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.

frankietseu is right. The combination of iOS 14.2 and WatchOS 7.1 finally fixed this bug for me. Yeah!!! After installing both f these updates and reenabling my watch in Mac Settings, I was finally able to just walk up to my computer and have it magically unlock again. Thanks Frank.

I bought a new 2018 Mac mini (6-core i7) in Jan 2019 and despite a couple of tech support calls with Apple, could never get my Series 3 watch to unlock it. I had no trouble with the auto-unlock on a 2014 Macbook Air, but never on the Mac mini.

On the MBair I've been running Big Sur beta for a couple of months, with Catalina on the MM.

Last month I got a new Series 6 watch. Boom - auto-unlock on the MM worked! And it worked on the MBair with Big Sur final beta.

Having some experience with Big Sur, I went ahead and updated the Mac mini on Friday. And then ... not only did the auto-unlock not lock, but I got the same "Your Mac was unable to ..." message. But it was still fine on the MBair. So I was pretty sure it was a machine-specific issue.

After reading the messages in this thread this morning I was able to resolve it (at least initially) by:

1. Tried the Keychain toggle and was surprised to see that the box was not checked. So I checked it, rebooted, nothing changed.
2. Toggled it off/on once more and then rebooted and then tried it after powering down. Nothing changed.
3. Unpaired the Series 6 watch, then paired it, then rebooted the MM again.
4. Went into System Preferences | Privacy & Security and was able to check the auto-unlock box without getting the "Your Mac was unable to ..." error. Hopeful!
5. Waited about 30 minutes for the Mac mini to screen lock, then tried it and Boom! it worked.

Thanks, tim3g and others!

Yess, you're right! The only one thing helps, unfortunately, is to reset watch and then after setting "Allow your Apple watch to unlock your Mac" it's necessary to restart the macOS.

Thank You!

PS: we only have black friday here in Russia this time :D

It's finally working for me. I updated to Big Sur; still didn't work. I then reset my watch; still didn't work. But then I noticed the error message said that my phone needs to be unlocked as well. I literally never saw that before. Unlocked my phone, tried again, and it worked. I'll feel really dumb if that was the only step that I was missing the entire time. Oh well.

Something new. So, I did the steps mentioned above by stoska992 about cleaning out the Keychain and all the other files. Then, I reset and re-paired my watch to my phone—NOT restoring from backup, but setting it up as a new watch connected to my phone. Then, I took the latest advice and made sure I had my phone unlocked when going to my MacBook. I typed in my password to unlock my computer. Then, I got a prompt to set up my Apple Watch to unlock my Mac. So, I walked through that setup. This was encouraging. I’m now hoping that the connection being property set up new in Big Sur will make it stick.

This worked for me! Since my "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac" option was checked on, I just turned it off and then turned it on again.

I had corrected this problem at the beginning of this message string, but the watch unlocking the MBP stopped when I installed Big Sur 11.1.

@boberonicus is spot on. This approach has worked for me when all the other methods (keychain access steps, terminal commands, restarts, etc.) did nothing. The issue always seems to happen after a macOS or watchOS update. The simple unpair and pair again using the restored backup resolves the problem every time.

SumNeuron wrote:

This no longer works after latest update macOS 11.1

What no longer works? I have a MBA 2019 with Big Sur 11.1 and it works just fine. See this support document, Unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch - Apple Support especially right at the bottom about turning off the Unlock selection, then restarting the Mac and turning it on again.

Well, I tried everything on offer from the keychain thing to the auto-login thing, to saying "Tim Cook" in the mirror 3 times at midnight last night. What worked for me in the end was unpairing from my iPhone and re-pairing. This didn't work straight away but I just got home from dinner, opened my Mac and out of nowhere, it asked me if I want to unlock with my watch. Turned on and tested successfully. I initially didn't want to un-pair because I knew I'd have to re-add all my credit cards to Apple Pay and was just being lazy.

Problem solved for me. Stay safe out there and happy holidays!

After 6 Months, Apple may have gotten aoud to noticing this was completely screwed up. Last round of updates:

iOS 14.1

WatchOS 7.3

MacOS BigSur 11.1

FINALLY - My watch was detected, able to be selected in the security preference panel for watch unlock and now unlocks my Mac mini. I did not have to re-pair my watch with my phone, or erase or reset any settings, however I have done those in the past to attempt to fix the issue, so that may still have to be done (the keychain settings and preferences file delete as well) to get ti to work. And now I see MacOS 11.2 is available..... I really hope that doesn't break it again. Restarting in 3..2..1....

If you follow @BobHarris or @randyj1964's instructions and do not have that the Shared folder, then something is not configured correctly with your iCloud account. The folder hold data for Auto Unlock and AirDrop.

You could try enabling/using AirDrop and see if the folder is created. Failing that you might need to sign out of iCloud, restart, sign back in. That is what I'd do.

This worked for me but I had to turn off Handoff in three places: in System Preferences/General on my Mac, in Settings/General/Airplay & Handoff on my iPhone and in General in the Watch app on my iPhone. I didn't have to delete anything or unpair/pair my Apple Watch. Thanks!

I had tried everything else (including switching off Handoff) easier, to no avail.

1) Deleting all the keychain items, then 2) switching off System Preferences , Security & Privacy, "Use your Apple Watch ..." and on again, did help. I did not deactivate Handoff.

I think it was the Keychain items (step 1).

I think, step 2 was just necessary to make macOS contact the Apple Watch again.

Hi jd2020, deleting the Keychain items didn't work for me despite several attempts. Turning off Handoff on all three devices has worked several times.

Unpairing/pairing my Apple Watch also does the trick but that takes much longer and seems quite drastic.

Unfortunately, the "Unlock Mac with Apple Watch" feature stops working after a while but turning off Handoff on all three devices works. It's coming up to 24 hours since the last fail. Fingers crossed.

The problem only happens on my 2020 iMac. It works fine on my 2018 MacBook Pro. Both devices are running Catalina.