Touch ID being Erratic

Apple sent out a new update today that fixes more Touch ID issues. 7.1.1 like recognition fade.

Try updating your phone today and see if Touch ID is any better.

Anyone have better use of Touch ID after today's update?

Apple sent out ios 7.1.1 today that supposedly fixes more Touch ID issues like recogntion fade. Try updating your phone and see if that works better. Will be curious to see if anyone has better luck with Touch ID?

Thanks for the heads up!

I really hope this update really fixes everything finally. After the last update my phone worked flawlessly the way it is supposed to but the last few days it has gone back to the old way of only working for awhile and fading recognition and of course I've had to redo my fingerprint. This update comes just in time. I hope it works!

7.1.1 did not recognize my 7.1 prints at all, but after deleting and creating new, it's 100% so far. And I notice I can grow the recognizable area just by going into the settings page and touching previously untouched parts.

I have to go through a shower cycle to see if it dies then, but so far, 7.1.1 is sweet!

After a couple days, I see no improvement and recognition is back to zero!

I have to say my experience is the exact opposite. I registered a fingerprint on 4/7 (prior to the update) and using the sleep/awake button to occasionally do some retraining I have not had an issue and I think it's even better after the latest update.

I agree, mine has gotten much better since the update. Sometimes the ID gets a little wonky and then I make sure to put a more carefully placed print on it a few times and it seems to re-learn and is better after that.

smilleresq wrote:

I have to say my experience is the exact opposite. I registered a fingerprint on 4/7 (prior to the update) and using the sleep/awake button to occasionally do some retraining I have not had an issue and I think it's even better after the latest update.

I had forgotten trying this with 7.1.1. But just trying it right now, brought it back to 100% success. One other odd ball here is that I press the sleep/wake button AFTER I rest my thumb on touch-id sensor. I always get "Try Again" if I touch the sensor before hitting sleep/wake. After using that trick just once, it does indeed seem to be working again 100%.

Thanks for the tip.

Many of us speculated that touch-id software was causing the stored print to deteriorate due to the wide variability of our prints during the course of a day.

But, after seeing my prints being restored by merely using the sleep/wake button to activate it before touching the touch-id sensor, I now wonder if the problem is with the design of the sensor. It may not activate at all for certain skin conditions. They probably can do some things to fix it with software, but it's a much more difficult problem than just changing the stored print algorithm.

Just curious, but did any of you who had your phones scanned get any feedback from Apple that might shed some light on this?

smilleresq wrote:

I have to say my experience is the exact opposite. I registered a fingerprint on 4/7 (prior to the update) and using the sleep/awake button to occasionally do some retraining I have not had an issue and I think it's even better after the latest update.

smilleresq, now I have encountered a period where this little trick of yours isn't re-establishing like it did when I last tried it. Do you have any more suggestions.

First, this is Joe_Fo's technique:

Joe_Fo wrote:

Enroll a small area of a finger. Try to unlock far enough away from that area and convince yourself it is not working. Either go into the add a print screen or simply use the sleep/wake button to sleep/wake or highlight in enrollment screen, depending on which way you decide to prove it works, and:

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.

4. In the previously failed area yet? Is it now working? It should be.

There are a few other suggestions here, including reinstalling your OS, as described here by mrsnork:

For those still having problems, I can almost guarantee you that a restore from DFU mode will fix it. Transfer all purchases from the phone to iTunes and back up to iTunes first. Here's how to put the phone in DFU mode when connected to your computer via iTunes: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5409794

Restore the phone and set up "as new." Go through the steps to set up the phone, including enrolling you finger print. Once the phone is set up, go back to iTunes and restore again, but this time use your backup. This will put the phone back the way you had it, and you will not have to enroll the print again. Now TID should work flawlessly. I can't vouch for multiple print enrollments, but for just one finger this works for me 100% after the 7.1 update.

Otherwise, if you haven't done so already, read through this thread starting about page 68 where IOS 7.1 update is discussed. There may be more ideas for you. The last thing is an appointment at the Genius Bar.

Good luck.

Here it is, 2 weeks after my last post and I am now once again extremely disappointed in TID. After updating to 7.1, I got about a month of flawless operation (with occasional home button retraining), and then failure. After deleting and rescanning my thumb print I got about a week. Then 2 days. And now, less then 24 hours with complete failure.

I haven't restored from DFU mode yet, but that may be my next step.

Evidently this thread is dying, but I wanted to post my current observations, when TID is going to open the phone there is a distinct pause before opening. When it's going to fail I immediately get try again. Also, I am getting failure right after opening the phone using the sleep/awake button. In other words, if I get it to open with my finger on the scanner and pressing the sleep/awake button, and then immediately turn it off without repositionng my finger, it fails upon attempting to reopen and it won't work again, and I get the fast try again as noted above.

I'm still seeing TID dementia issues with two thumbs enrolled, degrading down to the first (thickest) part of the finger enrolled. I have yet to see a total failure on either thumb, and the earlier mentioned quick retrain (reposition, sleep/wake) brings it back. I have done a DFU, however I don't think anything changed.

Primary thumb fares better. My position remains, "use it or lose it".

Earlier, folks had a view that , once enrolled, it should work forever. To some extent it does for me (see above) but as I noted a long time ago here, the "learning" process has to be both additive and subtractive. No, your finger doesn't change, but external factors can and do cause a change from one use to the next. The system can't be expected to "remember" transient changes forever, hence the use it or use it comment.

Thanks for keeping us up to date on your experience counselor as it can still help others who might have given up.

FWIW, I too occasionally see the pause before TID works, but not sure if it's due to some other factors as I've been having issues with 7.1.1 losing WIFI overnight and thought it might have been due to the phone searching for WIFI after hitting the home button. I think I solved the WIFI problem the other day: I wasn't broadcasting SSID, however no other iphones or ipads here have lost WIFI, only the 7.1.1 device. Will have to keep an eye on the pause to unlose issue.