Workaround allows Touch ID to recognize more than 5 fingerprints

Touch ID success

One of the features of Touch ID is the ability to capture and save up to 5 different fingerprints. This not only allows you to unlock your iPhone with both of your hands, but it also allows you to give multiple users access.

Try to save a sixth fingerprint, however, and you’ll find you’re unable to—the option to add a new fingerprint gets disabled after 5 saves. That is, unless you use this little workaround to register multiple prints to each save…

YouTube user Note Suwanchote (via iMore) posted a video earlier this week of a little trick he discovered that allows you to register more than 5 fingerprints to Touch ID. And it’s as easy as scanning multiple fingers at once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qasx0NUDRw

And here are his accompanying notes:

“When you register a finger, the sensor can recognize and differentiate at a minimum of 5 fingers per each set up.

It does not go up to 10 though but somewhere in between. This means that with the set up, you can have the sensor recognize up to 25 (possibly more) uniques fingerprints. My brother documents this in the video.”

I can confirm this works. If you use multiple fingers while registering a fingerprint, Touch ID will recognize them later. For instance, I was able to unlock my 5s with any finger on my right hand, even though I only “scanned” one.

It’s hard to tell if this is a bug or a feature. But the consensus is that since Apple specifically advertises Touch ID as being able to recognize 5 prints, this little gem will probably disappear in a future update. For now, though, enjoy.