“Apple’s fingerprint sensor, Touch ID, is the flagship feature on the iPhone 5s,” Christina Bonnington reports for Wired. “But it doesn’t always work the way it should. Since the sensor’s introduction last September, a growing number of issues have surfaced — including everything from phones that don’t recognize when a finger is present to those that don’t approve fingerprints they’re supposed to approve.”
“What’s going on here? While faulty software or hardware could be to blame in a few cases, the problem might also be you,” Bonnington reports. “It all hinges on first getting that robust fingerprint data. ‘Any good biometric has to start with a high-quality image,’ Integrated Biometrics’ CEO Steve Thies told Wired. His company makes a variety of compact fingerprint sensors that use a different method from Apple’s Touch ID (electroluminescence and a thin film transistor) to read fingerprints.”
Bonnington reports, “For those experiencing Touch ID issues that cause their phone to freeze, or to not work as well over time, restarting the phone or recalibrating the sensor are your best bets. And if you’re new to Touch ID or having trouble, Apple also has a guide you can reference for help.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you’re having Touch ID issues, follow Apple’s guide for setting up and using Touch ID. If you continue to have issues, contact Apple as you likely have a rare issue where the hardware is at fault. We have several iPhone 5s units and Touch ID has asked for a fingerprint rescan approximately once per phone over the past 2+ months – almost always because our fingers were too cold from being outside or too moist during exercise.