My FP3 Fingerprint sensor is working so badly it's basically completely useless

You keep ridiculing this ‘non-violent’ thief thing. Violent isn’t a binary thing. I’ve been mugged and I’ve been threatened, there’s a variety of degrees such can happen. One time end of 90s the mugger was so disappointed, they allowed me to keep my 10 guilders (~5 EUR). After being asked if I really didn’t have more, and I kept saying no, they let me go.

pam-duress allows this on Linux, except for the secondary boot partition (the device is normally already booted up). What it would allow is say automatically notifying IT of a breach, call the police, remove all data, or revoke authorizations, or reboot. I’m not sure if Android uses or allows PAM though.

Sure polarisation is an issue, but that’s what happens, people find problems and then want solutions, some think they have a solution to some else’s problem and then go looking to sell the solution.

Sadly most things seem to either one or the other, the future or the past, walk left or walk right. What I’m saying is there is no solution that fits the thief and violence may be used to find a solution.

It is ridiculous, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

So how ridiculous is a fingerprint reader if it doesn’t do what you want. I am the thief and that to be stolen but I am not the victim.

That’s why a duress authentication would be useful.

Totally agree. Mine doesn’t work either and now I’m locked out of loads of finance apps.
I really do NOT enjoy this phone.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

What have you tried to mitigate.

  • Cleared the old and tried alternative fingers
  • Tried covering the sensor with transparent tape, as has been sucessful for some.
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Hi and welcome to the forum.

Have a look at this post. When registering it’s important to leave your finger on the sensor at each touch until instructed to lift it.

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I also had many problems with the fingerprint reader. Many times it did not find my finger and lock me out of using the reader.

What I did, and it seems to solved it for me is the following.

When registering a new fingerprint, first put your finger dead center on the scanner. Then try to put your finger on the scanner as far away from the center as possible from each direction (up, down, etc.). It will complain sometimes that a partial fingerprint is found. Keep trying to move your finger slightly until it is accepted. After this, my unlock success rate is much higher. I can almost trust it that it will not lock me out. Still, a misread is still happening sometimes.

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All good points but I want to explicitly second this one. That’s also what I do: Clean glasses, FP3 screen, and then fingerprint sensor (in that order, being careful to spray the cleaning stuff only on my glasses).

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Apparently the fingerprint sensor has issues with moisture. More than the fingerprint sensor on other phones that I have used before. So if you constantly have issues with this it might actually be worth to check if you might suffer from hyperhidrosis.

So if you constantly have issues with this it might actually be worth to check if you might suffer from hyperhidrosis.

I wouldn’t point fingers at the users. Hyperhidrosis seems to be an issue for only 1-2% of people and I doubt they are all here in this thread :wink:

It works really badly for me as well once I have the slightest bit of sweat on my fingertips. That means on warm days, with slightly higher temperature at the office, cold sweet etc. I am constantly cleaning the sensor, rubbing my hands dry or just giving up and entering the passcode - eyeing the iPhones and Pixels of my colleges enviously which open without fail (not to mention the cameras).

And regarding other sensors and hyperhidrosis, I just found this on Reddit:

After browsing a bit, a fellow Redditor jokingly said to make a fingerprint scan of your sweaty fingers. Not a bad idea. I gave it a shot and made fingerprint scans of two of my fingers (while sweating).

… Low and behold! It worked!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hyperhidrosis/comments/tobwys/fingerprint_scan_phone_with_sweaty_hands_solution/

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Yes scanning fingerprints in different conditions is a must for frequent viability. I work in the field a lot, dirty, wet, very dry etc.

I never expected one fingerprint to cover all as they clearly change depending upon condition. :slight_smile:

Indeed, but luckily nobody seems to have done that in this thread yet. :wink:

Personally I don’t have any issues whatsoever anymore with the fingerprint reader of my FP3 . I wrote the post that you partially quoted as it might contain infos that are relevant for others and at the same time deliberately phrased it as cautiously as I did as it most likely isn’t relevant for most people here.

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I have a refurbished FP3 and exactly the same experience. It’s really problematic

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Welcome to the community forum.

May I refer you to post 52 above in this topic, and the link it contains.

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Yes welcome.

if you search you will also find some users have stuck a bit of sellotape over the sensor and had effective results.

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adhesive tape really works

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I recently fix the sensor problem completely by using a different way to register my fingerprint in the settings. It is now working 99% of the time in one try.
What I do in the Settings:

  • I deleted all previous scans
  • I do a new scan and while scanning move my finger 360 degrees around over the sensor to get one full scan.
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Yes, it’s important to really take care when recording fingerprints. As many angles and parts of the fingertip as possible, and for each scan, maintain the touch until instructed to lift the finger.

Yeah, I think mine is broken as well. I never activated it two years ago, because I was used to use the code. But a few months back I noticed there is an option to use it to “wipe” so that the notifications come on screen. I activated that wipe thing, but it never worked.

That does not mean, that your sensor broke. Mine works perfectly fine for authentication, etc. But the option you mentioned does not work for me either.