Mac not unlocking after watchOS 7 update

Ok. So I did more searching and found this additional step that seems to have made the other procedure above work again:

Plug in hard wired (Non Bluetooth) keyboard and mouse. Charging cable plugged into Mac and devices works the same thing for this purpose.

Uncheck "Use your Apple Watch to unlock..." For me this couldn't be checked

Option-Shift-Click Bluetooth icon in menu bar

Select Debug

Select Factory reset all connected Apple devices

For me the first time I checked "Use your Apple Watch to unlock..." popped up with an error but the second time it worked.

I guess I did restart everything (Mac, iPhone, Watch) after doing the procedure and before trying to enable again. I also unplugged all accessories, except keyboard and trackpad, from my computer.

So to be clear, I deleted the files in Sharing, AutoUnlock folder, and in the keychain, then reset the Bluetooth devices then restarted everything and then enabled the watch unlock twice to make things work.

Ok.. after MULTIPLE attempts AND resetting the Bluetooth stack per evan's post.. I finally got everything working.. Thank you evan..

Still.. this is something Apple really needs to take a close look at. This stuff used to "just work"...

This worked perfectly. I had to post this message to extend my gratitude. In the world of Apple, DIY fixing of even the software is not intuitive. Even as a developer using Mac, correlating this issue to KeyChain did not happen - there is no one way of things being done in Apple software and there is no way to know how a software works on apple without caveats. So ... thanks again.

I had repaired my Watch after some issues while migrating to my new iPhone 12 Pro and still it didn't work. Following all your steps was part of the solution!

I still couldn't connect to my Watch from my Mac after doing all the steps but then I restarted my Mac, had to enable Auto Unlock twice as you said in step 12, and it worked!

I should note that while my Mac was rebooting I also disabled and re-enabled Auto Unlock on my Watch (Apple Watch app on iPhone, Settings, Unlock with iPhone). This had to be done because the "keys" for that were also deleted in step 5.

The symbol ~/Library means the library folder in your Home directory. Easiest way to get there is, while in the finder, hold down the option key and go to the Go menu. You will see that one of the choices then is Library. Select that, and you should be all set.

Hope this helps.

>couldn't navigate to ~/Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock.

No.. it's in the Library folder in your home directory.. the ~ character is an old Unixism to represent the users Home directory when using a Unix shell. From Finder - Use Shift + Option + G and literally copy from here and paste ~/Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock into the Finder prompt. You'll find the files there.

Worked even though I couldn't locate the shared library. Thus all I eliminated were in steps 1-8. Tried after doing this and couldn't unlock via watch, but 30 minutes later was prompted by my Mac to turn on auto unlock. Thanks....youve managed to do what Apple Support was unable to do.

I had this same issue with up to date Catalina on a 2017 MacBook Air and a brand new Apple Watch SE WatchOS 7.0.1 and I had to log out of my Apple ID on my Mac and log back in and then restart my Mac. When I did that it made me reauthorize on my iphone and type my password on my watch and after two tries click the settings toggle for using Watch to login, it worked.

Hope that helps someone.

@stoska992 oh my god man it worked!!!

after several times trying to make this work again after upgrading to watchOS 7, with iCloud logout/logins, etc etc... none of those clunky solutions worked except THAT.

thanks man, also I laughed at last step because it's 100% real that first time it fails and the 2nd worked like a charm hehe

you saved my day!

If you are running Mojave, Catalina or a beta of Big Sur allowing your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac is on the Security and Privacy pane in System Preferences. High Sierra and earlier didn't have this feature.

I noted earlier that the option to allow Watch to unlock this Mac does not exist under the General tab. MacOS 10.15.7. iMac and MacBook Pro both show "Auto Unlock: Supported" in System Information. I've followed all the steps recommended in both threads, including restarting the Watch, Macs, and iPhone, disconnecting everything from iCloud and reconnecting, turning off Bluetooth and restarting, reseting the PRAM, starting Safe Mode. Most frustrating Mac experience without explanation I've had in a while

Wait for Big Sur. While I've had this problem with Catalina (macOS 10.15.7 specifically) on my Mac Pro (late 2013), unlocking my Mac has never been a problem with my Mac mini running various betas of Big Sur (macOS 11.0) regardless of the WatchOS version.

Re: Twinklehead

Thanks for all the help. I followed all instructions and it still doesn't work.

Didn't work for me at first either, but I think because I have 4 Macs and an iPhone all sharing the keychain, that it took awhile for all 5 systems to finish exchanging update messages and get a stable keychain between them.

It turns out the next day, I tried to enable the System Preferences -> Security option, and the firs time it was rejected as before, but because several posts said you have do do it a 2nd time, this time it worked.

I can unlock my personal and my company Mac using my Apple Watch again, and it has remained functional for several days now. I think I had to enter my password twice since then. Once for the personal and once for the company Mac.

Mine has stayed connected for several days now. An interesting observation is that for months my Apple Watch series 4 has died during the workday (battery going from 70-80% to Low Power abruptly, usually when I left my office for a short time such as going to the break room or rest room). This never happened at home, just at work. It was baffling. Apple Care checked it out and said the watch was fine, yet this problem persisted. Since I reset the Bluetooth to factory settings and let everything re-connect, I have not had this problem. I hope this stays fixed!