“Am I the only one disappointed by Touch ID on the new iPhone 5S? ” Anthony Wing Kosner writes for Forbes. “My own experience has been that it worked great the first day after I got the phone and almost not at all since. So I feel a little like I’ve been duped into actually using a passcode (which I never did before) so that I could use this cool new feature (score one for the added security benefits of touch ID!) But then it stopped working. So after five tries (or before) I punch in my passcode. I do that a lot.”
“Did I try rescanning my fingerprints? Yes. Updating my system software? Yes. Resetting to factory setting and starting out with a clean install and not using a backup because it could mess up the firmware?” Kosner writes. “No, not yet. Too much work.”
“If you go to Apple’s support discussions and search Touch ID, the top hit is entitled Touch ID being erratic. It is not a well travelled thread which would indicate that there are not massive numbers of people having the problem OR that not enough users are sufficiently annoyed (yet) to be posting on this forum,” Kosner writes. “But what I found there was essentially my story. It worked well at first and then became erratic.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: All of our iPhone 5s units’ Touch ID systems work perfectly. Nothing erratic at all. Zero issues.
My brother-n-law had same story at dinner last night!!! Totally legit.
Haven’t bought one yet – I run my business through both our phones and my wife’s 5 ios6 overheats and starts having problems because she has to recharge 3-4x daily.
4s ios7 no problems except delays between common tasks like going to a recent text. There’s a routing issue [text flags me but doesn’t show up at front of line like it used to] and a delay in displaying it – 4s!
Mine works ok , just can’t figure you can’t use touch Id, when you first power up your phone
That is part of the security function.
Say your phone is stolen (and since Find my iPhone is on) a thief needs to turn off the device so you cannot track it. But by the time they tried to get your fingerprint, it doesn’t want that, it wants your passcode, so then they have to try and break that. And in the possibility that they get passed your passlock, they need to do a wipe in iTunes, but iTunes wants your apple UserID and Password to do a wipe… so you are pretty secure there.
Yes you are the only one. WHINER!
Unfortunately, I have to report that it works maybe 40% of the time for me after multiple attempts. I usually end up having to enter my passcode. I have deleted and reentered my fingerprint twice. It typically starts out well and then degrades in performance with time. I plan to take it to an Apple store to see if I have a bad unit.
That little circle on the top left is actually the camera on the BACK of the phone. Try turning it over and use the larger circle on the BOOTOM with the FLAT of your finger or thumb.
You know where your bootom is don;t you?
Flawless. Every time.
Only time mine doesn’t work is if my finger is wet. I don’t think my fingers have ever been dirty enough not to register.
Mine works perfectly.
MDN — perfect subject for a poll!
It works very well for me. On the first try it takes about 80% of the time. A slight adjustment makes it all good.
Works great for me as long as I use one of the fingers I programmed in. Every once in a while it doesn’t work, then I realise I’m using the wrong finger.
Has worked flawlessly since day one…
PERFECT for me – take this phone into Apple and they will give you another!!!
Suppose he knows enough to take his gloves off?
You can also search ‘ apple smelly phone ‘ and find a discussion page with over 8000 olafactorial views. Go write a story iHater.
I am having issues as well… Of course MDN says everything Apple is perfect! This coming from a DEV who has not updated their App for iPhone 5! LOL Shame on you! A Mac Blog and one who believes 3.5″ is still the norm! HAHA
Apparently the revised app is “coming soon”. But read all of the other “works perfectly” posts here to get the full picture.
The wife and I have had our 5s’s since Day 1, and Touch ID works perfectly.
Interestingly, I was applying wall spackling with my fingers the other day and found that it did something to alter my print and/or other biometric data, because Touch ID had difficulty scanning that finger correctly for a few days.
Then, just yesterday I was painting, got paint on the same finger, and when used with Touch ID, it worked like a champ, this being with dry acrylic paint down in the ‘valleys’ of my print.
It is just this guy. He is either stupid or lying. 99% or more of people are having no problems with the fingerprint reader. “Not ready for prime time” he says? I think it’s time to boycott Forbes completely.
No issues with mine, works every time.
Mine doesn’t work about 30% of the time. It’s pretty often that I have to try twice. Every once in a while three times…
It was failing about 30% of the time so I just got annoyed with it and turned it off. If you are in the middle of a voice memo it will shut off, meaning you have to try and get back into the recording app.
Also, unrelated but annoying… Siri just disappears from the whole system from time to time…not there, until you shut down and restart. This is only minor since I find that Google Voice is almost invariably faster, more accurate (parsing language properly) and carrying out the command rather than getting it wrong or simply not working as Siri seems to.
Who are you trying to kid?
You must use the Touch ID at least once every 48 hours, if you let 48 hours go by without using the Touch ID the iPhone 5s will revert to pass-code and the Touch ID will not work until you log in with the pass-code. Took me a few days to read this and learn that was my cause of problem.
Hope this helps.
Yes you are the only one.
Works perfectly for me.
Works flawlessly since 09.20 and I used a backup from iTunes, not a fresh setup. I was very careful to make sure I captured the sides of my fingerprints of both thumbs. Never had an issue with either thumb.
Good luck!
In response to the article, that’s easy; “YES”!
My first finger was a little difficult, a learning experience… have 3 fingers on each hand scanned and all work fine… once in a while I get “try again”… second try always works… I love it