You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
Unlocking the iPhone with the Apple Watch while wearing a face mask only works about 1 time out of 4. The watch itself says it has unlocked the phone, but the iPhone does not unlock.
iPhone 12 Pro
Hi SamCat01,
We understand that unlocking your iPhone with your Apple Watch works intermittently. When it doesn’t work, though your watch shows it has unlocked your iPhone, your iPhone is still asking for Face ID or your passcode.
Let’s talk about any similarities in the situation when it does work and when it doesn’t. Do you notice it happens in a specific location or when connected to Wi-Fi as opposed to cellular, if a Bluetooth device is in use with either device, etc? We’re throwing a few things out there to consider multiple situations. At the time when it’s not working, is Wi-Fi still enabled on your iPhone? Additionally, at the time is the mask you’re wearing covering both your mouth and nose?
Thanks.
The problem occurs both when I’m home and when I’m out.
No, I have no other Bluetooth device, other than my watch, nearby, especially when I’m out of the house!
yes, my phone uses WiFi in the house.
yes, my mask is covering my nose and mouth.
As I mentioned, the watch displays the message that it has unlocked the the iPhone, but the phone remains locked.
I’m experiencing the same but most of the time it doesn’t work.
i haven’t figured out how to use maybe but I can see on my phone it says unlock with watch and I turn my wrist and absolutely nothing happens, since I installed the update I think it has worked 2 times.
SamCat01,
Great information, thanks for getting back to us.
We’d like to next have you unpair any Bluetooth devices from both your iPhone and Apple Watch, then test things out. Even if they aren’t connected at the time of unlock not going through. You’ll do that by going to Settings > Bluetooth on each device and tapping on the ‘i’ by the accessory and choosing to forget it.
Please let us know if this changes the behavior at all.
I found that unpairing/pairing the watch is done via the Apple Watch app on the phone, not in the Bluetooth section of the Settings app.
So, I did the unpair of my Apple Watch and then re-paired it, but nothing has changed. I even did the recent update to the phone and watch.
When I wish to unlock the phone with the watch while wearing a face mask, the watch will still respond most times with the message that the iPhone has been unlocked, but the iPhone remains locked until I enter my passcode.
Indoors, when connected to WiFi, the phone seems to respond more often to the watch, maybe 1 time out of 3, instead of 1 time out of 4 or 5. However, since I’m rarely wearing a face mask in my home, this is hardly helpful.
Frustrating!
SamCat01,
Correct, you unpair your watch from the Watch app. We were asking that you also unpair any other Bluetooth devices that are connected to either device and that is done in Settings > Bluetooth, where you'll see a list of devices. If there aren’t any, then no worries!
Are you encountering any issues with Face ID when not wearing a mask? Does the issue occur in multiple locations? We ask this to rule out interference.
If you’re not having issues with Face ID otherwise and the issue persists in multiple locations, we’d next like to have your each out to Contact Apple Support for additional assistance. Here’s their link: Official Apple Support
If there are any questions, we'll do our best to answer them.
There are no other Bluetooth devices paired with my phone.
This problem occurs in a variety of places without any discernible pattern, although it works more consistently indoors when connected to WiFi.
Face ID works nearly 100% of time without the mask on, regardless of location.
As I mentioned, the watch will display the unlock message even though the phone itself remains locked until I use the passcode.
I can call Apple Support, but given the random nature of the problem, I don’t hold out much hope of a resolution.
SamCat01,
Be sure to let them know the things we've discussed and the isolating you had already done. They'll be able to pick things up from there for you.
We're here if any additional questions come up.
while I can see my watch list as connected, if tap the “i” I don’t have the option to forget it.
Unlocking the iPhone with the Apple Watch while wearing a face mask only works sometimes
