3. Rinse and repeat step 2, slowly moving towards area that was not recognized after the initial enrollment.

"A slow creep" was key. I took about 2 minutes a day for about a week, slowly expanding the recognizable area - on one finger only, as much as possible. For some reason, this was far less aggravating than constantly deleting and re-enrolling a new print. I did it during down time - it was even kind of fun, like a game, to see how much of my print I could get the scanner to read. (Maybe this is what others have done all along but I was never aware of this procedure).

Anyway, after doing this every day for a week or so, TID now works great. It works instantly, nearly every time and has been doing so for over a week with no additional scanning. The difference is amazing. I can finally use this feature as it was intended.

Here's one thing, though. The weather has warmed considerably here in the NE. My skin is in significantly better condition than it was a month or two ago - not that it was that bad. But, it could be making a difference. However, my skin condition back in late October and November, when I got the first phone, was not bad and TID failed miserably then.

Frank, That's great news.

Let me also suggest that you:

EITHER install an app that increases your free memory, such as Sys Activity Manager Plus, which seems to be at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sys-activity-manager-plus/id440654325?mt=8

OR simply restart your iPhone whenever you find Touch ID to be fading.

REASON: Whenever Touch ID gets cranky on my iPhone, I'll check my free memory and find it to be very low indeed. Restarting the phone or using one of these apps always brings my free memory levels up from 25mb to about 500mb and does wonders for Touch ID performance.

NOTE: I too was unable to get Touch ID to work for longer than a few hours until the iOS7.1 update. Now, using Joe Fo's techniques for registration and "renewal," I haven't had to re-register even once. Thanks again Joe!

P.S. NFI in the app. I just find it works.

Arthur - thanks for the tips!

If iPhone 5S was not worth much, I would have long been broke because of this Touch ID.