The message "Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch" Keeps appearing when I try to set up my Watch to unlock my MacBook Pro

Thank you. EVERYTHING else failed. This seems like such a random fix, especially for a company who does business around the world, but it worked. I took the ¥ out of my MBP password and replace it with something from the ASCII-table and I'll be ****** if it didn't work right away.

**** Apple, I have been troubleshooting this for multiple days after setting up a new iMac. Removing the "ö" from the password solved the problem. Apple is pushing emojis everywhere (even in Xcode this wwdc), but can't even handle international alphabets.

1. unpairing my apple watch

2. Removing my apple watch from my apple account via http://appleid.apple.com/

3. restore watch with my iPhone (from backup)

4. restarting, mac, watch and iphone

5. log out of icloud on mac and back in

6. enable auto unlock (have your iphone unlocked with the watch app open)

I also tried everything above and none worked. In my case my Mac was reformatted, the system reinstalled and then I manually copied the home directory back. Everything worked except this issue with Apple Watch. So when I saw this post about Messages I immediately checked it. Of course, Messages was turned OFF because the home directory moved! So, turning Messages back on (and FaceTime for that matter) FIXED the problem!

Thank you Joel!

This is what worked for me on my second Watch, a Series 1 which was already working fine on my Mac Pro but would just spin and spin on my new MBPr w Touch Bar. My original Watch was enabled immediately which is why the failure on the second Watch was driving me crazy.

I tried all of the above without success. I toggled the airplane mode on and off on my watch, which also toggled the same mode on my iPhone. Over and over, then I went to iCloud and signed out. (Very frightening) Signed back into iCloud and hoped all my docs and settings returned. Finally went back to System Preferences, Security and Privacy and clicked the box. The message appears again. Then I noticed that Bluetooth and iCloud were turned off on my iPhone. After checking all of the settings on the iPhone, I went back and clicked the box. I waited again for the dreaded notice, but it did not appear. Furthermore, the box stayed checked. Testing the unlock feature... IT WORKED AGAIN

My fix was making my keychain password the same as my user account password.

Finder > keychain > right click "login" > "change password for login

Create your password here.

Then:

system preferences > "users and groups" > select your account and then click "Change password" > ensure your password is exactly the same as you entered on the keychain.

Hope this helps!

I was going to reset the default keychains but got a warning I'd lose the keychain items, is that true? I don't relish the thought of having to rediscover all those passwords.

This worked perfectly since I got my first Apple watch, but then in the last week the battery started draining where I didn't get a full day on a charge. Tried a number of steps to fix it until I went nuclear and unpaired the watch then set it up as a new one. Everything works like it used to except this.

I'm just concerned I'm going to lose all my keychain entries and is there any way of getting them back (I kind of need that).

Thanks!

It's happening the same thing to me. I've been trying everything that I could find on the web, but nothing works. Keeps appearing this message.

I Had same problem but found that my iPhone that was paired with the watch was on a different wifi network than the iMac. I use a range extender and therefore have a few networks I can connect to.

I had no idea my MBP was on a different network. I have the same set up and it worked.

Thanks.

Using the same wifi network for the phone and Mac got my watch paired, but the watch still won't open my Mac. Back to Knock until this is resolved. BTW - it works great on my laptop at home. If it only works via the same wireless network... that is a problem in mixed connection (ethernet, multiple wireless nodes) environments.

Hi

Another user found that disabling and re-enabling Handoff on their iPhone resolved this issue:

On your iPhone, go to: Settings > General > Handoff

More information:

Re: Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch

My MBP, iPhone and Watch are at the same wifi network... and nothing... sad and frustrating... even the copy/ paste thru handoff is not working...

Try the step in my previous reply (you may have missed it due to posting soon afterwards).