Touch ID no longer unlocks MacBook Air after macOS Sonoma 14.8 update

this isn’t a hardware fault. In macOS Sonoma 14.8, Apple quietly changed Touch ID behavior so it no longer unlocks your Mac after sleep/restart if FileVault is enabled, you’ll always need the account password first. After that, Touch ID works again for Apple Pay, App Store, and other confirmations, which is why you still see it working elsewhere.

There’s no setting to toggle this back, only workaround is disabling FileVault (not ideal for most people) or waiting to see if Apple reverses this in Sequoia.

If you want to double-check, go to System Settings > Touch ID & Password and confirm “Use Touch ID for unlocking your Mac” is still ticked, it should be, but won’t override the new requirement after wake.

That’s not the reason. I have FileVault enabled. Sometimes Touch ID works, and sometimes it doesn’t. But when Touch ID doesn’t work at login, I keep pressing Esc, Power, Esc, Power repeatedly, and after a while, Touch ID starts working again.

I think it's a bug — the T2 chip doesn’t wake up as quickly as the computer does on older MacBook Air.

iamshivam wrote:

this isn’t a hardware fault. In macOS Sonoma 14.8, Apple quietly changed Touch ID behavior so it no longer unlocks your Mac after sleep/restart if FileVault is enabled, you’ll always need the account password first. After that, Touch ID works again for Apple Pay, App Store, and other confirmations, which is why you still see it working elsewhere.

I believe that's incorrect. I have FileVault enabled. Touch ID still works to unlock my make after sleep.

TouchID never worked after a restart. That is as designed.