Mac not unlocking after watchOS 7 update

I'm on Big Sur now, Watch unlock had stopped working. Tried all these steps and had no luck. Was playing around and discovered that the "Disable automatic login" was turned even though the box appeared to be unchecked. I clicked the lock at the bottom left of Settings[Security & Privacy] and the screen refresh showed that "Disable automatic login" was checked. Once I unchecked that and re-locked the settings, it started working properly.

Few more steps I had to take to get everything working:

1) Shut down all devices, bring them up one at a time (in my case MBP, iPhone, iWatch)

2) Ensure iPhone and Watch are unlocked

3) Go to Security and Privacy on MBP, then check the "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac"

I tried the 12-step process and restarts with no success. But with help from Apple, I resolved this issue. The fix was to unpair the watch (from my phone), then re-sync it from backup. After that, I was able to select "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac." The error message did NOT pop up. Box checked, I tested the unlock with watch feature, and it works perfectly!

LightningMike,

Make sure your watch, phone and Mac are using the same iCloud account, and all are logged in. Also Make sure that WiFi is turned on in all devices as well. (I was on wired net and had to turn in WiFi to see the option.) I believe Bluetooth must also be on.

I am running the following:

macOS Big Sur 11.1

iOS 14.3

watchOS 7.2

All i had to do was sign out of iCloud on both Macbook and iPhone.

Go to the respective settings apps and sign out of the Apple ID that your are using.

Sign back in on both devices.

Go to Macbook, Settings->Security and Privacy.

Check the box -> Use Your apple watch to unlock apps and your Mac

So a few things to double check. I know they may have been mentioned, but just in case:

• Make sure both Wifi and Bluetooth are both on, and that your watch (phone) and computer are all on the same Wifi
• Make sure your phone (and watch) and computer are logged into there same Apple iCloud account.
• Check Settings->Security&Privacy and make sure that the option to unlock using the watch is shown.
• If shown, uncheck it, re-check it, and try again.

This has worked for me several times now. Because I have two different iCloud accounts (work and personal) I am often connected via the wrong account, and it simply stops working.

Good luck.

Thanks for all the advice. Nothing worked for me except unpairing and pairing my Apple Watch. The first time I did it worked for a day. I tried everything again but I ended up unpairing and pairing it for a second time. It has been working fine for 24 hours. Fingers crossed.

Apple Watch Series 4 watchOS 7.3

iMac 27" 2020 macOS Catalina 10.15.7

iPhone 11 Pro iOS 14.4

Just want to say that the 12 steps didn't work for me.

BUT what did work for me was to turn off the "handoff" feature on my paired iPhone. Once that was off, I clicked the "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac" checkbox off in my Mac settings. I waited 10 seconds, then clicked it back on again. Boom - instantly started working properly again. (no reboot necessary!). So happy to have unlocking from my watch working again!

These steps worked for me - but not at first.

Additionally, I had to go into my iPhone's Watch app, and then turn off and turn on the setting "Unlock with iPhone" for Apple Watch.

this prompted Apple Watch to ask for my pass code.

After this I did a full shut down on my Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch.

After turning them back on, I was able to go into my Mac's settings and turn on "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac". Everything appears to be working now. thank you.

The day after my last post the "unlock Mac with Apple Watch" feature stopped working. Frustration and despair.

Coincidentally I was listening to an episode of John Gruber's podcast "The Talk Show" for which he had John Siracusa as his guest. They two discussed the state of Apple's OSes and in particular macOS. One of Siracusa's main gripes are the countless small problems with macOS. They are nothing major but together they degrade its usability and the overall experience.

I wanted to see if turning off the "unlock with Apple Watch" option in macOS Preferences and the Handoff options on my Mac, iPhone and Watch would solve the problem so I turned them off and on one by one. No luck. The problem continued.

I then turned off "unlock with Apple Watch" in macOS preferences as well as Handoff on my Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch. I then rebooted all devices. The problem continued for a while and then magically it worked.

The next day, due to other Bluetooth problems with the iMac's mouse, trackpad and keyboard, I reset the Bluetooth module and then did a factory reset of all connected Bluetooth devices. These two options are in the Bluetooth menu holding down alt and shift.

All Bluetooth problems seem to be resolved. The Apple Watch unlocks the iMac, the keyboard, mouse and trackpad don't disconnect and the MacBook Pro does not trigger a connect screen on the iMac.

Fingers crossed.

This is what I did:

1. Turn off "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac" in the "General" pane in the "Security & Privacy" section of macOS Preferences.
2. Turn off "Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices" in the "General" section of macOS Preferences.
3. Turn off "Handoff" on your iPhone in Settings/General/AirPlay & Handoff"
4. Turn off "Enable Handoff" in the Watch app on your iPhone. You have to scroll down in "General"
5. Turn all these back on. Sometimes I have rebooted all devices.
6. Wait for a couple of hours or perhaps until the next day.
7. If that does not work then "Reset the Bluetooth module" and "Factory reset all connected Apple devices". Hold down the "alt" and "shift" keys while selecting the Bluetooth menu and you will see a "Debug" submenu, where you can find these two options. Be sure to have a USB to Lightning cable to re-connect and re-pair your Bluetooth devices such as keyboard, trackpad and mouse.

Good luck!

I isolated my problem to a USB 3 device and it's cable. I have a Satechi 4-port aluminum USB 3 Hub, which connects with an odd USB-A to USB-A cable. When connected to my Mac mini, Watch unlocking was unreliable (although I could do password approval in System Prefs without problem). Disconnecting it seems to allow unlock to work without issue.

I tried several USB-C to USB-A cables that came with SSDs, but the hub didn't even work with them. So I tried the original cable and several A-to-C adapters. The two small adapters work with unlock, but the Amazon cable adapter doesn't.

I could not find the plists, but deleting all the Auto Unlock items in Keychain Access and then restarting and re-enabling the unlock feature in Security/Privacy > General did the trick for me. (I am running Mojave 10.14.6). Thank you!

This is how I got this to work:

1. Signed out of iCloud on my iPhone
2. Signed in
3. Deleted ltk.plist and pairing-records.plit from Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock
4. Removed everything from AutoUnlock and Auto Unlock in Keychain
5. Reboot Mac
6. At this point I was getting "Unable to connect to watch, blah..."
7. Rebooted watch
8. At this point I had to wait a bit but it finally worked.

Apple Support: When are you going to fix this in Big Sur?

Thanks for the hint!

MacBook Pro 2021 M1running BigSur 11.4 German + AppleWatch 6 running OS 7.5 German

Same Problem; Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch.

Several tries, Hands-off OFF on iPhone, MBP and Watch --> no success

Reset Apple Watch with no backup loaded and clean install worked and is unlocking the MBP now

Chris