Mac unable to communicate with your Apple Watch

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Mac unable to communicate with your Apple Watch

My Watch was unlocking my 14" MacBook Pro (M1) OS 12.2.1 Watch OS 8.4.2 iPhone iOS 15.3.2 until it wasn't. I opened System Preferences and found use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac is unchecked (without notice, it had been checked). Attempts to reinstate it generate the message "Mac unable to communicate with your Apple Watch, make sure your Apple Watch is unlocked and on your wrist, and you iPhone is unlocked.

Watch is on wrist, signed into my AppleID (as are my Mac and iPhone). My Watch and iPhone both are unlocked--same error message.

I have tried restarting all three devices. No luck.

I went to the hassle of unpairing and repairing my Apple Watch. No luck.

I logged into iCould.com and "Find" locates my Mac, my Watch, and my iPhone.

So why can't my Mac communicate with my Apple Watch all of the sudden?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.2

Posted on Feb 19, 2022 11:08 AM

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Answer 1

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Murph Sewall Author

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89 points

Feb 19, 2022 11:22 AM in response to Murph Sewall

Well phoo! I restarted my MacBook Pro one more time and it allowed me to "use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" without a hitch. Closed the laptop. Opened the laptop and the Watch unlocked it.

That was a waste of a perfectly good hour. Why is this unlock feature so unreliable. The Mac forgets it entirely and fixing it can be like chasing ghosts. Sometimes the MacBook says I can unlock with TouchID, but in order to get the Apple Watch to unlock it next time I have to use the passcode.

Could someone at Apple tasked with fixing MacOS bugs get this one under control? Thanks.

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Answer 2

Murph Sewall Author

Level 1

89 points

Feb 19, 2022 11:13 AM in response to Murph Sewall

I also tried without luck --

Steps (follow at your own discretion)

Open "Keychain Access"
In "View", enable "Show Invisible Items"
Search for "Auto Unlock"
You should see a whole bunch of application passwords for "Auto Unlock: XXXX's ..."
Select all records and delete (this will reset/disable auto unlock on other Macs if you use multiple Macs)
Whilst still in "Keychain Access", search for "AutoUnlock" (no space)
There should be 4 entries for "tlk" "tlk-nonsync" "classA" "classC"
Select 4 records and delete (don't worry if they re-appear, the system repairs this automatically)
Open "Finder" and navigate to "~/Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock"
There should be two files "ltk.plist" and "pairing-records.plist"
Delete both files
Open "System Preferences" and try enabling auto unlock. You may need to enable it twice, the first attempt will fail.

I did try to enable it twice. Same "unable to communicate error."

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Mac unable to communicate with your Apple Watch

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