Touch ID unlock stops working after five minutes

The last thing I tried, was to shutdown completely with a saved fingerprint which worked previously but ceased. Then boot into Safe Mode. On Apple Silicon you hold the power Touch ID button and then hold shift to click on Macintosh HD and you'll see a Continue in Safe Mode button. On Intel, just hold Shift while powering on. It is normal to have to login twice when entering Safe Mode. Give it about 5min in Safe Mode logged on. Then just restart. Login once to enable Touch ID.

It seems to be working again. Time will tell if sticks or encounters the problem again. It may take a day, two or three to determine if the issue is resolved. If it comes back again, then it's a bug and let's hope it's fixed in 26.1 or soon thereafter.

My thinking is that Safe Mode runs a lot of regular maintenance tasks when it boots. Caches are flushed, etc. Booting into Safe Mode and then just restarting normally; can fix bizarre issues.

I also submitted a bug report via Apple's Feedback. I recommend others submit so it raises awareness at Apple.

These community forums are for Apple customers and the only Apple employees are some moderators. Feedback is not collected on these forums.

CONFIRMED THIS IS A BUG

If you are experiencing the Touch ID ceasing to work after a period of time and no matter how many times you unlock with your password, it does not enable Touch ID again. I have to remove the fingerprints, shutdown, boot up and re-add Touch ID fingerprints. Then it works for an indeterminate length of time and it stops working again.

Please submit bug reports if you are experiencing this problem. It should get fixed in a dot release update.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Use 'Bug Report' and detail the scenario. If enough people submit it will raise the priority with Apple Developers to fix it.

This is for macOS 15.7 as it was not a problem on 15.6.1. If you experience this issue with Tahoe 26 be sure to submit it as well.

MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2019.

I noticed this bug as well after I upgraded from 15.6 to 15.7.1 a few days ago. After I played with it for a few days, here is the details and my 'workaround':

1. If my MBP goes to sleep (on its own or through manual lock screen) less than 5 minutes or so ago , the 'Touch ID or Enter password' label remains under the login password field and Touch ID still works in lieu of password to get past the lock screen
2. If my MBP has been sleeping for a while (> 5 minutes or so), when I wake up MBP (by touching any key (I usually hit the 'return' key) on the keyboard), the 'Touch ID or Enter password' label does NOT appear. Touch ID won't log me in - typing in the password is the only (immediate) way to log in.
3. However, in step 2, after I wake my MBP up, if I wait about 5 or 10 seconds before doing anything else, the 'Touch ID or Enter password' label appears eventually on its own - at that point, Touch ID login works again.

In other words, in my case the behavior in 15.7.1 seems to be that Touch ID login functionality does not 'wake up' immediately after my MBP is woken up - it takes another 5 to 10 seconds for the Touch ID login feature to wake up ... lame...

So far, it's been days and macOS 15.7.1 is working for me and appears to have resolved the Touch ID issue ceasing to work after a relatively short time period. Touch ID will normally prompt for the password to enable Touch ID if you haven't used it for a couple of days or after a cold boot. The bug is when Touch ID becomes disabled and no amount of entering the password nor rebooting resolves. Removing finger prints and re-adding resolves temporarily. For me installing 15.7.1 appears to have fixed the problem for me.

Steps I followed:

1. Remove the fingerprints from Touch ID settings
2. Shutdown completely and power off
3. Boot into Safe Mode (hold power while booting, hold Shift while clicking on Macintosh HD to boot safe mode)
   1. Clears caches and temporary system files, etc.
4. Shutdown completely again
5. Booted and installed the update to 15.7.1
6. Re-added the Touch ID fingerprints

It's been over 24 hours and Touch ID is working after wake from sleep, hibernation, and screensaver lock. This is for a 2023 16" MacBook Pro w/M2 MAX running macOS 15.7.1.

Similar experience here on a 13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports after updating to 15.7.

I'm randomly losing the option to use TouchID as an option on the lock screen, but the system is not telling me "you must type in your password to enable TouchID." as it did before upgrading to 15.7. Repeatedly placing my finger on and off the TouchID sensor seems to finally make the login prompt say TouchID is an option and then lets me login using TouchID shortly after. All other uses of TouchID once I'm logged in work normally, it's just the lock screen is inconsistently not prompting it as a login option.

