UPDATE 06/11/2015:
Please see reviews of two better apps which resolves finger scanner issue for Exchange
I have been going through a lot of articles about how awesome the new Galaxy S5 is and being a techie I am not completely happy with my new Galaxy S5. Samsung has worked hard and spent a good amount of time to create it’s Finger Print recognition and I must say, they have FAILED in copying it from Apple’s TouchID. The Finger print scanner which Samsung refers to is the new fingerprint sensor made to fit close to the Home button. This technology has previously existed with Motorola Atrix , IPhone 5S and some other phone makers. However, there were issues in finger print recognition with them. Unfortunately Samsung has disappointed me as I heavily depend on my Corporate Emails. The corporate emails force a phone device to have 8 DIGIT (YES, 8 Digit!!!) PIN on phone to maintain security. Punching in 8 DIGITS after every 14 minutes just doesn’t make sense. IPhone 5S did have a solution to this where the Fingerprint is mapped to the 8 Digits in the background. To my disappointment Samsung Galaxy S5 or NOTE 4 does it in a different way and hence defeats the purpose of having Finger Print recognition in a phone.
Overall the idea to have fingerprint recognition is not new but solves a lot of problems for end users, if implemented well. Going by Samsung’s legacy of great innovations, the problem should have been addressed. This issue can easily be addressed with a patch and finger print recognition can have a logical mapping to Digit based PINS. The problem with Microsoft Exchange My organization and a lot of major organizations around the world rely on Microsoft Exchange for email communications. The most common pre requisite for Microsoft Exchange in such organizations worldwide is 4 digit or 8 digit PIN or passcode requirements.
I have been using Nokia’s Symbian devices and Samsung Galaxy S2 and Apple IPad for some good amount years. Microsoft has not addressed this problem till now and no matter how many online search I have done so far, I have not found a solution to skip this requirement. I am afraid, for me as an avid user of Microsoft exchange for my email requirements on a minute to minute basis will lead me to use the number PIN code instead of the Finger print recognition. This has been the case with my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone as well, where I could never use the pattern lock and still be jealous of my other friends who did not use Exchange configured on their phones. I would love to see Microsoft address to the problem and I do not blame Samsung for the mess. But, for me, the purpose of an upgrade has been defeated. For now Samsung, Please fix this problem !
Solution as update on 04/11/2014: I installed a free app called CLOUDMAGIC from Google Play Store and it’s able to ignore the 8 Digit Pin requirement all together. You can find the app here on Play strore.
Update1: The calendar sync problem has a solution from Google. Please read my next article on Google Calendar Sync.
Satnix 
I have verified this does not work with my new S5 and am the Exchange Admin at my company.
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James,
I propose one more solution:
1. Use CloudMagic to check your email
2. Use TouchDown HD to keep a widget for calendar.
Let them sync emails and optimize them together to decrease bandwidth usage.
It enables you to have a view on calendar without putting in 8 or 4 digit pin using TouchDown HD
And on the other hand you can check emails using CloudMagic.
Looks like a Win-Win argument ? !
Let me know how this turns out with your organizational/exchange challenges.
Regards
Satyam
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CloudMagic works because it does not use ActiveSync protocol.
Your emails will be saved on CloudMagic server.
Sound pretty secure. You can as well print out your company emails and post them online.
This is a custom workaround solution, certainly not a safe one.
I would disregard it if you’re interested in security.
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Thanks Jitsu.
That’s a fair statement with minor exceptions. Its a workaround, like I said in my blog.
I went through the Cloudmagic website and here’s what they had to say:
Account authentication/passwords and data
Accounts are added to CloudMagic through OAuth authentication (where possible). OAuth is a secure mechanism which gives us access to your data without letting us know your password.
Where OAuth is not supported, we keep your account username and password in an encrypted form safely in our servers.
We then use the authorization provided to download your emails on the cloud and push to your devices. We use AWS servers to store your data: emails and authorization. Here is an overview of AWS’ security policies. Apart from that we take a number of security measures to ensure that your data is never read by anyone else.
We also ensure that all transmission is secure using HTTPS so that no one else can access your data.
Scope of download
Emails: CloudMagic uses the cloud to download and push emails to your device. To get you started CloudMagic downloads and pushes only recent emails — emails sent or received in the last 14 days — to your device. The email attachments are not downloaded on the cloud and are served from the respective services in real-time.
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Love the SG5 so far, but completely agree that this is a killer…. Samsung – pls fix it!
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cloudmagic doesnt sync up the calendar…
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I have checked on other Apps too. Is there any app that can provide Calendar Sync along with Email sync and skip the PIN process?
If not, I will write a powershell script to transfer Calendar entries to Gmail calendar on a regular basis (every 30 minutes). However it will only restrict users to be online when they need calendar information. What do you guys think ?
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Same here @satnix. I don’t think we have a choice but wait… Samsung probably isn’t using exchange email on their galaxy s5. Awesome phone, but the fingerprint functionality looks like it was a last minute addition…
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CloudMagic has been doing a decent job for me. I miss the calendar though. Some guys hacked the Galaxy S5 finger print scanner using a dough mould or something. It had to happen. Nothing seems fully secure.
Have you guys faced this problem:
Whenever I go inside basement or tunnel or subway (NY has all these options to offer {wink}), do you lose internet/network entirely and once you come out, the phone doesnt reconnect to network? I have observed it couple of times and I must admit I had to reboot to get back to network. I will be contacting T-Mobile to raise an issue.
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Hi Everyone!
I have found a cool solution to our problem. Please read the latest article I wrote:
https://satnix.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/galaxy-s5-finger-print-scanner-issue-with-ms-exchange-calendar-sorted/
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How do you remove the account? I removed it from my accounts but still can’t change it to any other lock setting except Pin
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Go to Settings>>Emails>>Manage Accounts and ‘DELETE’
Go to settings to remove the PIN Lock & Set your Finger Print recognition: On
Then install TouchDown HD or Cloud Magic and configure them for your Exchange and do not chose security.
Hope it helps
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Pingback: Exchange und Galaxy S5 gibt Problem mit Sperrbildschirm - Samsung Galaxy S5 - Android Forum
Hi, I rooted my note 4 and installed xposed framework. then installed wanam Xposed. there is an exchange bypass in there that will allow you to use fingerprint on any galaxy devices.
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Hey Ahsan,
Could you elaborate more please? Do you have a blog detailing this process.
Thanks for sharing
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Hi Satnix,
I will point you guys to some forums from the XDA Developers on how to rrot your android devices ( in this case the note 4), it is the same thought process for any other galaxy devices:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/orig-development/sm-n910-cf-auto-root-t2897428
Once rooted and SuperSu has been installed and the binary updated:
You will go to this website on your phone browser:
http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer
Download the above file and install it on your phone. ( Note: you will have to check unknown sources in the security tab on your device to allow third party application installation)
Once installed you will load Xposed installer ( you will get a grant super user access pop-up, just grant access and it will go away) and click on framework. you will have to install the latest framework and reboot.
After reboot, go back to Xposed App snd go to download section. then click on the search magnifier on top and type Wanam Xposed.
Click on it and swipe to versions and download the latest release.
Go back to the main Xposed installer screen, then click on Modules then check mark wanam exposed box.
then do another reboot.
after reboot go to wanam xposed then all the way down to security hacks.
then check the Bypass Exchange Security box.
Do another reboot then add your exchange email add.
It looks pretty long but not that hard to get done.
I will try to make a YouTube video for it and post it here.
Thanks Ahsan
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