It’s true that Samsung’s fingerprint scanning technology is taking security to higher levels. So, when a friend showed me his A51 phone that has a fingerprint issue, he was visibly shaken and worried his device was hacked.
Naturally, the tech guru in me can’t let this go! To get things started, let’s discuss why fingerprint scanning doesn’t work at times and how you can quickly fix this.
The Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint may not work due to a dirty touchscreen or incompatible screen protector. To fix your Samsung phone’s fingerprint issue, clean the touchscreen or remove its screen protector.
It’s not the only solution, though. In this post, I’m walking you through eight practical solutions for Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint problems, plus a timely backgrounder on why this issue comes up to pester many Samsung phone owners.
Common Reasons for Samsung Galaxy A50 and A51 Fingerprint Issues
The most common reasons your Samsung Galaxy A50 and A51 have fingerprint issues is a treasure trove. Identifying these factors should help you decide the best solutions to fix the fingerprint problem with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51.
- Dirty Touchscreen: Your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 may have trouble recognizing if its touchscreen has layers of dirt or dust. The same thing may happen if you don’t clean your finger before scanning its fingerprint.
- Incompatible Screen Protector: Using an incompatible or bad-quality screen protector might prevent your phone from recognizing your fingerprint.
- Wireless Charging: Wireless charging your Galaxy A50/A51 can reduce the effectiveness of its in-display fingerprint sensors due to the electric waves this process emits.
- Fingerprint Error: You may have registered your fingerprint poorly when setting it up, causing the fingerprint sensor not to recognize it properly.
- Software Problem: Software errors, bugs, and glitches can affect how your phone’s fingerprint sensors work.
- Problematic Temporary Data: The temporary data your phone stores can cause it to malfunction, affecting the reliability of its fingerprint sensors.
How to Fix the Fingerprint Not Working Problem on Samsung Galaxy A50/A51
The troubleshooting tips and tricks presented below have been proven to fix your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51’s fingerprint not working problem. TNote that he solutions below should apply to the A50/A51 4G and the A51 5G variants.
FIX 1. Clean your finger and the phone screen
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 20 to 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 A soft microfiber cleaning cloth Distilled water 70% or higher Isopropyl alcohol solution |
Since the issue with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint not working is often due to dirt buildup, it only makes sense to clean your device’s touchscreen thoroughly.
You must also do the same with your finger before scanning it on your Galaxy A50/A51.
Samsung recommends using a soft and lint-free microfiber cloth so you won’t scratch your phone’s touchscreen while cleaning it. Moisturize the microfiber cloth with distilled water to clean deep-seated dirt while avoiding contact with its inlets.
To disinfect your Galaxy A50/A51’s touchscreen, moisturize the microfiber cloth with isopropyl or ethyl alcohol. However, the alcohol solution must be 70 percent or higher to ensure it’s safe for electronic devices.
After all, you don’t want to accidentally cause liquid damage to your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 while cleaning its touchscreen.
FIX 2. Remove your Galaxy A50/A51’s screen protector
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 20 to 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 A replacement screen protector |
Aside from dirt buildup, the screen protector is another likely reason for the Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint not working problem.
Believe it or not, not all screen protectors work well with in-display fingerprint sensors, so you must use quality ones.
Using a cheap, low-quality screen protector might mess with the fingerprint sensor’s ability to recognize your finger. Thus, you must consider the kind of screen protector to install on your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51’s touchscreen.
Otherwise, you won’t have a choice but to remove the screen protector to make your touchscreen recognize your finger again. It’s a necessary compromise when you can’t access a good-quality screen protector compatible with your Galaxy A50/A51.
FIX 3. Increase your Galaxy A50/A51’s screen sensitivity
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 10 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 |
If you don’t feel comfortable using your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 without a screen protector, you can try increasing its touchscreen sensitivity.
Doing so should improve the effectiveness of your phone’s fingerprint sensors, even with a screen protector on.
This action will help you fix the issue with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint not working until you find a compatible screen protector. In the meantime, your phone should recognize your fingerprints better than before.
However, you must note that in-display fingerprint sensors are optical, so increasing screen sensitivity can only improve it to an extent. Additionally, this wouldn’t have any effect if your phone didn’t have a screen protector initially.
Step 1: Go to Settings. Note: You can also pull the notification bar and click the gear icon in the quick settings panel to access the settings menu. |
Step 2: Go to Display. |
Step 3: Scroll down and toggle the Screen Sensitivity switch on. |
FIX 4. Don’t charge your phone wirelessly
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 1 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 10 to 20 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 A wireless charging adapter |
Wireless charging your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 can reduce the effectiveness of its fingerprint sensors. After all, wireless chargers emit electrical waves during charging, which can mess with the sensor’s ability to recognize fingerprints.
As such, you must avoid wireless charging to fix the issue with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint acting up. Plus, charging your phone using a USB cable is much faster and more efficient than wireless charging.
Unfortunately, Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 doesn’t have wireless charging technology, so this shouldn’t be a concern unless you plug an adapter into it. A wireless charging adapter is a popular way to enable this functionality on unsupported Galaxy phones.
