I have to manually unlock when I should be able to use my new apple watch. This worked prior to updating to Sequoia! I have tried to remove the previous entries in the keychain and it still won't unlock.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)
I had the same problem. I had a Series 8 that unlocked my MBP M2 and upgraded it to a Series 10. It continued to unlock with no issues. After installing Sequoia and watchOS 11 it worked for a few hours then quit unlocking. Under Touch ID & Passwords in settings on my Mac, it had the name of my Series 8 listed and unlocking with it was turned on. The Series 10 was not there. I tried turning off the Series 8 then back on. It timed out with the “unable to communicate” message. I tried several suggestions from this and other forums with no luck. I figured out that my new watch was using the same name as my old one. So I gave my watch a new name. In the Watch app on iPhone, General > About > Name. Waited a few minutes for iCloud to sync, then opened up Touch ID & Password in settings on my Mac. The Series 8 name had been replaced with the new name. Turned on unlocking and it synced right away. No issues since. Hope this helps.
I had the same problem. I had a Series 8 that unlocked my MBP M2 and upgraded it to a Series 10. It continued to unlock with no issues. After installing Sequoia and watchOS 11 it worked for a few hours then quit unlocking. Under Touch ID & Passwords in settings on my Mac, it had the name of my Series 8 listed and unlocking with it was turned on. The Series 10 was not there. I tried turning off the Series 8 then back on. It timed out with the “unable to communicate” message. I tried several suggestions from this and other forums with no luck. I figured out that my new watch was using the same name as my old one. So I gave my watch a new name. In the Watch app on iPhone, General > About > Name. Waited a few minutes for iCloud to sync, then opened up Touch ID & Password in settings on my Mac. The Series 8 name had been replaced with the new name. Turned on unlocking and it synced right away. No issues since. Hope this helps.
This has been an ongoing problem with just about every macOS upgrade or update. The solution in my case has usually been to wait a day or two... until one day even that didn't work.
The following Discussion describes the procedure I used after waiting a few days with no resolution:
Can't unlock Mac with Watch since Ventura… - Apple Community
Try it. Forget about deleting Keychain entires etc. Same goes for un-pairing, re-pairing, signing out, signing in... I tried all that and more. Nothing worked.
As a perfunctory prerequisite be sure to follow Apple's steps first, as I recommended in that Discussion, but which didn't work for me: Unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch - Apple Support.
Yes this has been beta tested as well as reported, but given its (usual) spontaneous resolution after a day or so it has failed to rise to the level of requiring attention from Apple... yet.
My next move is to contact support…
Definitely contact Apple and tell them about it. It shouldn't require the conniptions I described in Can't unlock Mac with Watch since Ventura… - Apple Community.
First Method (@nicevillesteve):
Brute force sledgehammer method: (takes longer)
I've had to do this when I upgraded to Ventura & Sonoma. It must be some security related thing.
Brute force sledgehammer method: (takes longer)
Thanks to James I tried the "brut force" method below and it's been working since I did this! We shouldn't have to fix this ourselves but I'm very happy with James solution!
I had the same problem. Updating MBP M2 to Sequoia 15.0.1 and new AW 10 with AWos 11.0.1. The 'Unlock with AW..' was turned on, but it didn't work. Turned it off and triad to turn on, not possible. It stayed in 'syncing' for 'ever' but not turning on. Then I did with tip on this thread: Changed the name on the new AW in AW App on iPhone, Unpaired the other (old) Apple Watch's in AW App on iPhone. Restarted the new AW, and voila..
The syncing for Unlock with AW turned on, and it works. Haven't tried 'over night sleep' yet. But waited until all disks slowed down and so on.. and it works.
One other thing is to make sure that your Apple Watch DOES connect to your WiFi. I tried many things that did not work. Finally, connecting to WiFi from the Settings app on the watch fixed it. Connect your Apple Watch to Wi-Fi - Apple Support
I did the steps shown below in you linked to and it's now my Watch is linking to the unlock and working:
I followed the instructions posted by nicevillesteve and got things working after the initial Sequoia update. However, as an FYI, the recent 15.1 update broke it again. I updated my iMac and phone but still broken. Finally I updated the watch--and without doing anything else, unlocking is now working again.
So for me, the second time it 'broke' updating the watch itself was all I needed to do.
Thought I'd post that info in case it helps someone else.
I tried all the simple steps. I finally unpaired my Apple Watch Ultra 2 and paired it again, and my Mac will finally unlock. I'm still having an issue with my Watch unlocking my iPhone. Watch always unlocked via the iPhone.
I had same issue with Sequoia 15.1.1 and had to completely power off my Apple Watch Ultra 2 and MacBook Air, then turn them on again to fix the issue. Simply restarting did not work.
I had to do the same on Ventura and Sonoma. It's apparently related to security and you sometimes need to re-pair the Watch to your iPhone then turn on the unlock with Apple Watch on macOS. At least the newer Watches are faster to unpair / pair.
I also upgraded my iPhone XS to an iPhone 16 Pro so that might be another factor that can affect things.
That happens to me occasionally too. I typically turn off the functionality and turn it back on to get it back working.
Got a new MacBook Air M3 today. Unlock with Watch wasn't working. Tried the steps listed here as well as others. None appeared to work. Called Apple support. They had me set up a new user profile as a test. That didn't seem to work. I finagled with the settings for the screen saver and that (or time in conjunction with the other things) did the trick.
I have a hot corner set up for the Lock Screen. If I use that to turn on the Lock Screen, the MacBook Pro will not unlock with Apple Watch. I have to use Touch ID or password to unlock. I have another hot corner set to start the screen saver. If I start the screen saver and then hit a button, my Watch will unlock the Mac. It will unlock with the Watch or give you the option to enter a password. It does not ask you for Touch ID. And if I close the lid and then reopen it, Unlock with Watch works with Screen Saver.
It might be that there's stuff on the back end that needs to happen. Anyway, just sharing my experience.
I've got the following settings for my Lock Screen:
Suddenly about 48 hours later, I received an alert on my Mac that I could use my watch to unlock. Clicked it, turned on unlock, and it worked! I think it has something to do with my new AppleID - took a while to finally sync across all devices. It shouldn't take that long.
No way this wasn’t caught in public beta testing.
after years of unlocking with my watch, when I upgraded to sequoia it now tells me “Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch…”
No support article suggests something constructive.
Unable to unlock my MacBook Pro using Apple Watch
