What to do if touch id doesn't work well. Is your fingerprint scanner broken? Detailed repair instructions
Recently, in the news feed and on social networks, there have been frequent discussions and opinions regarding the new fingerprint recognition feature called Touch ID in the iPhone 5s. Basically, all discussions come down to security issues and future prospects for this method of protecting and accessing the device. For some reason, what seems to me to be a more pressing question is raised much less frequently: is it convenient to use Touch ID in everyday life?
It is clear that initially the fingerprint is stored in memory, followed by a touch, then pressing the “Home” button, and as a result, the device is unlocked. All this is very fun and interesting, but does the process really look so beautiful, simple and easy?
I think it would be quite appropriate here to give a few opinions or, if you like, observations from famous people in the world of “Apple-aligned” journalism, based on their personal experience.
For example, here's what John Gruber (of daringfireball.net) thinks about it:
Although this may technically be correct, Dustin Curtis (creator of the interactive magazine svbtle.com, and part-time blogger) argues that in fact it is not entirely true:
When the phone is locked, unlocking with Touch ID feels a little clunky; you must touch the sensor on the Home button with your finger, press the button and manage to release it without removing your finger from the sensor, and you must manage to do all this before Siri is activated. It works, but it feels strange.
In general, I will say this - unlocking is truly “instant”, but only if the lock screen is in an active state at that moment. It was funny to watch new owners trying to unlock the device by simply swiping or touching the sensor with their finger. It would seem that a completely simple and logical action - unlocking the iPhone - actually consists of two non-obvious ones: “waking up” by pressing the “Home” button and reading the fingerprint with the sensor. That is, an iPhone in an inactive state simply will not respond to the finger; reading occurs immediately after activating the device by pressing Home as usual.
And John Gruber is at it again:
Touch ID doesn't rely on button presses in any way, and there shouldn't be any lag... Try this: Place your finger on the Home button while your iPhone is locked. Activate your iPhone with the Power button, not the Home button. Unlocking is instant.
What can I say: apparently, I’m somehow wrong, not one of those people who usually unlock the iPhone with both hands...
Does the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on a fairly recent iPhone not always work when touched and you have to constantly enter the password? If you encounter a similar problem, then in this material we will tell you how to fix it.
Everyone knows that after purchasing a new iPhone, it is necessary to complete the activation procedure and initial setup of the device, which includes setting up the Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the Home button. The user is asked to add a fingerprint with which the iPhone can be unlocked.
From our many years of observations of users setting up a new iPhone, we can say with confidence that adding a fingerprint to Touch ID during the initial setup of the device is often done very quickly and not always with an understanding of the process. Most users hold their iPhone differently than during normal use when setting up the biometric sensor. This is where the whole secret lies.
In addition, after setting up the iPhone for the first time, few people return to the Touch ID options (in iOS settings) to continue the process of improving the sensor's performance. As a result, users continue to use the single fingerprint that was recorded in Touch ID when they first set up the iPhone. But in the sensor parameters you can add as many as 5 prints. So…
Touch ID doesn't work well on iPhone: how to properly set up the fingerprint sensor on iPhone or iPad
1 . Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and go to Touch ID & Passcode.
2 . Enter your passcode.
3 . Remove any added fingerprints. To do this, select each fingerprint and click Delete fingerprint.
4 . Click Add a fingerprint.
5 . Hold your iPhone or iPad the same way you would normally hold the device before unlocking it.
6 . Go through the process of adding all five fingerprints this way:
- add your fingerprint twice Right thumb;
- add your fingerprint twice Left thumb;
- add your fingerprint once Index finger of the right hand(if you are right-handed) or left hand (if you are left-handed).
The point of this operation is to add more fingerprints to the most used unlock option. 
The scheme we have proposed can be changed if desired. For example, if you always unlock the device using one hand, then it would not be superfluous to add 3, 4 or even all 5 possible fingerprints to the Thumb.
Try it now. In the vast majority of cases, this will solve the problem of poor Touch ID performance.
