That Fingerprint is too similar to one that's already set up.

Woody Chiu at RASI 251

Just some background here first. We have a hybrid setup, AD and AAD using Azure AD Connect. Windows Hello for Business Cloud Trust has been set up and working fine. However, for whatever reason, some users sometimes are not able to sign in to Windows with either a PIN or fingerprint. Since we enforced users by Conditional Access to sign in with phishing-resistant methods which are either PIN or Fingerprint in order to be able to connect the Palo Alto VPN to our Head Office, they will not be able to connect VPN if they are not signing in to with either of the methods. One morning, a user's registered PIN and fingerprint in Windows 11 suddenly were not working. He managed to sign in with a password first and reset his PIN successfully. He then tried to re-register his fingerprint by successfully removing the current one inside the Sign-in Options dialog. However, when he tried to start the fingerprint setup to register the same finger he used before, he kept getting this message " Sorry, something went wrong. That fingerprint is too similar to one that's already set up. Try a different finger." he wanted to use the same finger. So, we removed all the .dat files inside C:\Windows\System32\WinBioDatabase while the Windows Biometric Service was stopped and then started the service, then had him do the fingerprint setup again. Unfortunately, he still encountered the same message " Sorry, something went wrong. That fingerprint is too similar to one that's already set up. Try a different finger." Would that be caused by the initial removal of his fingerprint while the VPN was not connected so that a copy of the previously registered fingerprint ID still existed in the Azure AD?

Is there an ultimate solution to reset his biometric setup so that he can register his same index finger?

Givary-MSFT 35,916 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2023-11-07T09:11:10.2833333+00:00

@Woody Chiu at RASI Thank you for reaching out to us, let me research on your ask and revert back.
Arkoprovo Dutta 0 Reputation points

2024-02-15T16:22:39.2266667+00:00

Solved: I have the same problem. Now the problem has been solved. My Dell PC is under warranty, Dell changed my fingerprint reader, and the problem has been solved.
Blink Solve 30 Reputation points

2024-04-03T16:30:59.94+00:00

This is an issue which most of the DELL users are getting. But don't worry , I have got the solution to this problem. And you don't need to waste your time in updating and reinstalling the fingerprint drivers . Or following CMD commands.

what you have to do patiently is just to watch out this video without skipping it .

Here is the video link CLICK HERE.

And I am pretty sure that this video will resolve this issue in your PC.
Sanjaya Ekanayake 5 Reputation points

2024-04-04T06:52:13.6033333+00:00

@Blink Solve video is working fine. Refere that video.
Cely H 0 Reputation points

2025-12-19T02:28:27.0066667+00:00

I have just recently got this error message as well. However, after inputting a new fingerprint in the database, in allows for you to enter several others. When I did this, I put my old fingerprints back in the system.

7 answers

Nagappan Veerappan 656 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-12-06T21:13:36.38+00:00

Finger print or facial hash data stores locally on the device. never goes out to Azure AD.

your Bio-matches with sensor locally unlock access to private keys stored on the device (TPM). Client sends the signed Nonce back to AAD to validate with public key registered.

How to clear the Bio-metric data?. Please reach out to Microsoft windows team support.
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Woody Chiu at RASI 251 Reputation points

2024-01-21T15:54:05.03+00:00

The issue was resolved after I uninstalled all the drivers under Biometric devices in Device Manager, and rebooted the laptop. The laptop was a recently upgraded Windows 11 Lenovo T14s Gen1. It has been a very common manufacturer-suggested solution to have a pinhole reset for whatever weird issues. I did that as well. FYI.

Blink Solve 30 Reputation points

2024-04-03T16:37:05.43+00:00

Kindly try this out VIDEO
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Givary-MSFT 35,916 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2023-11-13T07:15:18.39+00:00

@Woody Chiu at RASI Apologies for the delayed response, researched on your ask and also check with my team on this, if the user performed a non-destructive reset of their PIN, then their fingerprint registration was probably preserved, you could try a destructive reset by running certutil -deletehellocontainer from a standard command prompt and rebooting the machine and verify if it helps to resolve your issue.

Let me know if you have any further questions, feel free to post back.
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Woody Chiu at RASI 251 Reputation points

2023-11-14T00:44:31.7+00:00

Just wondering. Does the command "certutil -deletehellocontainer" has anything to do with the .dat files inside C:\Windows\System32\WinBioDatabase\ ?

Will the PIN also be reset by that command?

Does the user have to use the password to sign in to Windows first after the reboot, then re-register the PIN and fingerprint in the Sign-in Options dialog?

Thanks

Woody Chiu at RASI 251 Reputation points

2023-11-23T15:46:02.45+00:00

I got this message:

C:\Windows\System32>certutil -deletehellocontainer

CertUtil: -DeleteHelloContainer command FAILED: 0x80090011 (-2146893807 NTE_NOT_FOUND)

CertUtil: Object was not found.

C:\Windows\System32>

Nagappan Veerappan 656 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2023-12-06T21:14:21.2366667+00:00

This means no keys found.

CertUtil: -DeleteHelloContainer command FAILED: 0x80090011 (-2146893807 NTE_NOT_FOUND)

Woody Chiu at RASI 251 Reputation points

2024-02-25T16:46:27.9333333+00:00

Hi @Givary-MSFT , sorry for the delayed reply. I finally managed to resolve the issue by simply removing the corresponding Windows driver for the finger reader, and letting Windows 11 auto-reinstalled it back after the Windows was rebooted. Thank you so much!

Givary-MSFT 35,916 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2024-02-26T12:50:51.0266667+00:00

@Woody Chiu at RASI I'm glad that you were able to resolve your issue and thank you for posting your solution so that others experiencing the same thing can easily reference this. Please remember to "Accept Answer" so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution.
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That Fingerprint is too similar to one that's already set up.

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