My TouchID works after removing finger prints, rebooting and re-adding them. Then it worked most of the day. But now it's always saying I need to authenticate with password to enable TouchID. Yet it doesn't enable. Fingerprint is still there, etc.

This has got to be a bug, it was fine on macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 but started doing this on 15.7.

Submit your own bug reports here: Feedback - macOS - Apple

I'll need to test macOS Tahoe 26 some more to learn if this is happening there as well or not.

I found out that you need patience when coming back form sleep. Just wait until the phrase "Use password or Touch ID..." appears. This takes maybe 10-20 seconds, after which TouchID works. So, it's not so much that it doesn't work. It is just slow in becoming activated.

Robaato72 wrote:

I updated my 2020 MacBook Air (intel) to Sequoia 15.7 a couple days ago. Before I updated, I could use TouchID to unlock my computer all the time, and it would ask for my password once a day or so. Now, if I let it sleep for only five minutes, TouchID no longer works and I have to type in my password. Can I revert this to how it worked before?

Also, why is there no message on screen explaining this? The computer used to say "you must type in your password to enable TouchID." Now - nothing. I thought my fingerprint sensor was broken or something.

Removing all finger prints and setting it back up anew.

Make changes to Settings> TouchID & Passwords toggle all the changes and come back to your preferred.

On an Intel mac You can try both:

resetting the System Management Controller Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

resetting NVRAM/PRAM Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

(get at least two-three rounds of the chimes when holding the NVRAM Reset)

ref: If Touch ID isn't working on your Mac

If Touch ID isn't working on Mac - Apple Support

Run the user Diagnostic...not as definitive as Apple's own AST2 (Apple Service Toolkit) back bench diagnostic, but may or may not kick out a hardware error code.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac for hardware issues

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

for hard ware issue take it in—

In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Outside the USA

Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

To be expected—There are a few instances where Touch ID will not be accepted by macOS:

If you restarted your Mac, or if you're not logged into your user account.

If you have not unlocked your Mac for 48 hours.

If you are trying to unlock Security & Privacy

If you are trying to unlock Users & Groups Settings (when FileVault is on)

If 5 wrong fingerprint attempts

The good news: it's not broken. The bad news: it might as well be.

It is INCREDIBLY SLOW and if you sit and let it think about it for ~30 seconds, it'll finally prompt you to use TouchID. I, too, have a 2020 MBA (Intel) and feel your pain...

Hours later Touch ID is still working. I'll follow up in a day or two to let you know if Touch ID is back to being reliable after doing the Safe Mode boot which executes a bunch of maintenance tasks such as deleting caches, etc.

I have some customers who may be experiencing this glitch after macOS 15.7. It's not just the MacBook Air's it's all Apple Touch ID so Apple keyboards and MacBook Pro's as well.

Dang it. After another 24 hours the Touch ID is not enabling after entering password. So it's still a problem on 15.7.1. I've already submitted a bug report.

If you have the same problem where your Touch ID is failing to remain enabled after a given amount of time. Please submit feedback. The more feedback the more visibility the problem will receive.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

15.7.2 appears to have fixed the issue.

I have had this issue since the 15.7 update. I can confirm it's a software issue, nothing to do with cleaning the sensor etc. The problem is that the prompt takes a long time to come up. I have a 2019 MBP with touch bar. I was able to get the prompt to appear by pressing ESC to exit login, then waking the screen by pressing the touch bar. It doesn't work every time, but it's quicker than waiting five minutes for the prompt.

Another issue, probably related, is that the user's name can be slow to appear. It usually appears straight away with the user photo and password box, but sometimes there is a few seconds' delay before the user's name appears.

I followed the "safe mode steps" provided, except for step 5. I had already installed 15.7.1.

Unfortunately, this did not fix the the problem. The behavior previously noted is unchanged.

2019 13" macbook pro.

Steps followed...

1. 1. 1. Remove the fingerprints from Touch ID settings
      2. Shutdown completely and power off
      3. Boot into Safe Mode (hold power while booting, hold Shift while clicking on Macintosh HD to boot safe mode)
      4. Clears caches and temporary system files, etc.
      5. Shutdown completely again
      6. Booted and installed the update to 15.7.1
      7. Re-added the Touch ID fingerprints

Thanks for pointing this out. I waited 10 seconds before using Touch ID and it worked, whereas since the update to 15.7.1, I had been attempting to use Touch ID immediately. So, your workaround works for me too.