Fingerprint unlock stops working /also reboots instead of shutting down

Hello, I have 2 issues with my FP3 at the moment:

  • The most annoying is the fingerprint unlock which stops working from time to time.

When I boot or reboot the phone, the fingerprint is working to unlock the screen and also for apps that need it (like bank apps). However, after some time the screen unlocking no longer works (I need to enter the pin numbers), but it’s still working for applications which requires it.

It’s been happening almost every day now for the last month, there was no recent OS update.

  • My second issue, is that sometimes (50% of time roughly), the phone reboots when I turn it off instead of just shutting down. I wait until the boot is complete and then I shut it down and it works.

Any help ?

Hi and welcome to the forum.

That is unusual, generally I have the opposite, when the phone is rebooted/switched off and on the fingerprint sensor will not work until the PIN code has been entered on the first attempt to unlock the screen.

Regarding

after some time the screen unlocking no longer works

How many fingerprints have you stored and is it the same for each one?
Have you tried resetting the fingerprint data?

yes that is correct, it’s the same for me. It’s after a couple hours / minutes (it’s pretty random) that the fingerprint stops working for unlocking.

just 3, it’s not like, there is an error message, it’s just that nothing is happening when I put my finger on it.

I think I did, but I’ll try again.

Have you read other topics on this matter

https://forum.fairphone.com/search?q=fingerprint

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yes, for me the fingerprint is perfectly working for apps

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There seems to be no resolution to this, yet, right?
I have the exact same issue and apparently a few more as well as discussed in this thread: Android 10: no fingerprint for unlock
Except for me, as of yesterday, there is a new twist. Maybe that can help narrow down the root cause:

I always had the issue that the fingerprint stopped working for unlocking the phone after a random period. Although it is always working for other apps that require authentication like my banking app. Rebooting always fixed the issue. Until it happened again…

Now as of yesterday unlocking the phone with the fingerprint is not working at all anymore, not even after rebooting. Removing all fingerprints and re-adding one doesn’t solve the problem either. Except: I’ve done this procedure (i.e. a delete - add fingerprint cycle) now like 10 times and 2 times out of this I could unlock the phone for a few times. Before I couldn’t anymore because the sensor was just not reacting at the unlock screen. Again: all other apps can always use the sensor fine.

One maybe related information: I had an issue with my display yesterday. It was showing artifacts and generally failed to update properly. I realized this was likely a bad contact between screen and phone, so removed the screen, cleaned the contacts a little, and after that all was nice again. (Praises for the modular design!) Except now the fingerprint issue is as described above.

Any ideas what else I could try to triage the issue highly welcomed

Hi thanks for your help, I looked at the other topic, but it did not provide much help.
However I recently found a way to be less bothered by my fingerprint unlocking problem.
Usually I tun off the phone during the night and when I turn it on on the morning, I have this problem. So after boot, I when I reach the page to enter the code for the sim card, I just reboot the phone. After reboot I do everething normal and the fingerprint unlock works normally.
I hope it helps.

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