Potential fingerprint scanner issue? - Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers

I have a S7 from AT&T, non-edge. I have the lock screen setup with the fingerprint reader and a pin code.
95% of the time, the fingerprint scanner works the first time.
4% of the time, it will work the second time.
1% of the time, it does something VERY strange. If it fails the first and second time, it will NOT unlock the screen using the fingerprint reader unless i enter the pin code. It will let me keep trying my fingerprint, but it will says its not valid. I can enter the pin code, unlock the phone, relock, then boom, the fingerprint reader works again. Its like once it fails twice, even though the phone lets you keep trying, it doesn't really read it.
Has anyone else experienced this? It's very annoying and I am wondering if I should RMA, or if this is a software issue.

Finger print scanner indeed suck.. Just make multiple imprints of same finger.. Get every angle possible.

Only time I have to enter my pin is when I reboot the phone. It wants my pin instead of my fingerprint. After that first time though the fingerprint is all I have to do.

when entering a fingerprint each time change the angle of the chosen finger slightly as you press the home key having multiple images at diff angles lessens the chance of not getting a match.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

This has taken some getting used to, coming from the Nexus 5x... its fingerprint scanner is so much better.
On the nexus, you go from a black locked screen straight to the home screen in a split sec with a touch of the scanner that's way more accurate and gets it 99% of the time .
With the S7, I'm having to press the power/home button, then scan, which gets it right more like 65% of the time. And is a 2 step process. Or hold the home button down and try to time it just right- too soon and it doesn't read.. too long and i open google now... haha too complicated. I'm almost thinking there's an issue with mine it's so inaccurate. Or maybe i'm just spoiled to the nexus...
Bottom line= LG & Google implementation= much much better.

Chronzy said:
This has taken some getting used to, coming from the Nexus 5x... its fingerprint scanner is so much better.
On the nexus, you go from a black locked screen straight to the home screen in a split sec with a touch of the scanner that's way more accurate and gets it 99% of the time .
With the S7, I'm having to press the power/home button, then scan, which gets it right more like 65% of the time. And is a 2 step process. Or hold the home button down and try to time it just right- too soon and it doesn't read.. too long and i open google now... haha too complicated. I'm almost thinking there's an issue with mine it's so inaccurate. Or maybe i'm just spoiled to the nexus...
Bottom line= LG & Google implementation= much much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Press and depress the home button quickly, but instead of taking your finger off the button immediately, keep it on there lightly touching for a split second. It's not that difficult.
It works for me on the first try 95% of the time. The other times it's my fault for not covering the button but instead getting just a corner of it.
I also set it up with both thumbs and both index fingers and it works with all. I'm quite pleased

I've been having aroung 50% success rate on the first time with the fingerprint scanner and about 95% on the second attempt. I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong. I've made the fingerprint profile many times, change position and angles but I still can't get it to work reliably. I wish i could see if theres any gaps, or maybe tone down how "strict" the scanner is.

I've found another flaw in the finger print reader... I'll describe the issue, then upload a vid to show it.
My screen is set to lock/dim/shut off after 30 seconds. At which time you'll have to press the home button OR power button to wake the phone, followed by using your finger print to open the phone.
However, within a few seconds of the screen shutting off you can just press the home button with any finger even ones you've never registered a print for and it will unlock the phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhb0e01aLuQ

HTCMDA said:
I've found another flaw in the finger print reader... I'll describe the issue, then upload a vid to show it.
My screen is set to lock/dim/shut off after 30 seconds. At which time you'll have to press the home button OR power button to wake the phone, followed by using your finger print to open the phone.
However, within a few seconds of the screen shutting off you can just press the home button with any finger even ones you've never registered a print for and it will unlock the phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhb0e01aLuQ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a setting, which by default locks the phone 5 seconds after the screen turns off. During that time you can just push the button and no need to unlock.
But if you push the power button to turn the screen off, if locks immediately. There is a setting for that as well.

Yea...that's not a good thing. Should not be on by default.

