There have been an increasing number of reports from iPhone users running iOS 9.1 that Touch ID is proving slow or unreliable. The issue was first spotted by Forbes earlier this week.

The complaints are similar: users running iOS 9.1 find Touch ID either refuses to recognise a user’s fingerprint, has become highly unreliable or doesn’t even register a fingerprint pressed against it. Users have tried hard resets (holding in the power and home button for 10 seconds) and complete factory resets without any success.

The issue appears to be affecting a small minority of users, but enough to suggest that it is more than coincidence …

Apple was last year forced to pull the iOS 8.0.1 update after reports of problems with both Touch ID and cellular connectivity.

Separately, some users – myself included – are regularly being required to enter our passcodes to unlock our phones, a message saying this is required after 48 hours. Apple’s support page says that a passcode unlock is a requirement when the phone hasn’t been unlocked at all for more than 48 hours, but iOS 9.1 seems to have introduced a bug for some where Touch ID unlocks are not being counted.

A very old Apple Support Communities thread dating back to an unrelated issue with profiles has been resurrected with reports of this latest bug.

An Apple patent for using Touch ID as a ‘panic button‘ was published yesterday.

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