If, after completing the procedure for adding fingerprints, the sensor still does not respond well, try rebooting the device. If the reboot does not help, then there are two options left - either you are the owner of hands with an abnormal fingerprint structure (we have met such users) or the problem is still in the Touch ID sensor itself.
Touch ID is a device for recognizing fingerprints of iPhone and iPad users. Thanks to reading, you can unlock your phone or instantly log in to applications such as Amazon, LastPass. The function is also used in the AppStore to make payments.
After installing the new iOS 10, some users experienced problems with the scanner. There are several types of malfunction:
- The phone freezes at the fingerprint recognition stage;
- Sensor not working while charging iPhone;
- Sudden reset of previously configured fingerprints.
Also, the reason that Touch ID does not work on the iPhone may be a fall or impact of the phone, which damages the sensor. Let's take a closer look at how to quickly solve the problem and return the fingerprint scanner to normal.
Resetting the Scanner
If your iPhone freezes while scanning your fingerprint, you should reconfigure the sensor. All data about saved “fingers” is located in the phone settings (the “Touch ID and password” window).
Remove any existing fingerprints, turn off the "IPhone Unlock" and "ITunes Store, App Store" sliders, and then restart your phone. After turning on your device, go to settings again and add new multi-fingerprints. This re-configuration allows you to reset the erroneous configuration and resume operation of the scanner at the software level.
No Touch ID response while charging
There are cases when Touch ID does not work while charging the iPhone. In this case, you should completely discharge the phone, then connect it to power and charge it to 100%. During charging, it is advisable to turn on Airplane mode and not use the device. Then do a soft reset (without data loss). After these steps, the biometric scanner will work normally. Do not use a fake iPhone charger; after connecting it to the device, functional failures may occur.
Remember! You should not update your phone's firmware or restore it through iTunes if one of its hardware components does not work (Touch ID, camera, etc.). During the update process, the desktop program automatically checks the functionality of all components of the smartphone. If contact with one of the components is not established, error code 53 will appear (the update progress will be canceled, and because of this the iPhone will no longer turn on).
Improving sensor performance in cold weather
In the cold, fingerprints are less recognized, and the phone’s biometrics often fail. To improve Touch ID performance in cold temperatures, enter a new cold fingerprint into the existing scanner database. This helps the iPhone remember the current state of the finger and better recognize it in the future.
Replacing the Touch ID cable
If the cause of a non-working scanner is a hardware failure, previously saved data will not be displayed in the smartphone settings (Touch ID window). There will also be no option to add a new fingerprint. The only solution is to check the scanner cable.
Disassemble the phone and remove the Home button from the display module. Check the connection of the cable, if it just came off, just reconnect it and reassemble the phone. However, it will most likely be torn. The figure below shows a clear example of a break in the Home button cable (the location of the break is indicated by a red curved line).
There is no way to replace the cable, because the Home button cannot be disassembled. In this way, Apple protects devices from biometric sensor substitution. The Home button should be replaced (when purchasing the part, a corresponding cable is included in the package).
Biometric sensor Touch ID first appeared in Apple devices in . A year later he moved to,. From a pleasant addition for owners of a flagship smartphone, the fingerprint scanner has turned into a real tool for protecting access not only to the mobile device itself, but also to individual applications, and has also become an integral element of the payment system. Unfortunately, Touch ID still does not always work as intended and as users would like. Let's try this to correct.
All the best deals on iPhones (there are even 20 thousand cheaper than the market). They change something and even give it away for free.
In May last year, Roman Yuryev already discussed this topic in detail and described in detail how to set up Touch ID so that you could then forget for a long time about malfunctions of the sensor and manually entering a password. Unfortunately, over time, the algorithm of the fingerprint scanner still begins to work with some “quirks”, which subsequently only become more frequent. For example, after switching to the iPhone 6, I was completely delighted with the updated Touch ID - it worked perfectly and smoothly for more than a month, and then suddenly began to fail, and this happened more and more every day.
