iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 14.7.1, Watch Series 4, WatchOS 7.6: had sporadic issues under iOS 14.7 but 14.7.1 killed the Watch unlock entirely. Tried toggling on/off the settings and power-cycling both iPhone and Watch. No joy.
Apple Watch Series 4, watchOS 7
There appears to be a bug. I'm sure there will be yet-another patch released in the near future (weeks at most).
At the moment some users cannot unlock their Apple Watch using the passcode. These tend to be corporate users with management profiles installed that require using the iPhone to unlock the Apple Watch. These users would benefit from turning off the "Unlock with Apple Watch" Covid-19 mask wearing option.
I for example, can do a dance that allows me to have the Unlock with Apple Watch enabled and unlock my Apple Watch with my iPhone, but the dance has to be down just right and there is a very narrow window to start and complete the dance.
If you let the iPhone wake before the Apple Watch passcode screen appears, it will not work. If you wait too long, after the passcode screen appears, it will not work.
This is also not an option for finger print ID based iPhones. I think on those models, it just does not work unless the "Unlock with Apple Watch" is disabled. I do not have a Finger Print ID iPhone any longer, so I cannot test and verify.
So if you can get my narrow window dance to work for you, then you can have both. If you cannot get the dance to work, then you have to decide for the next few days/weeks which feature is more important to you.
Once Apple fixes this, you will be able to have both.
There appears to be a bug. I'm sure there will be yet-another patch released in the near future (weeks at most).
At the moment some users cannot unlock their Apple Watch using the passcode. These tend to be corporate users with management profiles installed that require using the iPhone to unlock the Apple Watch. These users would benefit from turning off the "Unlock with Apple Watch" Covid-19 mask wearing option.
I for example, can do a dance that allows me to have the Unlock with Apple Watch enabled and unlock my Apple Watch with my iPhone, but the dance has to be down just right and there is a very narrow window to start and complete the dance.
If you let the iPhone wake before the Apple Watch passcode screen appears, it will not work. If you wait too long, after the passcode screen appears, it will not work.
This is also not an option for finger print ID based iPhones. I think on those models, it just does not work unless the "Unlock with Apple Watch" is disabled. I do not have a Finger Print ID iPhone any longer, so I cannot test and verify.
So if you can get my narrow window dance to work for you, then you can have both. If you cannot get the dance to work, then you have to decide for the next few days/weeks which feature is more important to you.
Once Apple fixes this, you will be able to have both.
Chatted with Apple Support and after unpairing and then paired it back (and restored pairing from backup) my Apple Watch and iPhone are working perfectly even with VPN on. Don’t know if VPN had anything to do with it or if just unpairing and pair again fixed it but give it a try.
Lew-Bob wrote:
Chatted with Apple Support and after unpairing and then paired it back (and restored pairing from backup) my Apple Watch and iPhone are working perfectly even with VPN on. Don’t know if VPN had anything to do with it or if just unpairing and pair again fixed it but give it a try.
Unpairing and then pairing again, turns off "Unlock with Apple Watch", which also fixes the problem in a few seconds instead of the half hour or so the unpairing/pairing takes.
Turn off "Unlock with Apple Watch" under iPhone settings -> Face ID & Passcode (for touch ID, it may be slightly different title).
Nope. Still need to wear mask at work and use that feature extensively. You’re not suggesting they can’t both be enabled?
Love the “narrow window dance” and it works - thanks!
Utterly ridiculous. Both those features worked fine for months. Now they don’t. What branch did they not merge to make them both work under 14.7?
Try turning off your VPN. Same issue but turned off my VPN and voila, worked like a charm. Next, gotta find a way to make it work with VPN enabled.
Watch not unlocking via iPhone unlock after iOS 14.7.1 install