Chronzy said:
This has taken some getting used to, coming from the Nexus 5x... its fingerprint scanner is so much better.
On the nexus, you go from a black locked screen straight to the home screen in a split sec with a touch of the scanner that's way more accurate and gets it 99% of the time .
With the S7, I'm having to press the power/home button, then scan, which gets it right more like 65% of the time. And is a 2 step process. Or hold the home button down and try to time it just right- too soon and it doesn't read.. too long and i open google now... haha too complicated. I'm almost thinking there's an issue with mine it's so inaccurate. Or maybe i'm just spoiled to the nexus...
Bottom line= LG & Google implementation= much much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works 100% of the time for me if i press the home button and leave my finger on it. Its not even a tiny bit innacurate. Maybe your fingers are greasy.
The reading from screen off sounds a bit better but is essentially the same thing. Just on S7 you have to actually press the button down rather than just press the finger on the sensor. Im not sure why the added pressure makes it that much worse.
HTCMDA said:
Yea...that's not a good thing. Should not be on by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to reply to this part.
No it shouldnt be on by default. Its a great feature, if you dont like it you turn it off.

HTCMDA said:
Yea...that's not a good thing. Should not be on by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an android thing. My previous LG and Motorola phones had the same settings by default.
It is convenient because if the screen turns off due to timeout while you are reading something you can quickly turn the screen back on without having to unlock it (password unlock can be very annoying). I gotta tell you if that feature didn't exist, I would have to set a really long screen timeout because I do quite a bit of reading where I don't touch the screen for a while and the constant need to unlock would drive me crazy.
Plus, an extra 5 seconds (added to the screen timeout) is unlikely to make it insecure. If you hit the power button to turn the screen off, it locks immediately. I think it's the best combo of convenience and security.

i'm just saying i feel like that goes against the "security" of having your phone.... your phone could get stolen while unlocked, and all they have to do is set your screen to never time out and now they have access to all your info...

HTCMDA said:
i'm just saying i feel like that goes against the "security" of having your phone.... your phone could get stolen while unlocked, and all they have to do is set your screen to never time out and now they have access to all your info...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I someone steals your phone, while it's unlocked, they already have access to all of your data. The 5 second delay isn't going to make a difference.

