Touch ID takes about 20 seconds to activate in macOS 15.7.1

Go to System Settings > Touch ID Passcode, disable the Use Touch ID to unlock your Mac or Passcode option, wait 10 seconds, then re-enable it to restore instant responsiveness.

Re-enroll Touch ID fingerprints:

System Settings > Touch ID & Password

delete all saved fingerprints and restart.

Add fingerprints again.

Doing what Roll_Jockey suggested worked for me: disable touch id to unlock your mac, wait, reenable.

Thanks!

+1 , upgrading to 15.7.2 seems to have fixed it. Thank you debuggers! :)

After upgrading to 15.7.2, the issue on my computer appears to be fixed!

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Apple.

Sridhar Ananthanarayanan wrote:

Hi,

After macOS 15.7.1, Touch ID takes between 15 to 20 seconds to activate on the lockscreen. If my display is OFF and I wake it up by pressing any key, the lockscreen shows up with all details, but fingerprint scanner does not work for up to 20 seconds. It is only then that I see the 'Touch ID or Password' text under the password box, and after that Touch ID works normally.

What this also means is that I can't wake up my mac, and therefore login, using just Touch ID when the display is OFF.

You can still wake up your Mac with Touch ID, but after 15.7.1 some users have noticed a slight delay upon waking the Mac before the option is presented to use Touch ID. I see this on my MacBook Pro 16" 2019 laptop. But my delay is only 5-7 seconds, not 20. Touch ID still works and you can still wake up your Mac with Touch ID. So if you are in hurry, just enter your password; if you don't mind waiting several seconds, wait and then use Touch ID.

I think Apple should fix this but not knowing what causes it, we can only speculate, and the fix might be complicated or expensive or invasive in some other way. Since the consequences of the issue simply involve the user waiting only several seconds, it might be a low priority item to fix or it might never get fixed because it seems to mostly affect older machines (like mine, which I think Apple would say is "vintage").

Based on what I have seen, this is not due to anything you have done or can control. Also, at least on my machine, most of the time Touch ID is offered immediately, the several second delay occurs only once in a while. So doing things like turning Touch ID off and on might be illusory in terms of resolving it.

I have read that this is related to hand off between the Mac and other devices. So if you are using hand off, you might experiment with settings or even just turn it off to test. I haven't bothered with that because for me, the issue seems almost non-consequential so I am personally ignoring it.

I am experiencing this issue as well on my 2013 MacBook Air (intel). Sometimes I get touchID to unlock immediately and other times I notice my Lock Screen jumps around for about 15sec then I can use Touch ID again. It's quite annoying. I have been chatting with apple support and have gone as far as to reinstall the most recent operating system Sequoia 15.7.1 which did nothing to fix the issue. I've also tried deleting my fingerprints, turning off Touch ID and turning it back on as well as removing any software on startup, nothing has helped. I essentially have given up assuming this is a software bug. Hope they fix it soon!

I have a 15" 2015 MBP & 13" 2019 MBP for work both affected by this. At first I thought it was related to the Touch Bar going away, and assumed that the sensor and unlock code weren't available until both the touch bar and login screen both display "Unlock with Touch ID" and that somehow maybe the "Touch Bar" and "Unlock with TouchID" features are now loaded last in some long loading operation.

I've tried toggling the "Unlock with touch ID" setting (including the 10 second+ wait), as well as removing & replacing the fingerprints themselves, and my MBP still waits 5~10 seconds to enable touch ID for login.

Notably during that delay, the fast user icon switching animation happens a few times, and my name that displays between the user icons and the password input box occasionally disappears or dips down under the password box, and reappears a few times before it all settles out & the touch ID text appears.

dhave wrote:

Hi all,

I have a 2018 15" Macbook Pro that recently started pausing for 20-30 seconds before enabling and offering touch id. It happens "intermittently regularly."

Have you updated to Mac OS 15.7.2?

Problem Solved!

Hi all,

I have a 2018 15" Macbook Pro that recently started pausing for 20-30 seconds before enabling and offering touch id. It happens "intermittently regularly."

It is incredibly frustrating to sit in front of a $3,000 cadillac computer with no UI.

My armchair guess is that someone left a network timeout on the main thread.

Bad programmer, bad programmer. ;)

2c.

Hmm, it seemed to be fixed but the problem is back.