Iphone 6 16GB, Unable To Activate Touch ID

[Anonymous]

Phone bought 22 months ago

No AC

Screen replaced with apple in Feb this year

Ok, so no issues what so ever until the IOS10 was installed 2 weeks ago. Now the phone has a touch ID error and fails to work. All the usual things have been tried, flatten the phone, re-install backups, start as new phone and still nothing.

Finally managed to get an appointment at AS and went through the diagnostics with them and low and behold, it shows a software issue with the TOUCH ID. 

So, the reset the phone or recovery mode as they called it, holding down the sleep & hold button whilst connecting to itunes. Great, it works again. 

A notification came through of an update on IOS10 (version 3 i believe) and im back to square one. 

Ive tried replicating what they did at the genius bar nut to no avail. The phone upon start up says "unable to activate touch ID"

O2 have washed there hands of it and dont want to know, Apple say they can replace the handset at a cost of £200+.

As this was shoing as a software fault, unless im missing somthing here, this seems absolutely disgusting. 

Has anyone experienced this? does anyone have any other dvice as to how to proceed or is this a case of suffer the loss of an otherwise perfect Iphone 6 with out so much as a scratch on it?

Any sensible advice always welcome

[bexinthecity]

It sounds silly but just something to bear in mind - if you have a tiny cut or something on the finger/thumb you use this can cause issues - I had a tiny split in my thumb a few months ago from a thorn and this made my phone unable to use touch ID and I thought it was an issue with the phone (as I too had the screen replaced) but I just had to set up another finger/thumb.

Not sure if you've tried other digits.

[Anonymous]

Hi

The phone is actually registering the fact "touch ID is not activated"

So thanks for the reply, but sadly its not that im afraid

[bexinthecity]

Ahh okay - sorry I can't be of more help.

[Anonymous]

The software may be reporting that it can't access the Touch ID hardware.  The cable for the Touch ID could have been disturbed when the screen was replaced and not replaced properly.  A recent jolt to the phone may have caused this cable to move slightly and all that is needed is to have it reconnected.  

I would advise you to talk to an authorised Apple repair technician and I mean a somebody who repairs Apple devices for a living.  I worked developing computer software for over 40 years and I have the greatest respect for computer engineers.

Even if the Touch ID button has become faulty they are not too expensive if you end up having to pay for the repair yourself.

[Sammy_boy]

I wonder if whoever replaced the screen broke the original Touch ID cable and replaced it? Only the original one will work with the phone as I found out when I broke mine when replacing the screen on an iPhone 5s. Only the original cable and sensor will work with each iPhone - even another genuine Apple one won't work as each sensor is paired with each iPhones processor.

[Sammy_boy]

Just re-read the original post and noticed it said Apple replaced the screen and it was working initially after - so my previous post may be wrong in this case.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks people for your help

I had the phone finally fixed yesterday by a member of the apple Genius Bar who actually knew what they were talking about.

The fault kept returning upon restoring a backup from my laptop. I was told after 2 further visits that I should be doing a restore from iCloud and not my iTunes backup. This copied the software error to the lap top and copies the error straight back on when I was restoring the phone

Only way to get around this is is to restore from an iCloud back up