Home button quit working . . .

[Andy002]

The home button, to open my almost 3 year old SE seems to have quit working. It's been funny the past week or two, I'd have to press it a few times for it to open the phone, but sometimes that wasn't necessary. Now it's not working at all -- I have to enter my passcode each time, although once I do that I can navigate around the phone okay using the button. My thumb doesn't have any cuts or anything across the print.

Should I re-do the thumbprint sequence? I'm paranoid of doing these kinds of things (like changing passwords) because more often than not, over the past 33 years, something goes wrong and I lose access. One would hope that with the 6-ditgit phone passcode that won't happen.

EDIT: I just got this email since making the above post. I got one a couple of days ago, same thing. I assumed it was a spoof so reported it as spam. Got it again now after monkeying with my phone.

I'm assuming this is not legit, anyone know for sure?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

You are describing 2 different things: on/off clicks and fingerprint reader.

If "having to press it a few times" for it to do something, that's very different than unlocking the phone by it reading your print. For the latter, you shouldn't have to press it at all- just hold your print on it.

Is the top of the button clean? Is your finger in its usual state (not wet, not scratched, not chapped)? It's winter in the northern hemisphere- could temps be affecting your finger and/or humidity shifts from cold to warm be affecting the reads?

Get it ready for log in and just lay your finger on the button (no press). If it doesn't log in by reading your print, slightly shift your finger and hold still for a second or two. If not again, slightly shift your finger and try again.

If after logging in, pressing the button works fine, then yes, rescan the print. No paranoia required if it can't read your print anymore. The 6-digit passcode will still work. After it scans the print again, see if you can login with the print. If so, things are fixed. If not, something seems to be wrong with your fingerprint scanner. One more thing you could try is scanning ANOTHER finger or two just to fully cover this base.

If you still have no success, head for an Apple Store and see if they can get it working.

 

[Nermal]

Another thing you could try, at least as a temporary measure, is to disable fingerprint authentication altogether. That would help to narrow down where the problem lies.

As for that email, it's a scam. Ignore/delete it.

 

[Andy002]

You are describing 2 different things: on/off clicks and fingerprint reader.

If "having to press it a few times" for it to do something, that's very different than unlocking the phone by it reading your print. For the latter, you shouldn't have to press it at all- just hold your print on it.

Is the top of the button clean? Is your finger in its usual state (not wet, not scratched, not chapped)? It's winter in the northern hemisphere- could temps be affecting your finger and/or humidity shifts from cold to warm be affecting the reads?

Get it ready for log in and just lay your finger on the button (no press). If it doesn't log in by reading your print, slightly shift your finger and hold still for a second or two. If not again, slightly shift your finger and try again.

If after logging in, pressing the button works fine, then yes, rescan the print. No paranoia required if it can't read your print anymore. The 6-digit passcode will still work. After it scans the print again, see if you can login with the print. If so, things are fixed. If not, something seems to be wrong with your fingerprint scanner. One more thing you could try is scanning ANOTHER finger or two just to fully cover this base.

If you still have no success, head for an Apple Store and see if they can get it working.

I re-did the fingerprint thing and deleted "Fingerprint 1." Seems okay now, can't believe there were no glitches.

Thanks.

 

[Andy002]

Another thing you could try, at least as a temporary measure, is to disable fingerprint authentication altogether. That would help to narrow down where the problem lies.

As for that email, it's a scam. Ignore/delete it.

Thanks.