Eighty8

Also an interesting workaround. I've tested it, but unfortunately it doesn't work for me either. 😔

Initially, I was still offered biometric unlocking from time to time. For a few days now, I've been asked to enter my password every time I change my profile.

I don't really want to replace my long password with a short PIN for the sake of convenience, even though it should probably still be very secure due to the throtteling. As I change profiles frequently, this is quite annoying in the long run...

    16 days later

    If anyone else is struggling with this problem, I have found another workaround that sometimes helps:

    If the prompt for entering the password appears when changing the profile, swipe from left to right (go back) 1-2 times. Then I can usually see the fingerprint prompt and successfully unlock the profile with the fingerprint.

    A note: I use Gesture navigation (Settings>System>Gestures>Navigation mode>Gesture navigation) - I can't say whether the workaround also works with "Go back" in 3-button navigation.

    It works for me in roughly half of all attempts - unfortunately not a perfect solution, but in my case it saves me entering a long password at least every 2nd attempt.

      • [deleted]

      • Post #49

      Murcielago Tried but it doesn't seems to work for me. Thanks anyway

          [deleted]

          Oh, what a pity to hear that. As I said, it doesn't always work for me either. Hopefully the bug will be fixed upstream soon.

            I have the issues of no fingerprint option when switching profiles . once logged in it works as intended without doing anything special . seems to have happened in the last two updates .

            a month later

            @GrapheneOS this has been marked as an upstream issue and bug tracker shows no sign of it going to be resolved.
            However since upstream seem they are not going to fix this isn't this something that should be fixed within GrapheneOS scope?
            Profile switching is a core GOS usability and feature that lets us separate information between profiles. GOS has made using profile more usable in many ways.

            Having the option of seamless switching between these profiles while using a good authentication method such as fingerprint is really needed. It could be because you are in a camera surveillance area and don't want to enter the code all time.

            My question is, isnt this something that should be considered to be fixed after all? Since upstream has had this tagged for 9 months now.

            As of now with latest version of GOS this issue is still present. The fingerprint unlock option is disabled when switching profiles back and forth and requires passcode everytime.

              JayJay

              I don't know if GOS can fix this, but I agree with you 100% about usability: I have several profiles that I have to switch between frequently every day for security reasons (work & private) or want to switch between for privacy reasons (profile with Google services and "degoogled" profiles).

              A few days ago, biometrics stopped working at all when switching profiles. Profiles and the way you can use them in GrapheneOS are an absolutely great security and privacy feature whose usability is unfortunately significantly limited by the biometrics bug. I also don't want to shorten my password just to make this bug easier or merge profiles to reduce the number of changes.

                10 days later

                treequell Sorry, I wasn't able to find this particular bug in the AOSP issue tracker.

                Could anyone please point one out if it still exists there or perhaps it makes sense to report the issue to Google again if it doesn't?

                    traveller Hello, I'm still having the issue even after a few updates from GOS. Whenever I switch profiles, either profile is locked and I have to type the password again (which doesn't make sense because I was on this profile a few moments ago), either the fingerprint doesn't appear and I have to turn off/turn on to see fingerprint.

                        I have been on one current GOS install since Android 13, and I did not have any problems until I left my phone in a Faraday bag for awhile and it secure timed reset a few times. Maybe this has to do with it.
                        Now, it always defaults to PIN when switching profiles. I found that to get biometric quickly I can slide up and it will allow me to biometric. Same with pressing sleep button, and then waking it up again. Rarely it will put both the pin prompt with the biometric overlayed on top and this works.
                        Every once in awhile, it will not give me the biometric prompt at all even if I do the steps above for the Owner profile when I switch out of any profile.

                          Freedomain forgot to mention this, I also have the PIN prompt color profile bug described above as well. It switches to a default color then when you refresh the PIN prompt it goes back to the profile's correct PIN profile colors.

                            Freedomain

                            I've seen multiple bugs with the lockscreen like this, which makes me wonder whether there can also be bugs that allow to bypass entering PIN and unlock the (previously logged in) profile without entering PIN at all.

                              6 days later

                              I am a relatively new GOS user and having the same problem with the fingerprint sensor on a Pixel 8 when changing from a user profile to my main profile. It didn't happen from the beginning, but started a few days ago.

                              Now I am asking myself if it might be due to the way of changing profiles.

                              1. The fingerprint option seems to disappear, if you close the secondary profile from the lock screen.

                              2. I am not sure, but it seems to work well, if from within the secondary profile you swipe down twice to show the toggle screen with switches like air plane mode, network, bluettoth, NFC etc and then choose the mainprofile using the switch on the lower right.

                              18 days later

                              matchboxbananasynergy Nothing fancy, have owner account and 1 secondary user(owner have play services installed and secondary account doesn't have). after switching back to the owner account the fingerprint icon is showing up now and im able to unlock.
                              Have you tried creating a new account and test with that just incase. I just created 1 more new user and still its working.

                                  W1zardK1ng does the secondary account have a fingerprint or not? how are you switching to owner? via end session? have you allowed the secondary profile to run in the background via the toggle?

                                      matchboxbananasynergy Secondary account have fingerprint and pin. both ending session and switching to owner by clicking the user icon from notification panel is working. run in background is also enabled.

                                        Issue still occurs for me on a secondary profile with a fingerprint and on one without. It's not consistent, which is why it can't be fixed easily.