A recent March security over-the-air update may have left fingerprint sensors on Google’s Nexus 5X and 6P a little finicky.
The monthly updates are normal, and are a push from Google to offer more frequent security updates for its devices, but it’s not supposed to affect Nexus Imprint. Phandroid writer Derek Ross posted his issues after the update to Google+ and received quite a few responses from other Nexus 5X and 6P owners. Other Google+ users and Redditors are chiming in, saying their fingerprint sensors haven’t been working like normal after the update.
Updated on 03-21-2016 by Julian Chokkattu: Added a statement from Google.
A representative from Google says the product team has been able to “reproduce the issue” and are now looking into offering a fix.
The issue is that sometimes, the fingerprint sensor essentially stops working. It doesn’t offer any feedback via haptics or any sign in the OS that it’s not recognizing a finger — it doesn’t respond at all. It’s taking people are few tries to get into their phone with their fingerprint sensor. It doesn’t always happen on these devices, and the issue isn’t widespread — some users who received the update don’t have any problems.
In the meantime, unlocking your device via passcode and relocking it can temporarily fix the issue, but the problem could still persist. A simple phone restart worked for some users, and Phandroid says some users recommend disabling Doze mode could completely fix the issue, but we haven’t been able to confirm it.
If these workarounds don’t help, your best bet is to unlock your phone like you used to with your passcode until Google offers a fix for the problem.
