Fingerprint reader not locking screen

Hello. So I have a strange issue. So I’ve had a Fairphone 5 for a few days now, and configuring and tweaking it to my liking.

As far as I’m aware, you should be able to lock the screen by rubbing your finger on the fingerprint sensor. It vibrates a bit, and then the screen turns off. I say “as far as I’m aware” because that stopped working a few hours ago, and I have no idea why, to the point that I’m wondering if I made that feature up or not.

The only things that I think could cause it are as follows:

  • An update to Private Compute Services I installed (I think it was released only two days ago?)
  • Something in the settings that I’ve changed and need to change back.
  • Something in the SystemUI Tuner (was poking around to see if sysui_nav_bar still worked).
  • Some annoying background Android thing. Probably due to permissions.

To be clear, the fingerprint reader still works fine as far as I can tell. I can unlock the device fine, and apps that want to use the reader can use it fine. And pressing the button itself locks the screen, it’s just a bit cumbersome because of the case I’m using.

I don’t know if it matters, but I use Nova Launcher; not sure if that controls how the screen is locked or not.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a setting somewhere in the options that I’ve completely missed that turns this on or off? I’d rather not have to do a factory reset.

“… to lock the screen by rubbing your finger on the fingerprint sensor…”

This function does not normally exist in Android, so it was not automatically activated in any case. Rather, it will be an app installed by you that provides/activates this function.

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Thanks. I can imagine it’s not a stock android feature, but I think it could be something that Fairphone implemented by themselves?

I certainly don’t remember installing an app for it, and I don’t think Android 13 allows for those kinds of apps any more.

I did go ahead and do a factory reset, but that didn’t bring back the feature.

Could someone else with a Fairphone 5 confirm whether or not rubbing the fingerprint sensor locks the screen?

I can confirm that it doesn’t do that. I can only use it for unlocking and as soon as it is unlocked I can do whatever I want with my finger on that sensor, it doesn’t have any additional impact.

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I have only one explanation…

You rubbed fingerprint sensor right in the time of timeout switch off display and vibration be wrong recognition of your scanned finger :wink:

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