The upgrade to a newer Android version was required to keep getting security updates.
As much as unpleasant it is not to have a totally working fingerprint reader, there are workarounds so we could discuss if this is a blocking bug for release or not.
And of course, the lack of communication about this problem is abnormal. It should have been described in the release notes.
They did.
Yes
Yes, it was reported in the beta.
The last part of the question I guess comes down to “how should we as users know?” 
I still hope for an “official word” (a.k.a. release notes, maybe an explicit support article), BTW.
Even if, Fairphone did not communicate anything when rolling out the update. In the Forum there is no single word at all about the roll out, it just showed up on Instagram and Co. and on the devices. They know the root cause and communication would not have changed the fact, however would have given people a choice.
The relevant change was in Android 12 that got skipped. Should be in those release notes I guess.
Yes this was know before pushing and yes it was know to me as a Beta tester and there is no workaround as it is a Google requirement. Fairphone have to pass over a million tests to get authority to release A13.
The alternative is to develop their own OS, maybe the E Foundation can do that as they don’t spend money on making the phone and fair trade as a primary business function
Hi,
I tried to find any information on LineageOS 19 or 20 having problems with the fingerprint sensor - especially for FP3. I find nothing about problems and/or workarounds.
Therefore I’m wondering whether apps that utilize fingerprint sensor in LineageOS 19/20 are going to utilize fingerprint sensor in Fairphone OS 13.
I want to avoid switching, if the resulting system is running worse than currently.
Has anybody more information about the fingerprint issue in LineageOS?
Bye,
Achim
@Plumeros Hi and welcome to the forum
Your statement isn’t true, it works fine on my two FP3s
I note Incanus had posted such as I was typing
There is however an extra security built in by Google that some banks insist on, so with some banks it will not work.
The fingerprint reader works fine, some banks and google apps are tightening up what they see as a security lax.
This is an absolute shame and discards the phone for me. I bought the 3+ in November 2022 with the intent to not buy always the latest and best and what is the consequences of that? You as the manufacture destroy the phone and then blame a third party! Take responsibility and inform the users beforehand or even better just stay with Android 11!
I now had to buy a new phone because some of my absolute critical apps will not work without a fingerprint check. I guess that’s the punishment for switching from iOS to Android. Time to go back and never look back!
Although I understand, that the fact is annoying and Fairphone communication (again) miserable. There should be an alternative way to work with these apps, there are phones on the market without a fingerprint sensor at all. So the FP3 ist not ‘destroyed’.
Is there a list of apps that do still work with the sensor? I might not want to update because of this.
The FP3 fingerprint sensor was downgraded to “weak” in android 13 by google, not by fairphone. In order to have a hardware where the remote login app of my customer still works, I had to order a FP4 after installing a13.
I think fairphone does it’s best to provide actual software even to older hardware. But they cannot work around all issues introduced by google.
To be as independent from google as possible, I installed iodéOS on 2 new FP4 I recently bought for my family. I am super happy with it, but the mentioned remote login app does not work, because it recognizes a jailbroken OS.
If you don’t have such apps running on your FP3, you can install iodéOS:
I think it is based on android13, and the sensor issue may be solved, as lineage OS has temporarily upgraded the sensor to “strong”.
You are right, after checking again I found out that unlocking the screen works by default after setting the finger prints.
I just could not find the option in the “unlock” section of the settings in a13. Thanks for the hint!
I think fairphone does it’s best to provide actual software even to older hardware. But they cannot work around all issues introduced by google.
I agree that they cannot work around everything that google does or requires, but if an important part of the hardware essentially gets disabled by an update there should be several giant warnings around everything related to the update.
The hardware isn’t disabled, just some extra protocols for some instances are missing, mostly for bank security. Fairphone have been looking at this for months, and still are but they have no confidence of a workaround. (I’m part of the Beta team where this was a know issue)
How Fairphone deal with notifications isn’t my world but yes it could be useful to some people had they known, saves complaining later, not that there is an alternative apart from keeping A11 with outdated security patches
Anyone know this problem with weak fingerprint is only software or more a hardware-problem?
What about a new fingerprintsensor-“modul” changeable by users? Pay around 50.- € to get the latest securitystandard without buy a new phone would be fine for me.
What do you think?
People will complain even if it is written in the release notes But at least they won’t be surprised it doesn’t work 
Welcome to the forum.
Whereas I’m sure that’s an idea worth considering a) I image Fairphone have thought of that and b) This is a user forum ~ so if you want to add weight to this idea on Fairphone todo list you could email them
support@fairphone.com
Thanks for that.
Mail is out now.
Looking forward what fairphone will answer. 
Of course people will complain if things they use stop working. Being upfront and clear about it, so that people can decide on whether to just update or replace their phone, could be the difference between that replacement being an FP4 or something completely different.
TLDR: The dev team should have never pushed such an update and should have kept users on A11 while explaining the whole situation in a blog post.
I’m so sad about what’s happening. I was so excited for this A13 update that I told all my friends with a FP3 that they’d have a big update soon. And this morning I had to text them in a hurry asking them if they were using their fingerprint in banking apps and stuff, and they all said yes. Luckily the update wasn’t available for them yet… they would have been so pissed. Now I have to make sure I didn’t forget any friend who uses a FP3 (which I recommended them to buy) so they don’t make the mistake of updating.
I know that it’s primarly Google’s fault, but I really don’t understand Fairphone’s team decision here. There is no way on earth you can avoid making people absolutely pissed when removing such a handy and common feature like that. The communication is terrible, but I actually think this isn’t the main concern here, because even writing “THIS UPDATE WILL BREAK YOUR FINGERPRINT” on the update’s page is not a good solution for the end user, and it doesn’t make Fairphone look professional.
The solution was simple: if the dev team didn’t find a way during the beta to fix this, and if they were hopeless of any discussion and change from Google, then the only thing to do was to leave users on A11, write a big blog post explaining the whole situation about how it’s tough to act as a sustainable company in a sea of big corpos like Google, and ending the post with “we will still provide A13 to experienced users as a manual update that’s downloadable from our website”.
Reading this blog post, with maybe a bit of media coverage, users could think “oh, they’re really trying their best, let’s support them by buying a FP4 or the upcoming FP5”. By making FP3 users angry and making them wonder how to manually downgrade (which is a difficult task for a beginner), you just make them want to never buy any Fairphone again, which is totally understandable. It’s not because you want to support a growing sustainable company, that you’re ready to waste your precious time and energy on finding workarounds.
Cancel the update asap, write a blog post explaining the situation, help people who updated to downgrade. And do this quick if you don’t want to lose your loyal fanbase, who’s constantly trying to convince their friends to buy your products.