Related

Screen lock/unlock dodgy

I am either going nuts or this is a common isue:
Normally when you tap "lock" on home screen the brightness diminishes and the phone is locked. To unlock, you have to tap "unlock" on the lower left side of the screen, hen you get a message telling you to tap again unlock in the middle of the screen and its unlocked.
Well, my Polaris only does this sequence sometimes. Especially if I let it go in standby for a couple minutes, as soon as I press any key I get another story:
In lower left corner of screen I have the word" cancel". Tapping it doesn't give me another "unlock" button on screen and the phone remains locked. I have to put it in standby from the power button and then try again to get the normal unlock behaviour.
Anyone else experiences this?
Nobody? So everybody's unlock feature works like it should?
Then I think it's reset time for my Polaris....
I personally don't use, the device lock feature... Just the standby, whith the HW buttons off... and it works just fine for me
I have noticed that when you press the central button in the TC, what you describe is what exactly happens. But this happens to me only when I do that. If a tap the screen without touching the button, I have the normal behaviour.
Yes, exactly.
@gnick: if I use the standby with HW keys lock it works ok for me also.
The issue is only with the HTC Home lock feature and the central key
dtancu said:
I am either going nuts or this is a common isue:
Normally when you tap "lock" on home screen the brightness diminishes and the phone is locked. To unlock, you have to tap "unlock" on the lower left side of the screen, hen you get a message telling you to tap again unlock in the middle of the screen and its unlocked.
Well, my Polaris only does this sequence sometimes. Especially if I let it go in standby for a couple minutes, as soon as I press any key I get another story:
In lower left corner of screen I have the word" cancel". Tapping it doesn't give me another "unlock" button on screen and the phone remains locked. I have to put it in standby from the power button and then try again to get the normal unlock behaviour.
Anyone else experiences this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but very rarely and even then when I press Cancel the normal lock screen resumes and I unlock in the normal way. I have "Do not lock all buttons" selected in the Key Lock settings. Don’t know if this is significant.
2 stages for screen lock?
I use my TC while riding motorcycle, so I want several apps (TomTom, gps tracking [gps.run]), music [was WMP, but now Coreplayer] and TellmeText) running and the screen off so as to save battery power.
If you press the power button when key lock is on it will turn the display completely off, and *most* programs will keep running. TomTom is a notable exception- it stops working, presumably because it can no longer access the gps?. But better behaved/next generation GPS apps such as run.gps continue to run. WMP, bless its pathetic cotton socks, seems to work sometimes!
Are these inconsistecies uinique to my unit, or known quirks?
Anyone suggest a app that will turn the screen off and allow ALL open apps to run, including TomTom?
Thanks
I don't know how you're operating any of the buttons on the TC with riding gloves on!!
hambola said:
I don't know how you're operating any of the buttons on the TC with riding gloves on!!
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Click to collapse
anyone got anything more useful to add to what was a serious comment/Q
Man, the battery life sucks on this device So my quest on how to turn the screen completely off and lock the keys properly while running all software (especially GPS based such as TomTom) continues....
Anyone know of a 3rd party app that will do this?
I have not read all 200 pages, but it seems there are mixed results for running S2U2 on the Touch Cruise (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=353008) ? Anyone having success?
Thanks
I know its late but I just saw this and thought I would mention that I managed to over come using TomTom without the device being on. However it doesnt save much on power as the GPS device need power to work.
But I using a simple function I wrote in my application to lock the device using the standard device lock API calls and then rather than switchingthe device into sleep mode (off) I switched it into IDLE mode, which is basically just switching the screen off, the device lock prevents any unwanted button presses.
The power button would just return this back to normal.
I have not yet worked out how to stop the device brightness changing when the screen lock is enabled on the device... :/ Which is my next task.
Ramakin...
well that would be great because even saving having the screen dimmed during lock would help battery life. And, pressing the power button to resume would be MUCH easier than stabbing around at in the sun trying to unlock the screen. It would also make TomTom behave like all other 21C GPS applications, i.e. run on idle.
So, can you send details?
During a recent motorbike trip where I just used TomTom and tracking software (even turned the phone off) I was SHOCKED at how crap the battery life was

Password Protect

Hi guys when I first setup my phone it asked me if I wanted to password protect it and I clicked yes. Now every 3 minutes the phone locks and asks me for my password, this is a good security feature, but its getting annoying. I cant find out where I can change the settings so it locks up every 10 minutes..Please help.
Also...
The button on the top left of the screen that turns the screen on and off, my finger always hits this button when I am typing and it turns off the screen and when I press the button to turn the screen back on it takes me the home screen without saving what I was typing (i.e. a sms or something else)...is there anyways around this?
Thanks a bunch
skiiman1 said:
Hi guys when I first setup my phone it asked me if I wanted to password protect it and I clicked yes. Now every 3 minutes the phone locks and asks me for my password, this is a good security feature, but its getting annoying. I cant find out where I can change the settings so it locks up every 10 minutes..Please help.
Also...
The button on the top left of the screen that turns the screen on and off, my finger always hits this button when I am typing and it turns off the screen and when I press the button to turn the screen back on it takes me the home screen without saving what I was typing (i.e. a sms or something else)...is there anyways around this?
Thanks a bunch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, to take care of your password issue, go to Start > Settings > Lock and in there you will see the settings on how long your phone will wait to lock again after inactivity (after you type your password). You can also use this area to chang your password. Hope this helps.
As far as your issue with the power button, I'm sorry but I don't have any suggestions.

screen not really locked HD2 TMO and ...

