Galaxy S8 is finally out! And, oh, boy, we’re in for a treat! First impressions are mostly positive and Samsung’s latest flagship is in the race for the smartphone of the year with the great battery, futuristic bezel-less design, an iris scanner, and it’s own smart assistant that promises a lot.
You would imagine that the premium device like S8 doesn’t have a lot of flaws. And, for all intents and purposes, it doesn’t. But there into play comes Samsung’s notorious system update that always brings out the bag of issues. Today, we’ll try to address the fingerprint scanner that got unresponsive after the update. One user posted the query and this is his explanation of the problem at hand:
”After the software update that came out a few days ago, my fingerprint scanner hasn’t been responding. I used to use it to unlock my phone. Now it isn’t picking up that I have my finger there. I went into settings and deleted my fingerprints I had registered. Then when I went to re-register my prints it would not pick up that my finger was there.”
So, if you have similar issues with your brand new Galaxy S8, these are some workarounds that you can use to resolve this issue.
Clean your fingerprint scanner
For starters, let’s clean the fingerprint scanner. Even the smallest particles of dust can create a problem with the fingerprint readings. You can use any soft material like cloth, apply a little water on it, and wipe gently over the surface of the reader. After that, you can use the dry cloth to rub any remaining liquid from the scanner.
Have in mind that these are just the precaution measures and that this is, at least most of the time, a software issue.
Restart your device
Once we got the exterior of the reader sorted out, let’s move to a more reasonable culprit for this issue: annoying software bug. We won’t place our bets on the restart as the permanent solution, but, you’ll at least be able to use the fingerprint reader for some time.
The first step you can take when it comes to bugs is to simply turn it off and on again. After the phone is on, check for changes with the fingerprint scanner. However, if the problem is still there, check the steps below before sending the angry ticket to responsible service or carrier.
Disable fingerprint gestures
Now we have reached the climax. Most of the folks seem to neglect the fact that the Nougat upgrade is a major miss for the South Korean megacorp. Yes, some of the features are more than welcomed, but what’s with the negative effects Android 7.0 had cast upon the Galaxy devices?
And, for a lot of users of S8, the latest update broken the fingerprint recognition. Or, to be more exact, the fingerprint gestures that are great and quite a useful feature. Some users reported that they retrieved fingerprint function by disabling fingerprint gestures. If you’re unsure how to do that, follow the instructions below:
- Tap Settings.
- Open Advanced features.
- Navigate to Finger sensor gestures and toggle it off.
- Now you should be able to use only the unlock function of the fingerprint scanner.
As you can see, this is a temporary solution and all you can do is wait for the next update to fix the bug. Then, hopefully, you’ll be able to use the gestures again.
Restore factory settings
At the end, if you’re willing to trade your custom setup and saved data for the possible resolution of this issue, the factory reset is a viable solution. We’re aware that this is an undesirable action for most of the users, but there’s a great chance that you’ll resolve your issues. On the other hand, you can wait for the next update to sort it out.
If you’re unaware how to perform the factory reset on your S8, the instructions are just below. Of course, don’t forget to backup your data. You can use the PC suite to back it up on your PC or the cloud services to back it up online.
- Open Settings.
- Tap Backup & reset.
- Tap Reset device.
- Confirm with the Erase everything.
- The phone will restart and, hopefully, your fingerprint scanner issue will be gone for good.
That’s it. Don’t forget to report the problem to Samsung, as they can’t repair something that they’re not aware of. Additionally, we’ll like to hear your first impressions of the device and are you satisfied with what you’ve got.
The comments section is just below.
