Q: Touch ID being Erratic

Well that's not good news :(

By any chance did you try to see if any finger was recognized by the TID registration screen when it failed to unlock?

Dreanmachine1 wrote:

 

I think this is a big enough issue that Apple should be aware that a fix is needed ASAP.

According to a post yesterday, they are working on a software fix, and prefer we not change phones until it's out. On my 5th phone, which I got 11/20 evening, I have similar experience to you, with prints failing in less than a day in my case. But, I'm going to leave them for a while and test the question of whether they eventually come back.

Just guessing:

Since we know apps can hose access to the sensor, it sounds as if (maybe) the iTunes app crash is in the same state?

What happens if you turn off using TID for iTunes and App Store purchases? There might even be hooks in Settings -> iTunes & App Store that should be turned off, assuming any of the above are enabled.

If that fixes anything it would be good feedback to Apple...

It now is apparent that many have the same problems with TID.. What should be done now is to contact Apple support, log your problem and let them realize that it is more widespread. The more complaints, the faster they will address them and come up with a fix.

Everyone call Apple and log your problem.

Just curious, in all these attempts to reset the phone and switch off the apps, you did try to just clean the sensor thoroughly, right?

It's not obvious in the discussions about the software issue if the cleanliness of the sensor is taken for granted or just ignored?

eycher wrote:

 

Just curious, in all these attempts to reset the phone and switch off the apps, you did try to just clean the sensor thoroughly, right?

How do you clean it to restore a working touch id? How much pressure do you apply? How many wipes? If you used a cloth once, do you xhange to a clean cloth the next time? And how do you know it needs it? Can invisible things that need to be wiped off? Does it work every time?

I've had aggressive wiping, rubbing hard to fully depress the home button, work only twice, but most of the time it fails. However, I wonder why it worked twice?

I can't speak about the black model, I have the white one. With my model I usually can find a certain angle where I can see my fingerprints left on the sensor, so I just wipe the sensor until it's clean and doesn't have them any more.

I usually just use my t-shirt and apply quite a lot of pressure (the home button does cllick when I do this and Siri starts multiple times).

And does it work every time?

Yes, sorry, it works every time after this.

In fact in the last week or so, after I got aware of the cleaniless of the sensor and changed my usage pattern to accomodate for that (for example, I go the passcode screen myself in the gym as I know my hands are sweaty and only work from time to time with Touch ID making it dirtier in the process) it started working quite good for me. I just wipe it once in a few days or after I used it in bad conditions (such as in the gym).

I don't really like being aware of this and changing my usage patterns. I'd like it to just work. And I think it does for a lot of people, but not for me. It seems logical that cleaninless should play a role in how successful the detection is — imagine you constantly holding your phone by the camera lense, I bet the quality of photos will start to decline rapidly too.

Hopefully Apple can eventually make software good enough to still read the print even in really bad conditions and yet remain secure.

eycher wrote:

 

Yes, sorry, it works every time after this.

 

In fact in the last week or so, after I got aware of the cleaniless of the sensor and changed my usage pattern to accomodate for that (for example, I go the passcode screen myself in the gym as I know my hands are sweaty and only work from time to time with Touch ID making it dirtier in the process) it started working quite good for me. I just wipe it once in a few days or after I used it in bad conditions (such as in the gym).

 

I don't really like being aware of this and changing my usage patterns. I'd like it to just work. And I think it does for a lot of people, but not for me. It seems logical that cleaninless should play a role in how successful the detection is — imagine you constantly holding your phone by the camera lense, I bet the quality of photos will start to decline rapidly too.

 

Hopefully Apple can eventually make software good enough to still read the print even in really bad conditions and yet remain secure.

None of that should really matter because if you were to scan your fingerprints with a dirty sensor, TID would work perfectly for awhile no matter what. It is not until some time later that failure commences. Putting aside hardware issues (which I assume are minimal for most) the only conclusion is there is a software glich that needs fixing. I beleive there are multifactorial reasons for failure, all software related in one way or another.

With that being said, I am getting almost 100% success with my right thumb since scanning it the Joe_Fo way about a week ago, and this is despite dry cracking skin on my thumb. The other fingers, similarly scanned still fail.

I still can't get a straight answer When it doesn't work for you did you try properly cleaning the sensor or not? I am not interested in when it works, only when it doesn't.

I don't pretend I know the exact reason for the Touch Id problems, I just want to understand if people who experiment with software and phone reset tried cleaning the sensor as it's not obvious from the posts in this discussion.

I appreciate that your trying to help. For me, when it fails it has nothing to do with cleanliness. In fact, I just had a period where it wasn't working and I cleaned off the sensor just to test. Made no difference. I get these intermittent total failures where nothing I do seems to bring it back except time. 

eycher wrote:

 

I still can't get a straight answer When it doesn't work for you did you try properly cleaning the sensor or not? I am not interested in when it works, only when it doesn't.

 

[snip]

You did see the pic I posted of a very print heavy, almost axle grease loaded sensor, right?

I have zero problems with TID, except for when Twitter is active and even then it only fails about 50% ot the time, but is always corrected with the Control Panel calculator trick.

You really don't need to wear a biohazard suit to have TID work.