HI,
Is there a way to really lock the phone from dialing last number? I mean,if I forgot to lock the phone and put the phone in my pocket. It dials my last number. Is there a way to prevent that besides remembering to lock the phone first.
Also, if its locked in my pocket, can the screen or buttons have a slighter delay from coming on to slide and unlock. I am trying to keep a longer battery life
Lastly, when I am on a call, and I press OK on the call and end up on the main menu while putting the phone back to my face, my face seems like it clicking on stuff. Is there a cab or tool to fix that so when you put the phone back to your face it does not start to engaged stuff.
Thanks
richsark said:
HI,
Is there a way to really lock the phone from dialing last number? I mean,if I forgot to lock the phone and put the phone in my pocket. It dials my last number. Is there a way to prevent that besides remembering to lock the phone first.
Also, if its locked in my pocket, can the screen or buttons have a slighter delay from coming on to slide and unlock. I am trying to keep a longer battery life
Lastly, when I am on a call, and I press OK on the call and end up on the main menu while putting the phone back to my face, my face seems like it clicking on stuff. Is there a cab or tool to fix that so when you put the phone back to your face it does not start to engaged stuff.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi, is my question not valid? or am i not explaining it correctly?
1. I think it's easier to just remembering press the "hang up red button" before you put it in your pocket. It is that simple which you do not need an app for that.
2. By doing that will probably not save you much battery power imo.
3. There is a distance detector built-in right next to the battery charging indicator. Your screen is supposed to lock when you picked up a call and put the phone close to your face.
You can do a simple test just to cover the sensor or detector while you are on the phone with others. If your screen does not lock and goes completely blank, there is probably a problem with the sensor.
Hope these help.
zerglisk said:
1. I think it's easier to just remembering press the "hang up red button" before you put it in your pocket. It is that simple which you do not need an app for that.
2. By doing that will probably not save you much battery power imo.
3. There is a distance detector built-in right next to the battery charging indicator. Your screen is supposed to lock when you picked up a call and put the phone close to your face.
You can do a simple test just to cover the sensor or detector while you are on the phone with others. If your screen does not lock and goes completely blank, there is probably a problem with the sensor.
Hope these help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you ! I understand

Lockscreen Timeout Issue

so my girlfriend and me both have an S6, but I noticed an annoying thing.
The lockscreen timeout, when the device is locked and you press the power/home button, mine goes back to black in about 8 seconds and that is nice, but my gf screen, goes out in less then 5. not enough time to see all the notifications. i googled a bit and seems others encountered the same issue. even some, less then 2seconds. now i would like to know if others have the same short time or is mine pretty long or any way in changing the duration...
Nees3 said:
so my girlfriend and me both have an S6, but I noticed an annoying thing.
The lockscreen timeout, when the device is locked and you press the power/home button, mine goes back to black in about 8 seconds and that is nice, but my gf screen, goes out in less then 5. not enough time to see all the notifications. i googled a bit and seems others encountered the same issue. even some, less then 2seconds. now i would like to know if others have the same short time or is mine pretty long or any way in changing the duration...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's because you have power saving mode on.
Nope, it is not active. When it is activated it indeed goes off withing a second or 2, but when off, mine does 8 seconds, hers about 4seconds.
If you want, I can make a video... I'm using pattern unlock, on both phones. I notice on mine, when I press the home-button, it takes about 2 seconds for the message to drawn the pattern, to show on the screen, above the dots. On hers, it is immediately. So that is 2 seconds "faster" for no reason.

Got my US F8331 fingerprint scanner to work

24 hours dicking around with Flashtool, et al. Countless fails, reinstalls, re-downloads ... Horray, the fingerprint scanner now works.
So what? You still have to press the power button to get the screen to come on then position your finger correctly on the power button (thus, an extra step just to wake the phone up).
Is there some profound bit of knowledge​ I'm missing out on or is that all this fingerprint scanner can do? I mean, the amount of inet press on what an "epic fail" the entire US line of Xperias are due to the inability to use this pretty useless feature causes me to wonder if anybody who's reviewed the device has actually even touched one.
Anybody know how to use this thing as an alternate to logins or anything other than as a screen wake up?
You still have to press the power button to get the screen to come on then position your finger correctly on the power button (thus, an extra step just to wake the phone up).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems no more than normal.
It just seems there's a lot of bad press on a really great phone over a very minor, inconsequential feature. (Which once the Samsung 9 or Apple 8 come out, Sony's patent problems with the device will be over and they just slip it into an update. I'm sensing December ...)
If you haven't gone thru the trouble of this very frustrating issue of enabling the fingerprint scanner, do yourself a favor and don't bother with it. You can fully live your life AMD enjoy this beautifully engineered phone without it.

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