my fingerprint access is not working

Many users seems to be experiencing the same: worked great under ios 7.0X, now just not scanning. Some 'kinda' fixes: make sure your finger is cold or, plug in the phone to the charger or computer, or place your phone in the fridge for half an hour or so.

Not exactly what we have come to expect from Apple!

Other users who have experienced the same issue are saying Apple will swop out your 5s for a new one (indicating this is a hardware issue that is exacerbated under the 7.1 changes to the scanning software). That sounds great in the US; however, it remains to be checked if the same will apply in South Africa (where Apples are sold through a second distributor).

It's pretty clear that it doesn't work that well yet. That's all there is to it. I doubt that anyone has an iPhone with Touch ID that works as smoothly as we would like.

Something I think Apple didn't take into account is that many people have pretty roughed up skin on their thumb, even if it looks ok at a glance. Unless you moisturise your hands twice a day I think that the touch sensor just cannot read your print. And even with perfectly moisturised skin it probably still wouldn't work every time.

I'm sure it'll improve, it's better to be too sensitive and reject your print than not sensitive enough, allowing unauthorised access.

Apple probably should have kept working on the Touch ID until the next iPhone. But I think they felt pressured to do something new, sooner rather than later, because although generally quite crappy in my opinion, other device makers were starting to make the iPhone look old with all their advances.

I don't agree: This is not a "doesn't work 10% of the time" issue. If you owned a phone with a sensor that worked 100% of the time, and now suddenly own a phone that doesn't work, you'd be a little more upset!

I think it is down to differences in phone manufacturing. Mine worked 100% from new (I was so impressed by it!), until the day I installed iOS 7.1, and then not at all for the first day, and now probably 20% of the time (and as much as that only because I try to follow some of my steps above - while I am typing this, I have tried 5 times, unsuccessfully, to unlock my phone - ah: 6th time lucky!).

Other users who were struggling under iOS 7.0X are experiencing the reverse. I am guessing some sensors were made in one factory, and others in another; by trying to improve the lot of those experiencing difficulty under iOS 7.0X with sensors made in Factory A, they have now created a new problem for the other owners whose sensors were made in Factory B.

alsablo wrote:

It's pretty clear that it doesn't work that well yet. That's all there is to it. I doubt that anyone has an iPhone with Touch ID that works as smoothly as we would like.

Wrong. I felt that way initially when I first got the 5S, But it got better over time. Still not perfect. However, with 7.1 my Touch ID has started working perfectly. It never misses on the first try anymore. I didn't even need to rescan my fingerprints.

The finger print works as long as my hands are clean and the home button is clean. With the harsh winter I experienced my finger tips are dry and cracked which does not help when trying to unlock the iPhone with the touch ID. I have a nasty crack on my thumb around the nail. Right now I am unable to use my thumb to unlock the iPhone. I had to use another finger which is okay with me. It shouldn't be like this. I just put hand lotion on my hands and the feature to unlock my iPhone is not working.

Same here.

Just want to say when I first purchased the iPhone 5S the finger print didn't work. I kept putting off going back to the AT&T store where I purchased the iPhone 5S. Why you ask? When you bring back a problem phone you don't get a new phone, you get a refurb. I am not happy with this policy. I followed the steps multiple times on how to set up a finger print. All of a sudden after I installed 7.0 the finger print started working and has worked ever since. I am very happy I finally can use the finger print feature.

Actually. After commenting on this, I decided to try deleting previous prints and doing it again. It seems to be working now. It hasn't failed to work at all during the past couple of weeks. I don't know what's changed but it's working. I'm very pleased.

And Noreen, I'm not sure that's correct about the policy. When I've had things replaced, I've always made very clear that the device should be a brand new one, not a replacement, and have always been strongly assured that it is a brand new one.

So unless the people at Apple that I've spoken to are boldly lying to me, which I doubt they would, then I'm pretty sure it's not the case that a brand new device we purchase is replaced with a refurbished one.

It might be the case that if they replace an older device for you then it would be refurbished, and who can complain at that. A refurbished device from Apple is as good as new anyway, read about what they do to a refurbished device on the website, they change almost everything on it anyway. But for a newly purchased device I'm quite sure it's replaced with a new one.

Although I could be wrong

I was referring to items that are less than two weeks old and getting replaced due to issues. I asked the sales person at the ATT store and was advised I would get a refurgished phone. I spoke to tech support at Apple and was advised no matter how old or new the iPhone is if returned by mail you get a refurbished phone. The only time you get a new iPhone when returned is when you go directly in person to an Apple Store.

If you read the warranty it says that you will get a new or refurbished phone at Apple's discretion. You will usually have no way of telling the difference, because all replacements are packaged in plain white boxes. And there is a better chance a new phone will have problems than a refurbished phone will, because new phones just go through a quick automatic test, and refurbished phones are manually tested and verified that they work.

You have me convinced. Thanks. Now I understand.

iOS 7.1.1 update has fixed it for me (well, pretty much: not back to 100% success rate! but bearable!).