Just got a new Samsung Galaxy S7 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and I love it. Except I can’t figure out how to set up fingerprint unlock. Help?
When you first set up your Galaxy S7 it should have prompted you to set up the fingerprint service, but either you missed it in the flurry of prompts shown or perhaps someone else initially set it up for you? Fortunately, it’s not a big problem because you can always add your fingerprint later through the Settings app.
Let’s go through the steps, steps that should be similar for just about any Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) phone that has some sort of fingerprint scanner.
To start, you’ll need to find the Settings app itself:
But where is it? Oddly, by default, the S7 actually hides the Setting app from view. You’ll need to tap on the “Apps” button on the lower right to get to it, then swipe to find the “S” apps on the subsequent pages:
There it is! Tap on “Settings“…
You can get past “Quick Settings” and find the specific security settings by swiping along the top menu bar, but let’s be more efficient and use the shortcut! Tap on “Lock screen and security”.
There are other settings worth exploring here, but let’s stay on topic!
Tap on “Fingerprints“.
Pay attention to the last entry too: You’ll need to switch the “Fingerprint unlock” to “ON” by tapping the slider switch.
Next up, it’s pretty easy to guess. Tap on “Add fingerprint”.
You might not see this if you’ve already set up a PIN, pattern or password, but if you haven’t, well, it only makes sense that if you don’t have any security that there’s no real point on scanning your finger as a way of positively identifying yourself. So set up one of the three. I like PIN codes, so that’s what I’ll set up.
It’s easy enough:
Okay, so my PIN is.. um… wait. No, let’s keep that a secret!
Once you click on “Done” at this point, you’ll be prompted to touch the home button, which is also a sneaky fingerprint scanner. You’ll have to touch it with various portions of your finger of choice (my guess, your right thumb). It starts like this:
A few taps later, you’ll be almost done:
Once it’s done, you’re done. In fact, you can now tap on the home button to get back to the main screen (pic #1, earlier). When your phone next locks, you can unlock it with a tap of your thumb or finger. Easy enough!