The main thing is not to give up your hands, or in this case your fingers. The problem can be solved, using improvised means and will not require much of your time. This method was first described about a year ago, but for some reason it was ignored by most thematic resources, although the method really works, as I was convinced of from my own experience.
So, the best way to start is to delete all the prints and set them up again, as described in last year. After this, restart your smartphone, ending all applications first. Maybe these steps are unnecessary, but let them be for the purity of the experiment. Now let's go to Settings -> Touch ID & Password-> Enter the password, if necessary, and get into the very menu where your fingerprints are stored.
Now - attention - no more manipulations or transitions are needed, just touch the scanner the same way you do to unlock your device. Please note that when you hold your finger on the sensor known to the system, one of the prints in the list on the screen illuminated. This is the fingerprint of this finger, and you have just performed an additional scan of it, the results of which iOS saved somewhere in the system on the chip.
It happens in such a simple way Touch ID training, the biometric sensor takes additional pictures of your finger and can use them to unlock. Take five to seven minutes to properly scan each of your saved fingers, applying them to the button while in this menu. Every time one of the prints is highlighted, it means that the procedure was successful. Additional scans of your finger will appear in the device’s memory, and Touch ID will work much better, the activation process will be noticeably faster.
We repeat once again: each finger, differently, many times - the result will be noticeable immediately and will remain with everyday use of Touch ID.
Touch ID was one of the main innovations in the iPhone 5s and, along with the 64-bit processor architecture, set a trend for manufacturers around the world. Since then, three generations of iPhones with a fingerprint sensor have been released. Naturally, many of them managed to go through fire and water, as well as repairs at unofficial service centers. We explain why the fingerprint scanner may stop working afterward.
First, you need to understand how Touch ID works and why repairing it is almost a hopeless task.
The Home button on the new iPhones is a high-tech sandwich. It is protected from mechanical damage by scratch-resistant sapphire glass. It is surrounded by a special metal ring that responds to touch and triggers a CMOS sensor located under the glass, which acts as a lens. The unique pattern on the fingertip is scanned at a resolution of 500 pixels per inch.
Next, a 64-bit processor comes into play, which compares the scan with those mathematical images of fingerprints that are stored in the Secure Enclave designated for this purpose. This is a special coprocessor integrated into the Apple A7 and subsequent generations of systems-on-chip. When manufactured, it receives its own identifier (UID), which is inaccessible to any component of the system and even to Apple itself - the processor does not read fingerprints, but simply transmits packets of information to an encrypted memory area that Secure Enclave uses. The Touch ID sensor communicates with the processor via the serial peripheral interface bus - it is its damage that disables the biometric sensor.
Simply put, partial damage to the cable between Touch ID and the phone board does not allow the iPhone to confirm the authenticity of the fingerprint, after which the smartphone deactivates the biometric sensor. In this case, you cannot replace individual components to restore functionality, since the identifiers between the third-party sensor and the Secure Enclave will not match. It is also impossible to completely restore a damaged cable - it consists of ten multi-layer tracks, the thickness of each does not exceed a tenth of a millimeter. But it’s quite possible to replace the mechanical elements of the Home button, which are responsible for registering the press. But from now on you will have to unlock the device exclusively with a password. It is easy to detect a broken Touch ID in the settings - the menu for adding new fingerprints will be displayed in gray.
The only way to get a working fingerprint sensor is to use “donor organs” from another smartphone. You will have to install a new motherboard and replace the Home button. However, the cost of such an operation is comparable to buying a new iPhone, which will need to be gutted.
After the release of iOS 9, many iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users whose devices underwent Home button repair suffered from the appearance of “error 53.” It signals that the fingerprint module did not pass the security check and the smartphone became a “brick.” The error appeared during the update, but there was simply no solution - only returning the original components to the device. In iOS 9.2.1, Apple returned the ability to update devices. However, this support forum thread has received over 200,000 views, indicating the scale of the problem.