So I’ve installed Big Sur on my 2020 13" MBP (Intel) and I can’t seem to get Touch ID to work at all. It was working just fine before on Catalina. Whenever a password dialog comes up I have to type it in by hand, there’s not even an option for Touch ID. Touch ID prefs showed boxes checked at first. After a reboot login boxe shows unchecked, but password autofill still checked. Checked login box too, was asked to enter password, password accepted, closed prefs. Still nothing. Go back to prefs and see boxes showing unchecked again. WTH?
Also noted, cannot check box for iTunes Store. It will simply not accept a click and put in a checkmark. It’s not grayed out or anything, just won’t react to clicking.
This just got even more odd. I noticed that to unlock my Security Pref pane I cannot use my password. I enter the exact same password I used to log on to my Mac and it’s simply refused. I checked for typos, wrong keyboard layout, etc. It;'s none of that. This is an admin password that works fine for logging on to the Mac, sudo, etc. but the Sys Pref pane will not accept it. ???
Turns out several other folks were experiencing the same issue. A simple SMC reset indeed fixed all the issues I was seeing (had to set up Apple Card from scratch though).
I’m not going to complain too loudly about this because to my great relief the fix turned out to be very simple.
The one thing I just don’t get is, if the Big Sur update needs an SMC reset to work reliably (at least on some systems), why doesn’t Apple just have the updater itself trigger the process? Heck even a popup telling me to do an SMC reset to complete the update successfully would have been better.
That’s my point. There are so many things like this happening these days, more with each new update, that I’m left wondering if they even do any real quality control anymore. I’m self-employed as a solo Apple-specific support person, so I see it all, and it’s seriously out of control. YMMV, of course…
When I got my first MacBook with Touch ID (M1, yeah!) and Big Sur, I wondered why I still had to type the admin password for installing things and was never asked to use Touch ID. It turned out that to use Touch ID for acting as an admin, your user account needs to set up as an administrator. Pretty obvious, but it tripped me up at first.
I’ve seen some suggestions that the M1-based Macs do away with SMC, or at least the need for resets. Apparently NVRAM is monitored on every boot and reset automatically if necessary. It’s entirely possible that Apple agrees with you, but it was too hard to do within the Intel platform.
I don’t know how it could be related, but I just tried (from a user account) to run sudo in Terminal and it would not accept the admin password. (I entered “sudo admin” and “sudo - admin”, each of which had worked before, and entered the password incorrectly three time, according to Terminal.) I gave up and switched user to the admin account and logged in just fine, then ran the sudo command from there.
I was on an M1 MBA that had been restarted earlier today. Any suggestions?
My 15-inch MacBook Pro (early2015) has basically refused to use Touch ID with Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur. If I reset it, it works the first time I use it—then stops responding again. A real dog of a feature in my experience.
You might (if you haven’t already) try removing and re-enrolling your fingerprints. If they didn’t get a good scan the first time, it may be unable to make a good comparison later.
FWIW, the fingerprint sensor on an HP laptop I use seems to have problems if there’s moisture on my fingertips (e.g. if I recently washed). Wiping them down on my clothes or a paper napkin seems to help.
Yes, I can use my user login password instead of a fingerprint scan if Touch ID is enabled; but this doesn’t explain why Touch ID is such a dud on my computer.
You must have a different model, the first Mac with a Touch ID sensor was the Late 2016. The Touch ID System Preference does not appear when booting a Mac that lacks the hardware.
Fingerprint reader hardware doesn’t work well for everyone. Some professions can cause one’s fingerprint ridges to become less well-defined, chemotherapy treatments can cause swelling that affects them, but most common is skin changes due to age. Can You Lose Your Fingerprints?
Have you tried setting it up with other fingers, your ring or middle finger and/or a finger on your non-dominant hand? The prints on other fingers may be easier for Touch ID to read.
To me it wouldn’t be a worthwhile purchase for this alone but an Apple Watch can be associated with a Mac’s Touch ID so instead of using the fingerprint reader, you double-tap the button on the side of the watch. Given where my Mac is on my desk, I find the Apple Watch unlock feature convenient.
You are correct. My last message contained an error. My 15-inch MacBook Pro is the early 2017 model. I also have a 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro. Thanks for your suggestions. I may try them, but Touch ID really isn’t very important to me. I’ve lived without since the first Mac was invented, and I can live without it now.
