Windows 10 Hello: That fingerprint has already been set up on another account.

--Anand-- Computers and Internet October 2, 2017 1 Minute

If you ditched an account that had a fingerprint setup in Windows Hello, Windows 10 won’t let you add the same fingerprint for another account, obliviously. Or you are trying to use second account with same fingerprint. So you will get this error message:

The question is how do we delete the registered fingerprint(s ) with different unused account. It is easy as 20 second task. Here is how you do it.

1. Open Services console (Windows key + R and type Services.msc). Stop the service called Windows BioMetric Service (WbioSrvc)

2. Open folder location in file explorer: C:\Windows\System32\WinBioDatabase\. On this location, there will GUID.dat files. Find the one with date you recognized you register the fingerprint. If not, just delete all DAT files.

3. Start the service Windows BioMetric Service again.

There was no reboot required on my case. Try registering your fingerprint now. Enjoy. Smile

Published by --Anand--

Being in Silicon Valley for years, I became a IT Infrastructure Geek by experience and surrounded by other Geeks everywhere. I try to help others by the solutions I found on odd occasions. View all posts by --Anand--

Published October 2, 2017

10 thoughts on “Windows 10 Hello: That fingerprint has already been set up on another account.”

amir says:

November 15, 2017 at 4:04 pm

when I delete the Dat file and start the bio sevice again the same file is there again

Reply
1. --Anand-- says:
  
  November 16, 2017 at 12:07 am
  
  That is weird. It should create a new Dat file.
  
  Reply
  1. --Anand-- says:
    
    November 16, 2017 at 12:10 am
    
    Try renaming the existing GUID.dat file. Hope that will show what might be happening.
amir says:

November 16, 2017 at 12:57 am

aside that my main problem still stands…I cant set up my finger and it says the same thing that my finger has been set up on another account..I cant use that finger to unlock my Pc

Reply
1. Jack says:
  
  February 8, 2018 at 4:14 am
  
  Same issue here, after following the steps above I get the same message to say that my fingerprint is being used on another account…
  
  Reply
arthurandlisa says:

February 10, 2018 at 3:42 am

This is amazing! Fixed my facial recognition issue using the method above after my face got lost on another account I deleted. You ROCK.

For people having trouble, you might need to delete the other account as well? No idea if it’s related, but I had already deleted the old account, and the legacy bio local files were all that was left for me.

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1. Md. Rojon says:
  
  November 13, 2018 at 10:56 am
  
  Here actually problem. I can’t find any other older account to delete.
  
  Reply
Johan says:

November 16, 2018 at 4:12 am

Thanks for this!

Reply
gary says:

August 22, 2019 at 7:32 pm

This might solve the issue for older systems, but new PCs have a TPM (trusted platform module) chip that is used for encryption. I suspect that this is where the fingerprint data is stored, and I’m not ready to play with the BIOS!

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faisal says:

June 18, 2020 at 8:45 am

i also faced same problem . I tried every possible way but still the same . I clear my TPM but same result . I am using asus

Reply