I just got an iPhone 5, from a local used shop. For some reason TouchID doesn't work.

[Eug]

Heh. I have a iPhone 5s, and just picked up a refurbed iPhone 5 for the wife. Looks pristine, which makes sense I guess since I believe they buy busted iPhones and then replace the screen and housing. Since this is from some small used/refurb/grey market smartphone store, I've been testing it for the time being.

I keep holding my thumb on the home button to unlock the screen and nothing happens... Then I realize it doesn't have TouchID.

I tells ya: It's really hard going back to a phone without TouchID.

P.S. My experience with this phone purchase just reiterates my resolve not to purchase any iPhone off Kijiji/Craigslist. The phone I got was supposedly unlocked (T-Mobile AWS), but it wasn't. So I took it back and they gave me an unlocked one without AWS for a bit less money.

 

[Joe1987]

I'm a big fan of TouchID, if I could jailbreak the thing and share my data, I'd be in heaven.

 

[Oyeve]

Touch id has been nothing but trouble for some of my users. The sensor works 1 out of three times and the users keep saying the button doesnt work as they have to press it a few times before it gets a response. I had them disable the stupid sensor and went back to 4 digit passcode.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, it can be finicky, but what I did that helped TouchID is set several different entries for the same thumb (the one that I use the most for IDing). That works better. I still sometimes have to scan it more than once, but it's still easier one handed than typing in the passcode.

P.S. One of the benefits of buying from a shop instead of Craigslist: I wanted silver, but they only had black in that model. I didn't feel like waiting a week or whatever so instead of letting me leave empty handed they just swapped in a silver shell. Consequently the IMEI and model number on the shell doesn't match the actual phone's internals, but I don't care.

 

[gevorg]

The key to any used phone purchase is to check the serial and IMEI beforehand for 3 things:

1) if it is reported as lost/stolen
2) if it is off-contract and unlocked
3) if it is still has warranty

Took me about 3 days to track down a perfect phone, searching eBay and CL. Bought a ~1 month used iPhone 5 32GB (with 11 months remaining Apple warranty) for just $425. Nearly half the price of the new 5S. TouchID is nice, but not worth the MSRP price when you have iPhone 5 as an alternative. IMHO. YMMV.

 

[Zxian]

Fingerprints aren't passwords.

 

[Eug]

The key to any used phone purchase is to check the serial and IMEI beforehand for 3 things:

1) if it is reported as lost/stolen
2) if it is off-contract and unlocked
3) if it is still has warranty

Took me about 3 days to track down a perfect phone, searching eBay and CL. Bought a ~1 month used iPhone 5 32GB (with 11 months remaining Apple warranty) for just $425. Nearly half the price of the new 5S. TouchID is nice, but not worth the MSRP price when you have iPhone 5 as an alternative. IMHO. YMMV.

Yeah, I wasn't willing to spend the time trying to do that, considering good deals around here are snapped up in minutes. Plus I hate dealing with CL these days. (See the Off Topic thread.) I ended up paying $400 + a trade-in for a 16 GB iPhone 5, with case and screen protector, unlocked. (Carrier locked is about $100 cheaper.) There was some warranty left on it, but probably invalid, since the shop had swapped in a new screen, and definitely not valid after I had them swap in a new back shell. However, the store provides a warranty anyways, which was a bit longer than what was left on the AppleCare.

The problem with #1 though is that a phone can be reported stolen after it is sold. That has happened a few times around here apparently.

And as for #3, see my above paragraph. Any work done by an unauthorized shop voids AppleCare. In my case, if you type in the serial re: Apple Warranty here, it says there are several months left, but that's simply not true in reality.

I paid full retail at the Apple Store for my unlocked iPhone 5s though. Ouch.

 

[Rottie]

Is TouchID really useful? I got a new iPhone 5s last month but never used TouchID.

 

[Eug]

Is TouchID really useful? I got a new iPhone 5s last month but never used TouchID.

Try it and see. I like it a lot. However, it can be finicky. I set several finger entries as the same thumb but in different positions, to reduce login misses.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Regarding the original post. Were you asking how to get Touch ID to work on the iPhone 5 (last year's model)? Because the Touch ID is a new feature on the 5S and doesn't exist on the 5.

 

[TheStu]

Regarding the original post. Were you asking how to get Touch ID to work on the iPhone 5 (last year's model)? Because the Touch ID is a new feature on the 5S and doesn't exist on the 5.

He was being facetious.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, it was a joke... just to illustrate just how much TouchID has become second nature to me. By the end of a full day I was starting to get used to not having TouchID again, but even then I still from time to time found myself waiting for TouchID to activate.

