My devices no longer just work

Question

My devices no longer just work

Are you experiencing something breaking on every single apple platform after upgrading to iOS26 and subsequent updates?

My mac no longer unlocks with my apple watch.

My apple watch no longer plays music without drops and issues unless I put it in airplane mode

My reminders don’t sync properly and duplicate across devices requiring iCloud removal and reenable and manual resolution of corrupted data.

My pinned destinations no longer show up in Car Play when I get into the car and travel destinations from guides for places across oceans appear instead.

I really like every device until after updating to 26.

Anyone else finding this?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.7

Posted on Feb 5, 2026 3:58 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

claytonfromcolumbus Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2026 7:35 AM in response to lkrupp

I have had my watch stop unlocking the Mac with at least 3 previous update rounds and the solution to turn it off and reboot the Mac then turn it on again. That does not work this time.

I rebooted the Mac after reinitiating the open with watch setting. Still no go.

to log into this community, I used my Apple watch to sign in on the Mac (rather than entering my password) successfully and it still doesn’t unlock the Mac.

Tried rebooting the watch. (was never required previously)

and now it works again.

So note to all with this problem - reboot the watch as the last step.

Turn off unlock Mac with watch in settings
Reboot the Mac
Turn on unlock Mac with watch in settings
Reboot the watch

This successfully fixed my problem.

Hope this saves time for the millions of people who open their Mac with their watch.

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Answer 2

lkrupp

Level 7

22,771 points

Feb 5, 2026 4:36 PM in response to claytonfromcolumbus

claytonfromcolumbus wrote:

Are you experiencing something breaking on every single apple platform after upgrading to iOS26 and subsequent updates?

Anyone else finding this?

Not at all. All of my devices are performing exceptionally well on macOS 26, iOS 26, watchOS 26. Obviously your reported issues are not expected behavior so some basic troubleshooting might be in order. First try restarting your devices. Many times that’s all that is needed.

Shut down or restart your Mac - Apple Support

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support

Restart Apple Watch - Apple Support

Restart your iPad - Apple Support

For things like your watch not unlocking your Mac try tuning the option off and then back on after restarting.

Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Feb 5, 2026 4:55 PM in response to lkrupp

thank you

I restart my devices on a weekly basis and because edge cases never survive a reboot, I don’t even bother to acknowledge a problem that hasn’t survived a reboot of a device.

and when I have an issue, I look to see if there is any update available and apply it first.

this is new and persistent.

I am all Apple and it’s everywhere.

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