Windows Hello Face Not Working

This problem has been going on since the end of 2023. I try to get it working periodically thinking some update will fix it but it's still not working.
Windows recognizes the camera (Lenovo 510 FHD Webcam) so I go through the process of adding Face, I'm always prompted to create a PIN which already exists, but when I test it it never authenticates via Face I have to enter my PIN.
Im looking for any ideas or insite than may solver this problem once and for all.
Thx

See if anything here helps as it did this member.

I'll add it would help to review the 'HelloForBusiness' Windows event logs. If there are any error messages these may provide clues to your issue.

It's worth noting that there was a known bug in 26100.3902 with Windows Hello facial recognition that was rapidly resolved in 3909+.

I know that you said this problem has been ongoing for you, so this won't be the issue for you, just make sure as you troubleshoot that you are not on 3902!

When I first ran into this on 3902 I didn't know that there was an issue with that build yet. On my Lenovo, I was able to get a workaround that worked just fine like this:

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have a copy of the latest camera driver from Lenovo available so you can install it again if this fails.

In Device Manager, delete the driver for BOTH the regular camera and the IR camera. Make sure to select the option to actually remove the driver as well!

IMPORTANT: After you do this, allow Device Manager to search for new devices. Check the driver version for the camera. Repeat the deletion and keep doing this until the driver version does not change. Why? It is possible that after you delete one driver, Windows may use a previous version of the driver (if you had any previous versions installed). The goal is to remove all drivers and get to the driver built into Windows. My recollection is that, at least for my camera, the Microsoft Camera driver had a 2006 date.

After doing the above, my camera, and Windows Hello, worked flawlessly. After upgrading to build 26100.3909 I was able to reinstall the latest driver from Lenovo and all was well.

One last note: If this does not help, post back, as there is another possibility: I had discovered that there was a newer driver than what I have for my camera up on the Microsoft Update Catalog. For me, this did not work, but it is worth a shot if a newer driver is available for you. I can help you determine if a newer driver is avaiable.

I'm running 24h2 26.210.3950 the camera fw ver is 10.0.26100.3872
I removed the drivers a couple of times and the version never changed. I repeated setting up Hello Face, still no go. I also looked for any updates on Microsoft Update Catalog, there was nothing there for Lenovo cameras on Win 11.
Any other ideas?

wesweber said:

I also looked for any updates on Microsoft Update Catalog, there was nothing there for Lenovo cameras on Win 11

Click to expand...

Did you search by the hardware ID?

Forgive me if you checked this already, but do you have the latest driver and firmware for that camera (see link below):

I have the latest FW for the camera. It hasn't changed since October of last year ver 4.6.2.

So, the question still remains - when you looked for drivers on the Microsoft Update Catalog, did you search using the hardware ID? Any reference to "Lenovo" or the model number is useless.

There are 2 drivers listed. I got the IDs from the details list and tried them all. No result

I also stopped the winbio service deleted the files in winbiodatabase folder and restarted the service. Preformed the hello face setup, still not working. Just to be clear, not working means the app isn't starting any facial scan it goes straight to asking for a PIN.

Just got done with reinstalling Windows keeping the apps and files. Hello Face still isn't working. Keep in mind the camera is working with other apps.

wesweber said:

Just got done with reinstalling Windows keeping the apps and files. Hello Face still isn't working. Keep in mind the camera is working with other apps.

Click to expand...

The only thing is that you cannot directly compare other apps use of the camera to Windows Hello because other apps don't use the IR camera, they only use the standard camera.

Do you have this switc set to 'on'? (at the bottom of the screenshot.)

That switch is on and grey'd out. I can't move either on of off.