Unable to open iMac with Apple Watch

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hot2chef Author

Level 1

113 points

Unable to open iMac with Apple Watch

Good evening

iMac 21.5 late 2015 running Monterey 12.3.1

Apple watch series 4 8.5.1

iPhone 12 15.4.1

All logged in to same iCloud account

Have noticed that my Apple watch no longer appears to open the iMac. In support it suggests opening system preferences > security & privacy >allow Apple watch to open apps & mac. However, in system preferences this option is no longer available (see screen shot)

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this can be re-activated?

Thanks

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.3

Posted on May 7, 2022 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

den.thed

Level 10

83,230 points

May 7, 2022 4:28 PM in response to hot2chef

You may need to turn off Internet Sharing or Screen Sharing and restart.

go to > Unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch - Apple Support and read all the way down to the bottom of the support article.

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Answer 2

Mal-S

Level 5

5,014 points

May 8, 2022 12:54 PM in response to hot2chef

My Apple Watch works on my M1 iMac + Monterey and I haven't had any problems.

When looking at the Apple Watch groups I see that a frequent suggestion for various issues is to un-pair the watch from the iPhone, reboot both devices, pair the watch to the phone and see if the "Open apps ....." reappears in system preferences.

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Answer 3

hot2chef Author

Level 1

113 points

May 8, 2022 10:04 AM in response to Mal-S

Thanks Mal-S.

I had seen the article but reread the whole thing again and tried all suggestions applicable. No luck though!

It comes down to there being no "allow Apple watch to open apps & mac" option as in my original post. It used to work Ok but seems to be since last update to 12.3.1.

Its not the end of the world I suppose (though I quite like using it) and once I have a few moments I will try a reinstall of the OS maybe that will solve issue.

Regards

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