However, since it affects your Galaxy A50/A51 functionality, you should decide whether or not this trade-off is worth it. Of course, you don’t have to give up wireless charging entirely since you can stop it when the fingerprint sensor is acting up.
FIX 5. Re-register your fingerprint
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 |
Another thing you can try is deleting your registered fingerprint if you happen to mess up the first time you set it up.
It’s essential since the mistake can result in your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 failing to recognize your fingerprint when opening its locked screen.
Once you remove your fingerprint from your Samsung phone, you must add another one as its replacement. This action is the only way to correct the improper fingerprint you registered on your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51.
After completing the re-registration process, this should fix the issue with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint not working problem. We also suggest adding two or more fingerprints so your phone has more options to compare with.
Doing so will significantly improve your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51’s fingerprint recognition ability. It’s helpful when you’re inconsistent at placing your finger on your Samsung phone’s in-display fingerprint sensor.
| Step 1: Pull the notification bar and click the gear icon in the quick settings panel to access the settings menu.  |
Step 2: Scroll down and open the Lock Screen option. |
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom-most section and click Fingerprints. |
| Step 4: Press and hold your fingerprints to select them and click the remove option that will appear afterward.  |
| Step 5: Click the Add Fingerprint option to register your fingerprint on your Galaxy A50/A51.  Note: Follow your Galaxy A50/A51’s on-screen instructions to register your fingerprint. |
FIX 6. Wipe your Galaxy A50/A51’s cache partition
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 9 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 1 minute and 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 |
Whenever your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 malfunctions, it’s likely due to the temporary data it stores to make its performance smoother.
Instead of better performance, the data inside your Samsung phone’s cache partition may have the opposite effect.
It happens because temporary data are prone to being corrupted as it adds new data files over time. The older temporary data may also negatively affect your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51’s performance, decreasing its efficiency instead of increasing it.
Therefore, you must habitually wipe your Samsung phone’s cache partition, especially when it malfunctions or suffers from performance-related issues.
After all, poor phone performance may reduce the reliability of the device’s fingerprint sensors.
As such, we recommend wiping the cache partition to fix the issue with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint not working.
Once you complete the cache data wipe, you can try scanning your fingerprint again to see if your phone recognizes it.
Step 1: Pull the notification bar and click the power icon. |
Step 2: Click Power Off. |
Step 3: Click Power Off again to shut down your Galaxy A50/A51. |
Step 4: Hold its volume up and power buttons simultaneously. |
| Step 5: Release the buttons once the Samsung logo appears and wait until it boots into the Android Recovery menu.  |
Step 6: Select “Wipe cache partition.” |
Step 7: Select Yes for confirmation. |
| Step 8: Wait for the “Cache wipe complete” message at the bottom of your Galaxy A50/A51 screen.  |
| Step 9: Select “Reboot system now” and wait while your Galaxy A50/A51 boots up.  |
FIX 7. Update your phone
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 6 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 5 minutes |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 A working internet connection |
One way to deal with software-related issues causing the Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint not functional problem is to conduct a software update. This action should enhance your Samsung phone’s software by upgrading it to the latest version.
Perform a software update whenever possible because it’s the only way to fix recurring system bugs and glitches.
If the fingerprint problems on your phone are due to these system errors, the software update is the surefire way to fix them permanently.
Moreover, an updated system software is more advantageous since it adds various quality-of-life changes that enhance user experience. These additions are worth updating your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51’s system software.
Since this improves overall device performance, you can expect it to affect your Samsung phone’s fingerprint sensor positively. Generally, software updates are excellent for any smartphone unless they have poor optimization and are full of bugs.
| Step 1: Go to Settings. |
Step 2: Scroll down and click Software Update. |
Step 3: Click Download and Install. |
| Step 4: Click Download if a software update is available. |
Step 5: Click Install Now to apply the update. |
| Step 6: Wait while your Galaxy A50/A51 updates and reboots its system. |
FIX 8. Reset your phone
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 3 minutes |
| Things Needed | A Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 |
Whenever a software update can’t fix your software-related issues, you can conduct a factory reset as an alternative recourse. Unlike an update, this action will delete your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51’s saved data to correct the errors.
It’s an excellent solution for software errors caused by corrupt data files you can’t delete using the previous methods.
Thus, this should be your go-to solution after failing to fix the issue with your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 fingerprint acting up thus far.
WARNING: A factory reset deletes all your saved files and phone preferences, so ensure you retain a copy of these before proceeding.
However, you must note that factory resetting your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 will remove your saved data permanently. Therefore, you can restore them once the reset process is complete unless you secure a backup copy beforehand.
It’s the downside of using the factory reset method, so we only recommend this as a last resort.
| Step 1: Go to Settings. |
Step 2: Go to General Management and select the Reset option. |
Step 3: Click “Factory data reset.” |
Step 4: Click Reset. |
| Step 5: Click Delete All to reset your Samsung Galaxy A50/A51 to factory settings. |
