Touch ID has become a truly revolutionary technology for the entire iPhone line. From the moment the technology was first presented at the presentation, unlocking the device has become not only safe, but also as convenient as possible. There are a huge number of uses for Touch ID besides unlocking the gadget. In this article, we'll explain what Touch ID is, how it works, and where it is applied.

Touch ID is a fingerprint scanner used in iPhones and other Apple products. The first time Apple added it to the iPhone 5S was in 2013. Since then, for 5 years, this technology has been actively used in iPhones, iPads and even MacBooks.

Touch ID allows you to unlock your device with just a touch of a dedicated surface. In mobile devices it is the Home button, in MacBooks it is the key.

After its appearance, Touch ID quickly gained great popularity, because you no longer need to enter long passwords to unlock your smartphone for a couple of seconds. They put a finger and in a moment the device is available for use.

How does Touch ID work and how it works

There are currently two generations of Touch ID. They differ in the speed of reading data and therefore faster unlocking. The second generation began to be embedded starting with the iPhone 6S, and the unlocking speed there is really faster.

The Touch ID sensor is built into the Home button and covered with a sapphire crystal. This allows you to reliably protect the scanner from minor mechanical damage. A built-in sensor scans the pad of your finger and recognizes the pattern on it. In addition, it doesn't matter at what angle you put your finger: top, bottom, side - the device is easily unlocked. You can add multiple fingers at once to unlock the device with either hand.

What is Touch ID for

Touch ID secures multiple processors and speeds up authentication. As we said, the first and main task is to unlock the device. You set up a passcode and set up the fingerprint reader. When it is not possible to use Touch ID (wet hands, etc.), just enter the password. Touch ID helps you pay with Apple Pay. When you want to check out in a store using your iPhone, you need to double-tap the Home button to launch the Apple Pay app and Touch ID to verify that you are the one making the purchase. If yes, the payment will pass. If not, it will throw an error.

Further, Touch ID is used in the App Store. When you first purchase an app (paid or free - it doesn't matter), iPhone will ask you to put your finger on the Home button to confirm the action. If you uninstall an application or game and then install it, you do not need to scan your finger.

The last common use for Touch ID is to sign in to apps. Usually these are banking services, access to which is undesirable for unauthorized persons. When entering such applications, the system asks for a password or use Touch ID. The second option, as we have already seen, is much more convenient.

In addition, Touch ID allows you to confirm actions with iCloud. The most common use case - if you want to view all saved passwords from sites - confirm the action with a fingerprint scanner.

How to set up Touch ID

For the best effect and to avoid further inconvenience, make sure your hands are clean and that the button itself is not smeared with anything. Go to Touch ID & Passcode settings and enter your passcode. Click Add Fingerprint. Next, lightly touch the "Home" button with one finger.

The system will need a few of these touches to fully read your fingerprint. Each time slightly change the position of your finger - the figure will show which area has already been scanned and which requires additional touches. After everything is ready, the system will report success. Likewise, you can add a new fingerprint or use only one.

We recommend that you indicate the names of your prints if there are several of them. Since later, when you notice that the system does not recognize the index finger well, it will be quite difficult to immediately understand which fingerprint to change.

Touch ID is a great tool for authenticating in-app purchases using your fingerprint instead of the traditional Apple account password. This is a more secure form of user authentication, which also dramatically speeds up the entire checkout process.

Unfortunately, nothing is absolutely perfect in this world. It happens that Touch ID does not quite work correctly with the AppStore when authenticating while making purchases. Instead of requiring the user to use a fingerprint for authentication, the App Store can prompt the user for a traditional password.

Don't worry if this situation arises. Below will be shown how to solve this problem.

What if Touch ID doesn't work in the App Store?

Step 1: Go to Settings on your iPhone or iPad and go to the Touch ID and Password section. If the function of requesting a code is enabled, then it can be requested.

Step 2: Disable iTunes & App Store.

Step 5: Enable iTunes & App Store.

After completing these steps, any attempt to make a purchase through the App Store, the user will need to already use the Touch ID, and not the Apple ID password. It should be borne in mind that if purchases through the App Store have not been made within 24 hours, the device will still require you to enter your Apple ID password.

