Albertjr1997

Q: Apple watch Auto-unlock on MacOS Sierra

I'm using an iMac of 2014 with MacOS Sierra, an iPhone 5S with iOS 10.0.1 and an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 installed. I also have a passcode on my watch, the two-factor authentication enabled and the handoff turned on as well. I don't know why but the icon to enable the un-lock with the apple watch isn't shown on my iMac.

By the way, when enabling the two-factor authentication, I changed my iCloud password but not my unlocking one, I think. I'm not sure, something strange.

Any idea?

 

Thanks.

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 4:31 AM

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Q: Apple watch Auto-unlock on MacOS Sierra

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  • by Ulexes138,

    Ulexes138 Ulexes138 Sep 21, 2016 5:02 PM in response to Albertjr1997
    Community Specialists
    Sep 21, 2016 5:02 PM in response to Albertjr1997
    Hello Albertjr1997,

    Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Community. Auto Unlock is a great way to save time and keep your Mac secure, and I'd be happy to help you get things working.

    You're off to a great start so far. Have you gone through the article below and made sure you've gone through each step in order?

    Automatically unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch

    Cheers!

  • by Varkoney_9,

    Varkoney_9 Varkoney_9 Sep 21, 2016 5:19 PM in response to Ulexes138
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 5:19 PM in response to Ulexes138

    Problem exists here to...tried two step and two factor authentication (i've left my security at two factor authtn)..neither works..have macbook pro laptop..and apple watch 1 with latest O/S..get this..i keep getting unable to "communicate" with watch yet when i turn off passcode from the apple watch app on my iphone 6..i get a lovely message from my mac when i click the "allow your Apple Watch to unlock your mac" that you need to turn the passcode on re: apple watch! so there is communication..only my watch wont unlock my macbook..this is an annoying, irritating problem..and yes i have left feedback with apple and with an actual human being..

  • by skizzleskank,

    skizzleskank skizzleskank Sep 21, 2016 5:44 PM in response to Albertjr1997
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2016 5:44 PM in response to Albertjr1997

    Im having a similar issue.  I had everything enabled correctly and it still was not working.  Went as far to sign out of iCloud on all 3 devices and reboot them all and sign back into iCloud and re-pair Watch.  It has only worked 1 time and hasn't worked since.

  • by Joe5150,

    Joe5150 Joe5150 Sep 21, 2016 5:48 PM in response to Albertjr1997
    Level 2 (339 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 5:48 PM in response to Albertjr1997

    Same here, mac book pro late 2013, iPhone 7plus and apple watch os 3.0.  My watch is connected and verified the "allow your apple watch to unlock your mac" button is ticked. However the lock screen is the same only allows password to login, and suggestions?

  • by Brent212_uk,

    Brent212_uk Brent212_uk Sep 22, 2016 1:08 AM in response to Joe5150
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 22, 2016 1:08 AM in response to Joe5150

    I had the same problem with the same set up. I tried every possible solution I could find and nothing worked.

    I tried making my passcode 8 numbers instead of 4 on my phone and watch and that worked.

    I don't know if it was a coincidence or not but it works every time now. May be worth a try

  • by sdeetz,

    sdeetz sdeetz Sep 23, 2016 7:46 AM in response to Ulexes138
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 23, 2016 7:46 AM in response to Ulexes138

    I'm having a similar problem with my 2015 iMac, Watch with OS3, and iPhone 6 plus.

     

    The crazy thing is that the check box to turn the Watch unlock feature on used to be there after upgrading to Sierra, and when I tested it, it worked the first day.

     

    But when I tried it yesterday, the Watch wouldn't unlock my iMac anymore. So I opened up the Settings to check it and the option to unlock with my watch was suddenly gone. Now I have no way to turn in back on.

     

    How would a option box in Settings disappear?

  • by pmca89,

    pmca89 pmca89 Sep 24, 2016 8:32 AM in response to sdeetz
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Sep 24, 2016 8:32 AM in response to sdeetz

    So the Setting disappeared for me too after I turned off Two-Step Verification and turned on Two-Factor Authentication, as I tried checking the box and told me to turn off Two-Step Verification and to turn on Two-Factor Authentication. Went back to the Settings and the option disappeared.

     

    I've also turned off Two-Factor Authentication on my account, logged out of iCloud on all my devices, logged back in on my Mac, and turned on Two-Factor Authentication. Setup my iPhone and iPad again with iCloud and got them both verified. The setting still hasn't reappeared.

     

    I'm running on;

    • Apple Watch -- watchOS 3.0
    • iPhone 6s Plus -- iOS 10.0.2
    • iPad Air 2 -- iOS 10.0.1
    • Retina MacBook Pro -- macOS 10.12
  • by pmca89,

    pmca89 pmca89 Sep 24, 2016 8:38 AM in response to pmca89
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Sep 24, 2016 8:38 AM in response to pmca89
  • by pmca89,

    pmca89 pmca89 Sep 24, 2016 10:00 AM in response to sdeetz
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Sep 24, 2016 10:00 AM in response to sdeetz

    I had to unpaid my Apple Watch and repair it with my iPhone. Working now.

  • by Albertjr1997,

    Albertjr1997 Albertjr1997 Sep 25, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Albertjr1997
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Albertjr1997

    Finally I contacted with Apple support and while I was talking with them the icon appeared. Yes, it was fixed up by itself. I don't know how and Apple don't know how either. Now they're contacting me to get some information about the problem.

  • by DarranPotter,

    DarranPotter DarranPotter Sep 27, 2016 9:27 AM in response to Ulexes138
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 9:27 AM in response to Ulexes138

    For me auto-unlock initially worked very well but over the last week it works about 25% of the time. I get the message saying "unlocking with apple watch" which spins for say 10-20 seconds before dumping me back at the password prompt.

     

    Usually, if I try again 2 or 3 times it will eventually work, but thats somewhat less than useless and much slower than just using passwords

     

    Is there any way to debug it?

  • by ssssirhc,

    ssssirhc ssssirhc Sep 29, 2016 11:18 AM in response to DarranPotter
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2016 11:18 AM in response to DarranPotter

    Hi same problem here. It was working but since yesterday, not working anymore...

     

    any solutions ?

    thanks for your help

  • by DarranPotter,

    DarranPotter DarranPotter Sep 29, 2016 3:11 PM in response to ssssirhc
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2016 3:11 PM in response to ssssirhc

    Sadly not. I've now had two requests from apple engineering to provide sysdiagnose logs which I've done. Keeping fingers x'd.

     

    I see that wifi must be enabled on macos for the auto-unlock to work.. if the mac is on an ethernet cable with wifi off it will not work. So it could simply be wifi compatibility issues rather than bluetooth, but thats a wild guess.

  • by ssssirhc,

    ssssirhc ssssirhc Sep 29, 2016 9:57 PM in response to DarranPotter
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 29, 2016 9:57 PM in response to DarranPotter

    I finally made it work by unpairing and pairing the Apple Watch again  

    THanks everyone

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