iPhone no longer unlocks Watch

Unlocking Watch Series 4 with my iPhone 8 Plus was working too and it stopped when I had iOS 14.7 installed.

After installing the latest iOS 14.7.1 I can again use this feaure.

Did you try unpair then pair again with your iPhone?

Do you have watchOS 7.6.1 installed?

Turn off "Unlock with Apple Watch" under iPhone settings -> Face ID & Passcode (for touch ID, it may be slightly different title).

This is a bug, and Apple will most likely issue an update in the next few days/weeks.

If you want both, you may be able to do the following dance (assuming you have Face ID; not sure if this will work for Finger Print Reader iPhones):

o iPhone screen blank (screen off)

o Raise Apple Watch until the numeric passcode unlock screen appears.

o Then immediately wake the iPhone and unlock it.

If you wake the iPhone too early, it will not work.

If you wait too long to wake and unlock the iPhone, it will not work.

NOTE: You may find suggestions to Unpair and pair the Apple Watch again. This ONLY appears to work, because that turns off "Unlock with Apple Watch". It a lot of work, to turn off the option you can do yourself in just a few seconds.

Which iPhone model have you?

Is the passcode screen showing on your Watch when you try unlocking using your paired iPhone?

Did you un-pair and then pair back again?

ColPanik wrote:

After unpairing, re-pairing and setting up the Watch from scratch, it now works.

Glad to hear, cheers.

Thanks. Very useful simple instruction.