Unlocking iPhone with Apple Watch feature not working

Hello thabo277.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It looks like you're experiencing issues unlocking your iPhone with your Apple Watch while wearing a mask. Specifically, you're getting prompted communication errors when attempting to use this feature. We can understand how this would be an issue. Allow us to investigate this issue and assist in any way we can.

We would like to suggest some troubleshooting steps to see if we can get this issue sorted out. First, disable the "Unlock With Apple Watch" feature. Once it is turned off, restart both your Apple Watch and iPhone:

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support

How to restart your Apple Watch - Apple Support

After your devices restart, you can re-enable the "Unlock With Apple Watch" feature and test it out. If your issue continues to occur, please install any pending updates that are available for both devices. Keeping your devices fully updated can help resolve various issues and help with overall performance. Just in case, the resources below can guide you through the update process for both your devices:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Update your Apple Watch - Apple Support

We hope this information is useful. Cheers.

Hey there!

Thank you for updating us and for letting us know that this specific issue is still occurring. We still have another step we can share with you. From here, you can try to unpair and re-pair your Apple Watch to your iPhone. This is a great isolating troubleshooting step to attempt. If you're not familiar on how to un-pair your Apple Watch, check out the resources below:

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If after following these steps you continue to see the same error populate when trying to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch, you might want to reach out to Apple Support for help. Just in case, you can use the link below to reach them:

Get Support - Apple

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Cheers.