after installing Big Sur, my Apple Watch 6, is no longer recognized by my Mac. It also was constantly disconnecting after the last update prior to updating to Big Sur, so my thinking is there is a bug in the prior update to Big Sur and Big Sur killed it. Another anomoly is that my watch does connect to my iPhone 12 Pro, but is not listed in connected devices on my watch 6. So continuity is broken.
In that case I'll just describe what I did below, with the caveat that none of it may have mattered because the unlock feature spontaneously started working on its own a day or two after I had given up.
The first paragraph describes what you already did but I'll include it for context.
System Preferences > Apple ID > Overview > "Sign Out". Then, sign in again. It's the iCloud equivalent of "turn it off and on again". Over the course of troubleshooting this in the past I found it did not resolve the problem for me, but it might for you.
Then, open the Messages app and "Sign In" using that Apple ID. On that subject "Sign In" to FaceTime also, just for good measure. I know those apps are unrelated to each other or anything else but for whatever reason those actions have worked for me more than once in the past. Despite it being unrelated in any logical sense, the correlation was repeatable enough for me to surmise it may have been a factor.
Restart all devices: iPhone, Mac, Watch, perhaps your wireless router as well. Couldn't hurt.
What will not help: un-pairing the Watch and the iPhone. That will waste a lot of time and accomplish nothing.
In that case I'll just describe what I did below, with the caveat that none of it may have mattered because the unlock feature spontaneously started working on its own a day or two after I had given up.
The first paragraph describes what you already did but I'll include it for context.
System Preferences > Apple ID > Overview > "Sign Out". Then, sign in again. It's the iCloud equivalent of "turn it off and on again". Over the course of troubleshooting this in the past I found it did not resolve the problem for me, but it might for you.
Then, open the Messages app and "Sign In" using that Apple ID. On that subject "Sign In" to FaceTime also, just for good measure. I know those apps are unrelated to each other or anything else but for whatever reason those actions have worked for me more than once in the past. Despite it being unrelated in any logical sense, the correlation was repeatable enough for me to surmise it may have been a factor.
Restart all devices: iPhone, Mac, Watch, perhaps your wireless router as well. Couldn't hurt.
What will not help: un-pairing the Watch and the iPhone. That will waste a lot of time and accomplish nothing.
The usual fix for that problem is to "sign out" of iCloud on the affected devices, and sign in again.
Thanks but NOPE! already done all that and some of it was forced. it started with the last couple updates of Catalina, and is far worse now. was on the phone with apple about this over a month ago.
Hi there, had this problem and tried everything. Eventual my only problem was my USB Lightning cable!
It was not an Original cable. With the original everything worked out fine.
Thank you but I Never use anything other than apple cables due to knock offs being so bad.
Ok, but I don't understand how a USB cable can affect an Apple Watch.
Big Sur and Apple Watch not recognized any longer
