Unlocking MacBook Pro w/ Apple Watch

I'm running Catalina 10.15.5 on a MacBook Pro and I can't use my Apple watch to unlock this device. It worked for a while, now the check box to select this option is not even listed. Please advise.

MacBook

Posted on May 29, 2020 9:51 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 29, 2020 10:13 AM

I understand "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac" or the equivalent is not appearing in Security & Privacy despite having followed all the steps in Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch - Apple Support.


Restart your Mac in the usual manner. If that does not immediately solve the problem then reinstalling macOS is justified: Reinstall macOS - Apple Support.


  • If that fails to resolve the problem then "signing out" of all iCloud services on all devices followed by signing in again may fix it.
  • If that still fails to resolve the problem, just about the last thing you can do in an effort to get things working again might be to un-pair the Watch, and subsequently pair it again. Unless you have better part of a day to devote to that miserable task (it really takes about an hour) then I'd be inclined to just wait for the problem to resolve itself. That's what I did, and it did.
1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 29, 2020 10:13 AM in response to FBDog

I understand "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac" or the equivalent is not appearing in Security & Privacy despite having followed all the steps in Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch - Apple Support.


Restart your Mac in the usual manner. If that does not immediately solve the problem then reinstalling macOS is justified: Reinstall macOS - Apple Support.


  • If that fails to resolve the problem then "signing out" of all iCloud services on all devices followed by signing in again may fix it.
  • If that still fails to resolve the problem, just about the last thing you can do in an effort to get things working again might be to un-pair the Watch, and subsequently pair it again. Unless you have better part of a day to devote to that miserable task (it really takes about an hour) then I'd be inclined to just wait for the problem to resolve itself. That's what I did, and it did.

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Unlocking MacBook Pro w/ Apple Watch

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