Android 14 Beta may break the Pixel's fingerprint scanner

If you’re looking to update to the latest Android 14 beta, you might want to be careful, as the update broke the fingerprint sensor for some Pixel owners.

The update to Android 14 Beta 3 has, for some, left Pixel devices without a working fingerprint sensor. Not only is the sensor not working, but Android also doesn’t seem to recognize its presence. Any settings or widgets associated with the sensor are gone, leaving the PIN/password/pattern as the only way to unlock the device. This also applies to apps like password managers that may use the fingerprint sensor.

My Pixel 6 Pro is affected, there are also reports Ir redditAnd Twitterand sew on Google Issue Tracker to the problem. It only seems to affect Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and Pixel 6a devices as far as we can tell from the current reports. It also doesn’t happen to all users — my colleague Kyle Bradshaw’s Pixel 6 Pro, for example, wasn’t affected. We can’t rule out if other pixels are affected, though, so go ahead in the comments if your fingerprint sensor works and which device you’re using.

There is no apparent workaround for this, although we suspect that a factory reset might fix the problem. Rolling back to an earlier version of Android may also fix the problem. Notably, we also found one report From the same issue from the first beta of Android 14.

As often happens with these betas, this is a great example of why it shouldn’t be installed on your daily driver.