I had been thinking I maybe should give my wife my 32 GB iPhone 5s instead (and I would take the 16 GB iPhone 5), since she takes a lot of kid pix and it'd be good for her to have more storage and a better camera, but after using the iPhone 5 for a day I decided to be selfish and keep my 5s for the TouchID.

The other issue is that with the 5s, at least until relatively recently, I got a few random resets with a few times here and there. Infrequent but annoying nonetheless. I don't recall seeing one recently with iOS 7.0.4, but that may just be luck. The iPhone 5 seems rock stable however, which is good for a non-smartphone-geek like my wife.

If the iPhone 6 is good, maybe I'll buy one of those and give her the 5s then. By then the bugs should be gone too... at least until iOS 8 is out...

 

[Joe1987]

Is TouchID really useful? I got a new iPhone 5s last month but never used TouchID.

IMHO, it's one of the best features of the 5s

 

[Oyeve]

IMHO, it's one of the best features of the 5s

It's the ONLY feature.

 

[TheStu]

It's the ONLY feature.

Better camera and A7 don't make the cut? What about the improved flash?

 

[Eug]

Yeah, I bought the 5s over a cheaper 5 mainly because of the camera and TouchID. In low light, the camera is indeed a large improvement. The flash is also an improvement, but I still prefer not using it whenever possible.

BTW, I may be imagining this, or maybe not, but it seems to me that Safari doesn't have to reload tabbed pages as often on the iPhone 5 as it does on the iPhone 5s. Assuming this isn't placebo effect, I suspect the reason for this is the 64-bitness is causing increased memory utilization, leaving less of the 1 GB available. Thus, I'm trying to hold off for iPad Air version 2 with 2 GB RAM before I upgrade from my iPad 2.

 

[nace186]

Still on the fence about this.

I mean, I like the idea, but it would be better if it recognize more than 1 finger. For example, if I set my thumb as the password, I can't use other finger to open up while the phone laying on the desk to check something quick

 

[TheStu]

Still on the fence about this.

I mean, I like the idea, but it would be better if it recognize more than 1 finger. For example, if I set my thumb as the password, I can't use other finger to open up while the phone laying on the desk to check something quick

You can set up to 5 fingers.

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah, I really like TouchID, and it works fairly well. I've had a few times when nothing happens even with my finger against the sensor. It doesn't even say that I need to try again or anything.

If you want an unlocked used phone, just look for a Verizon phone. They have to be unlocked because of the FCC spectrum that they bought. I finally sold my old iPhone 5 on eBay, and other than a warranty, it has everything on that list.

 

[tamm]

For a minute there the title confused me...How do you buy an iPhone without the feature set, but i guess mistakes happen. But yea touch id is convenient but not a feature set I would not consider mandatory. The bigger thing, is that the iPhone 5s will be relevant much longer than the 5 since it moves to a 64bit processor.

 

[Aikouka]

But yea touch id is convenient but not a feature set I would not consider mandatory.

TouchID does allow me to set my phone to always require a password when unlocking without aggravating me by requiring me to type in a code each time. That's rather nice when you have people that think it's funny to mess with your phone. :|

 

[BuCkDoG]

I have a iPhone 5s as well and I can attest that Touch ID is definitely not what it has been hyped up to be. The thing worked 1 out of 5 times and sometimes you even have to delete the fingerprint and rescan for it to work again. This might be a software issue of it not recognizing it as good but who knows. Only time will tell. It does seem like the "S" models are test models like Siri was with iPhone 4S and we all know how that went at launch...

 

[Aikouka]

I have a iPhone 5s as well and I can attest that Touch ID is definitely not what it has been hyped up to be. The thing worked 1 out of 5 times and sometimes you even have to delete the fingerprint and rescan for it to work again. This might be a software issue of it not recognizing it as good but who knows. Only time will tell. It does seem like the "S" models are test models like Siri was with iPhone 4S and we all know how that went at launch...

My friend had the same TouchID failing problem along with the GUI crashing and a bad battery drain issue (not one of the serial numbers in the recall list though). The Apple Store made him reinstall the firmware, but after he still had the same problems, they gave him a replacement phone. His replacement phone does not have the same TouchID problems and works just as well as mine does.

 

[blackened23]

Is TouchID really useful? I got a new iPhone 5s last month but never used TouchID.

Yes. For app store purchases I like it quite a bit.

Some people find it finicky but the key is, as others have mentioned, take multiple prints of your thumb and that will go a long way towards making it recognize you more easily. You can scan multiple fingerprints, just scan your thumb multiple times....

I love the iPhone 5s, but I do hope the next iteration of iphone has a larger screen. The current size is getting a little long in the tooth, and since most of my usage involves data/media consumption - a bigger screen would be nice. I can't see myself getting the next version of iphone if the screen is the same size.

 

[Eug]

Camera no longer works. I think the camera and flash module may not be seated properly. Back to the store I go.