It happens that this problem occurs due to incorrect operation of the Touch ID equipment. That is why you need to make sure that it is functioning properly. This can be verified by using Touch ID on the locked display to unlock the device.

You can buy an iPhone with a broken Touch ID (fingerprint sensor) today at a reasonable cost. It would seem that an inoperative scanner is not a critical breakdown, and for the sake of a fairly large discount, you should not refuse such an advantageous offer. But is it? Let's try to answer.

So, as a rule, we are offered to buy:

• IPhone (any generation) that does not have a fingerprint scanner;
• The cost of an apple device is lower (often significantly) than a similar smartphone, but with a valid scanner;
• The seller claims that the phone is completely ordinary and even new. The price has been reduced due to the iPhone being refurbished (REF).

The third point is confusing. Many people know that the apple company does offer refurbished smartphones. However, the latter have nothing to do with iPhones with faulty Touch IDs.

Defective Touch ID on iPhone. Is the smartphone officially restored or not?

The answer is always negative. If the smartphone is officially restored, then all its systems and mechanisms work at 100%. These iPhones are produced at Apple branded factories, undergo numerous tests and are sold with a warranty (1-2 years).

Remember! If the iPhone is "factory, original, new, real", it will have a fingerprint scanner. Malfunctions of the fingerprint sensor indicate that the phone is not new and not from the factory.

Where do iPhones with non-working Touch ID come from?

In fact, in such cases, we are talking about ordinary used gadgets assembled from several phones. Let's consider an example:

• You are the owner of several apple iPhones with various malfunctions. One has a software glitch, the other has a broken motherboard, the third is filled with juice;
• You take apart three gadgets and create one of them. If some spare parts are missing, buy cheap Chinese parts;
• You have a "refurbished" iPhone in your hands, which you are ready to sell, because you yourself understand how low the quality of the smartphone is.

These are the "miracles of healing" smartphones and craftsmen, including those from China and Russia.

But why not restore Touch ID then? Because this process is difficult:

• The manufacturer has combined the motherboard and the Home button (the sensor is located in it) into one whole. Substitute a button from another smartphone, and the sensor will refuse to function. This is designed to reliably protect iPhones from hacking;
• Only employees of Apple factories can "hack" such a "kit". What they are doing legally, subsequently offering fully functional iPhones.

To take or not to take? A broken Touch ID means that:

• The smartphone was dismantled exactly, who and how is unknown;
• The phone was also assembled by some unknown person and using some unknown spare parts (certified or Chinese - a surprise for the future owner);
• IPhone crashes, for the above reasons, can happen at any time. The breakdown may not be related to the scanner at all;
• Any Apple service, such as Apple Pay, that requires a fingerprint will not be available to you. Your personal data is always at risk.

But there are also positive aspects. Unfortunately, there are not many of them:

• Low cost (otherwise, who needs such smartphones);
• The opportunity to “win at roulette” by purchasing a workable device (although the chances, as statistics show, are slim).

If you still decide to buy a refurbished iPhone, please contact our service center. We will carry out professional diagnostics of your smartphone and tell you about its "hidden features".

Even grandma Petrovna knows: the iPhone SE has a supposedly "bad" Touch ID sensor! You can't buy such a smartphone, a failure, "not a cake", all that.

it truth?

For starters, the fact: The iPhone SE uses a sensor of the same model as the iPhone 5s, the very first Apple smartphone with a fingerprint reader. The iPhone 6 has the same Touch ID model, and the 6s has a cosmically fast one.

Total 2 generation of sensors in the iPhone SE, iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s is exactly the first.

But at the same time, critics forget: it is not the "piece of iron" that paints the device, but how it really works. Next, watch a short video.

Comparison of Touch ID speed on iPhone SE, iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s

We checked repeatedly on different fingers, and also rebooted the devices. The result does not change: iPhone 5s always "leaks" iPhone SE and even more so 6s. It can lose for a whole second, maybe for a moment.

According to the logic of Internet warriors, there should be parity between 5s and SE, but it never happened.

Why is that? Our theory is that the sensor just breathes easier because of a good processor. The rest is on Apple's conscience: who knows, maybe there are improvements in the software part? Who knows.

Output: the argument about Touch ID does not roll. It's faster on the iPhone SE than on the 5s. And there is nothing more to add.

