The fingerprint sensor is definitely hit and miss, which is a shame. It works for me maybe 50% of the time. I rely on the fingerprint sensor quite a bit for e-banking so it is not just a small annoyance – for me it is essential. I am hoping that this is not a hardware problem and that a future software update will mend the situation.
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is there a way to make the finger print reader take fewer attempts per second? or a short delay between power press and the first sampling? I constantly get “too many attempts” before I even realize I touched it wrong
I’ve moved your post to this existing topic.
TL;DR: You can’t change the sensitivity and there’s no other solution so far, apart from only enabling fingerprint recognition when the screen is on, which is only a semi useful workaround.
It depends on the user I guess. By using this setting I have almost never the “too many attempts” issue. Also, as I’ve said earlier, I don’t move the thumb while scanning, as it clearly only stores slices of your fingerprint and only need to recognize a slice. So, I click once to switch the screen on, then put my thumb back on the scanner and it’s unlocked. Works every time.
Please note I’m not of those yes-men who will try to tell you that everything works perfectly and any problem is necessarily your fault, no, what I’m saying is just that this workaround works reliably, even if it is a little more involved than what you might get on other phones. I would put it rather low in the existing “annoying/deal-breaking issues” list. At least on my FP4. -shrug-
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Disabling the fingerprint reader when the screen is off doesn’t change the sensitivity at all, that’s why I would call it a semi useful workaround 
The only difference for me is that I don’t get “Too many attempts” just by taking it out of my pocket, that’s an improvement, but it’s far from a solution.
Believe me, I’ve tried all the possible “solutions”, this isn’t failing because I didn’t try hard enough.
It’s great that it works for you, but there are others for whom it clearly doesn’t.
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The fingerprint sensor always brings me the known error. However, I’ve never had a phone before where the fingerprint sensor worked properly, really never. For me, this is a gimmick that never works anyway.
Beg to differ. I like you, had abandoned the idea back with the FP3, until I learned how to get it to work. It used to work every time after that (still does). With the FP4 I guess I’m also “one of the lucky ones”, it works for me same as it does for KurtF.
What bothers me and (I think) KurtF, is that there’s no such thing as luck with these devices. If they’re behaving differently then there must be a reason.
I don’t think the difference is in the device, but the user. One has very dry hands, the other very wet or one deeper groves on the finger as the other and so on.
No, for this specific issue, no it has nothing to do with me or my fingers, as discussed multiple times already above. This topic is not about the fingerprint reader not recognizing my fingerprint but a fingerprint reader reading everything being skin 5-10 times within a second.
Apologies its a bit annoying to keep on getting such comments here over and over again, as this is not the topic.
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OldRoutard was answering to Martin_1964 who said, that no fingerprint sensor has ever worked for him. That was what I was referring to, not the frequent repetitions of the FP4 sensor.
then we should move all those off topic discussion probably to its own topic. Else I would kindly ask, we stick to the topic here.
Has anyone who has this issue, sent the FP4 for a Repair and if yes did it help? Thats the current conclusion from Fairphone for my ticket.
I also have this issue. I removed and readded fingerprints multiple times over the course of the last year and a half, probably between 10 and 15 times in total. A fingerprint sometimes “lasts” several weeks, sometimes only a day, after which rapid multiple scanning starts happening more often. This is with the “unlock only when awake” option (I have to press the Power button first). Often times I get locked out and have to resort to inputting PIN.
Gripping the phone lightly is correlated, however this is the first phone I own that works like that and it has been happening from the beginning.
I have the same issue with the fingerprint sensor as described in many posts here, and it seems to have gotten worse over time - I have had my FP4 for about a year.
I always install the latest Android upgrades and keep phone and sensor clean. However, the sensor is really narrow, and with the protective soft case, it is enclosed by relatively high “walls”, so one must be extremely precise and exercise just the correct amount of pressure to even have a small chance to be successful.
Is this a hardware (sensor too narrow) or a software issue, as stated by some here? If the latter, will it be corrected, and when?
Do you have multiple ‘takes’ of one finger as that can help. Six or even ten given a far better chance of recognition.
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This topic IS NOT about the fingerprint sensor NOT RECOGNIZING the fingerprint stored!
And yes, Capital Letters=I’m screaming
@AnkeB so what is your issue exactly, it might be we have to open a new topic in case you have issues with recognition. This topic here is about multiple attempts of whatever skin you place on the sensor and adding several fingerprints will not at all help you.
My last response from Support is this, that its Hardware.
@yvmuell Yes I see it’s a different issue that I responded too, and understand you may want to make a new topic. So if you don’t then I will leave my response else of course delete my reply if it just encourages the off topic issue.
Not shouting ~ 
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Well, yes, it scans my finger multiple times and then locks the biometric recognition for cool down, as described multiple times. So I don’t see that it’s a different issue. But if it is, I’m fine with it, as long as someone from support takes care of it.
Will try this. Thanks a lot.