Touch ID issues continue to rack up numerous complaints on Apple’s forums

Mar 19, 2014 13:18 GMT  ·  By

It has become increasingly apparent that Apple will be required to launch a new iOS update to address some widely reported problems. The latest reports involve freezing and hangs on iPhone 5s handsets. The Touch ID problem is also a major one.

As many as five new threads have been opened on Apple Support Communities by iPhone customers who recently updated to iOS 7.1 and noticed severe lag and hangs in the behavior of their handsets.

User andoliv says, “everytime I use the keyboard the iphone starts freezing and legging, with no reason. Just updated to ios7.1. Anyone has any kind of solution for that ? already restarted the phone 5 times, and the problem still unsolved. Hope it wont keep going for so long.”

“After updating to IOS 7.1, Iphone 5S screen freezes on new notifications,” writes anujchamp17, another frustrated customer. “Once the notification bar is gone, then the touch gets enabled. The notifications that I am referring to are of WhatsApp messages.”

On yet another thread, icesamx1 chimes in to say, “After i updated to ios 7.1 my iPhone 5s is glitchy, slow and freezes once in a while, does anybody have the same problem? Its not as smooth as it used to.”

One user identified as anz90 writing on a separate thread actually claims that his problems began with the original iOS 7 firmware. Unlike the previous users we quoted, who all own the latest iPhone (5s), anz90 owns an iPhone 5.

“Issue started when I upgraded the phone to iOS 7. My iPhone 5 started freezing at the lock screen from time to time. I can pull down/up the notification/control center if it is enabled but cannot press or select anything,” he says.

“Pressing the home button will invoke Siri but if you ask to call someone or open an App it will ask to unlock iPhone first and will display the keypad but you cannot press any numbers. Only resolution I could find for this is to reboot the phone,” adds anz90.

Numerous others have similar complaints, and the March 10 thread involving the Touch ID problems has grown to 80,000 views and 102 replies. Add the reported battery drain issues to the mix and Apple has yet another trio of issues to deal with in the next firmware update.

There is no evidence that Apple is currently testing any fixes for these issues, though it’s not too farfetched to assume that iOS 7.1.1 will be deployed relatively soon packing not only code corrections but new features too.