P.S .: the difference in the display of colors on the screens is a consequence of shooting in home lighting conditions and the white balance set at the "warmest" of the displays. Our 6s and 5s have screens with a bias to "yellow", so sorry.

For several years, Apple has successfully used the Touch ID biometric sensor in its devices to protect users' personal data. To prevent this system from crashing during operation, we have prepared some useful tips for you.

The Touch ID fingerprint scanning system has become one of the main features of the iPhone 5S and still delights users of phones and tablets from the Apple company. Using a fingerprint, you can unlock your phone, pay in the App Store or iTunes, and more recently, the biometric sensor works in conjunction with Apple Pay and other applications, including those from third-party developers.

Periodically, Touch ID users faced minor problems - smartphones refused to recognize their fingerprints. For a while, the reason was, which Apple promptly corrected. However, this was not the only problem.

With all the reliability and modernity of the biometric sensor in the iPhone 5S / 6/6 Plus smartphones, as well as in the iPad Air 2 tablets and the new iPad Mini 3, from time to time this miracle of technology fails. We decided to figure out why there may be problems with the owner's fingerprint recognition and how they can be eliminated.

When you turn on and set up Touch ID for the first time, the smartphone prompts the user to put his finger on the sensor several times and does this for a reason. The thing is that when using a smartphone, you do not apply your finger at a right angle, or your finger may not be entirely clean, wet, and so on. The system specifically asks you to rotate your finger over the surface of the sensing sensor when adjusting. However, even this standard procedure, conceived by Apple to improve Touch ID performance, does not always save users.

Therefore, inquisitive minds around the world quickly came up with a simple and fairly reliable way to improve and speed up the work of the biometric sensor in Apple technology on their own. To make Touch ID recognize your fingers faster and more accurately, simply make multiple copies of the same fingerprint. The Touch ID system allows you to add up to five fingerprints, and even if you entered your thumbs and index fingers from both hands, you still have one free slot where you can add a copy of the fingerprint that you think you will use most often. Thanks to this simple operation, the accuracy of Touch ID responses increases by 60-90%, in proportion to the number of copies of one fingerprint.

Another simple way to improve the performance of a biometric sensor is the so-called. To do this, you need to go to the security settings, enter your password and simply alternately apply the fingers entered into the sensor base. In this case, the system determines which of the fingerprints you are currently "training", highlighting it in gray. If you do this process for each fingerprint several times in a row, then the accuracy and speed of Touch ID will increase.

When entering your fingerprints into the phone's memory, try to do it as naturally as possible, as if you took the phone in your hand in order to unlock or do some other familiar action, and not in order to send the perfect copy of the fingerprint to the CIA.

If the Touch ID sensor remembers your fingerprint data as close as possible to the field, then it will perceive them much better in real life. Therefore, feel free to put your finger on the biometric sensor as it is convenient for you, from any angle. The stability of your fingerprint and the accuracy of Touch ID will benefit from this.

A small but useful tip for Touch ID users is to use your finger on the metal border of the Home button when scanning a fingerprint. Thus, the sensor will receive from you the most complete picture of the fingerprint-identifier and will be able to more accurately and quickly recognize the "finger" offered to it.

And last but not least, advice to Touch ID users. Perhaps the most banal and obvious, but at the same time important - wash your hands and keep the Home button itself with the sensor located in it clean. If you're having trouble identifying your fingerprint, first try simply wiping the bezel of your phone and the button itself.

The layer of dust and grease that accumulates on the surface of the biometric sensor that is invariably present on our fingertips makes it difficult for Touch ID to properly scan your finger. Therefore, do not hesitate to wipe the button more often, well, keep your hands clean, this will be useful not only for Touch ID, but also for your health.

Every user of Apple smartphones and tablets equipped with a fingerprint scanner will agree with me that it was not difficult to get used to this new function - it is so harmonious, simple and convenient. For example, I got so used to Touch ID that picking up an iPod Touch for a while, I just hold my finger on the Home button and wait for the player to unlock, absolutely not thinking that something is missing in this device. ... Apple was not a pioneer, but their solution was so successful, convenient and graceful that people instantly got used to Touch ID and are now puzzled by Apple devices that lack this function.

That is why it is very important for users that their biometric sensor works correctly, quickly and accurately. And we hope that this will be the case with our advice.