The press and hold works. I guess I was used to just pressing it without having to hold it on my old phone. Holding takes a little longer but that's better than what I was doing before. Thank you.
I've tried that. But it doesn't matter whether the active display is on or off. If the screen is just pure black I still have to press a button to get to the lock screen to then use the fingerprint scanner to get in. Maybe it's a samsung thing.