Hi, I have a kind of annoying issue. I got a Pixel 7a originally. It's okay I guess, it doesn't feel like that big of an upgrade over my 4a but anyway. It does have one massive issue though. The fingerprint scanner doesn't fucking work. I mean, it does work. When it wants to. Which is rare. I have four different fingers on it and none of them work properly. I had zero issues with the fingerprint scanners on the back of my Pixel 4a.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I took a habit of having in my notification controls, the camera and microphone toggles as well as location. That way I can turn them on and off when I need them. The problem is you need to unlock the phone.

So when I am getting a call and my phone is locked, I need to turn on the microphone. But the fingerprint scanner is so goddamn inconsistent on this phone, I am basically missing all of my calls now. Because by the time I am done fiddling with the thing trying to unlock the phone multiple times with my fingerprint without it working, typing in my 8-digit PIN code and finally being able to toggle the microphone on, they hang up.

I looked around the settings and I even googled it to see if there was a way to turn things on and off from the notification controls without unlocking the phone. But I can't seem to find a way to do it. Am I missing something? Is there an option to do so that I am not aware of?

    CryptOwlie it could be a hardware defect on your model. There is not a huge outcry regarding Pixel 7a fingerprint sensor, it's usually said to be better than the gen 6 ones, but worse than before gen 6.

    What you could try is instead of 4 different fingers, add the same finger 2 or 3 times which usually increases success rate. Other reasons I could imagine it not working are a screen protector installation after setup or dirty screen/finger during setup.

    Please let us know if you get it to work.

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        • Post #3

        CryptOwlie also try toggling on
        Settings > Display > Increase touch sensitivity
        if you haven't done already.

          Whether the fingerprint sensor works or not, why does the function not work so that you cannot use this device controls? For example, I don't want to use a fingerprint and I can't also answer a call because this function is absolutely useless if it doesn't do what it mentioned. And I tested, no device controll works, with or without activitied. It is a so called fake function.

            flighty_sloth Yes, I can then operate some basically insecure electronic junk with my locked phone, but answering a call and unlocking the micro was not considered... unbelievable... I don't think so either, they wouldn't do such nonsense, they should be ashamed to include loT devices with a security-hardened phone and have to justify it

                N1b Hi. Late response, sorry. Registering the same finger twice did help, a lot. It sucks though because there is a four finger limit and because I do a double registering, the four slots are taken by two fingers, while I usually register four.

                Oh well. This under the display crap is just a downgrade.

                • N1b likes this.

                  WhoTheFuckisAlice I think the setting is something meant for stock os but included in aosp menu, don't know if it's even functional outside stock os. Even if it is though, If you don't want to use it you don't have to.

                    5 days later

                    So, for now I have one think which is shown in the device controls... its fairemail, if i activate the App I can switch on/off sync of Fairemail. Nice, if there would not be a "device control button" in the task list, i should think it is practical :D