Cold, dry fingers can stop your phone's fingerprint unlock from working

If your phone's fingerprint unlock keeps failing as the weather turns cold, dry skin may be the reason. A writer at Tom's Guide says a quick fix is to wipe your finger across your nose or forehead before trying again. It sounds gross, but it worked for him.

What is going on

Many premium Android phones have a fingerprint scanner built into the screen. Dry skin can keep those scanners from recognizing your finger, and cold weather dries out hands. Tom Pritchard, the site's UK Phones Editor, hit this problem last week on his Pixel 10 Pro. The phone failed to read his fingerprint about 90% of the time, so he had to type his PIN.

He first blamed his screen protector. He had dropped the phone on a gravel path a couple of months earlier, and the protector was chipped and cracked.

The nose trick

Then he remembered a tip he first heard in 2023. Wipe your finger on your nose, and the scanner often works again. For him, it was not perfect, but it was enough to unlock the phone without hitting the failed-attempts limit. Hitting that limit turns off fingerprint unlock. He also found that touching his forehead, or anywhere in the T-zone, worked just as well.

The tip began when Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 owners reported fingerprint problems for months. Some realized dryness was behind many of the failures. They found that the oils on the face, which gather on the nose and forehead, helped for a short time.

Those skin oils act as a barrier that helps keep moisture in. Pritchard says he is not sure whether the oil hydrates the skin or just adds a thin layer that helps the scan.

Newer scanners help, but not fully

At the time, Google's use of an optical fingerprint scanner was a main suspect. The ultrasonic scanner that debuted on the Pixel 9 works a lot better than the older ones. Even so, in Pritchard's experience with the Pixel 10 Pro, it still struggles when skin gets very dry in cold weather.

What to do

• Touch your nose or forehead, then try your fingerprint again.
• Moisturize your hands before they dry out, not after.
• Wear gloves for work around the house.
• Lotion apparently works too, but the writer has not tested it.

This is one person's experience on one phone, and the fix only restored part of the scanner's reliability. Keep your PIN handy as a backup.