HT206995: Automatically unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch

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Cheffonz

Q: auto unlock not connecting to Apple Watch

MacOs can't the apple watch checked all setting and still not working...its a pain in the butt any troubleshooting ideas?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Sep 20, 2016 6:23 PM

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Q: auto unlock not connecting to Apple Watch

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Jonathan UK,

    Jonathan UK Jonathan UK Sep 21, 2016 2:05 AM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 8 (37,908 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 21, 2016 2:05 AM in response to Cheffonz

    Hi

     

    If you are using macOS Sierra, the following steps may help:

     

    • Check that your watch and Mac are connected to the same Wi-Fi network (which may not be the case if you are using range extenders).
    • Check that your watch and Mac are signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
    • Check that your watch is using a passcode.
  • by Adam MJ Barnes,

    Adam MJ Barnes Adam MJ Barnes Sep 21, 2016 2:16 AM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 2:16 AM in response to Cheffonz

    Same here, on both my Mac's, A late 2015 iMac 5K and a late 2013 MacBook pro both have Universal Clipboard and other handoff things working just fine...?

     

    I have done:

    Two-Factor Authentication enabled

    I've un-paired my watch then re-paired

    restarted everything

    signed in/out

     

    Still just won't work?

  • by Jonathan UK,

    Jonathan UK Jonathan UK Sep 21, 2016 6:57 AM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 8 (37,908 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 21, 2016 6:57 AM in response to Cheffonz

    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

  • by Cheffonz,

    Cheffonz Cheffonz Sep 21, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 21, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Cheffonz

    Only thing that worked was signing in and out of iCloud but even then it took a while work and I had to disable guest account. thanks for your help everyone.

  • by ericbrin,

    ericbrin ericbrin Sep 21, 2016 3:05 PM in response to Jonathan UK
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 21, 2016 3:05 PM in response to Jonathan UK

    Done all that and it still doesn't work. Just browsing the internet, it sounds like a ton of people are having this problem and the issue is on Apple's side. Maybe we'll have to wait for Apple's next update?

  • by Lightivity,

    Lightivity Lightivity Sep 22, 2016 12:33 AM in response to ericbrin
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 22, 2016 12:33 AM in response to ericbrin

    Same issue here – Tried all of the above. Also a question about having to be on the same wifi: when at the login screen, macOS isn't yet connected to any wifi, this happens after you've logged in.

  • by guial,

    guial guial Sep 22, 2016 7:09 AM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 22, 2016 7:09 AM in response to Cheffonz

    I tried everything, this new function don`t work for me. Why did you write about the same Wifi network, my Apple watch don`t have wifi setup by himself.

  • by aclease1,

    aclease1 aclease1 Sep 22, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Watch
    Sep 22, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Cheffonz

    Check that your on the hardware specified. A little ticked because originally in Beta 2 it was Early 2013 and later, now it is Mid 2013 and later. Apparently buying a MacBook Pro one should really check the dates before purchase since I got mine in Mid 2013, but it was early 2013 hardware.

     

    So bottom line, I was all excited that I have a new useful thing for my watch to do for me, but now, it's proven pointless because my hardware is a couple weeks older.

  • by G4Monster,

    G4Monster G4Monster Sep 22, 2016 10:14 PM in response to Cheffonz
    Level 2 (334 points)
    Sep 22, 2016 10:14 PM in response to Cheffonz

    This worked for me. For what it's worth I directed iCloud in System Preferences to keep local copies of everything when I signed out think it'd be faster than deleting all my data then resynchronizing. It was "fast" and now my watch unlocks my iMac. I'm hoping that iCloud Sync will magically not duplicate all my files. If the duplication happens I'll report back.

  • by McPartners,

    McPartners McPartners Sep 23, 2016 2:02 AM in response to G4Monster
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Sep 23, 2016 2:02 AM in response to G4Monster

    We have had all the same problems above with a MacBook Pro Retina mid 2014.

    (spinning wheel over hours)

    Just discovered that Bluetooth was switched off at this MacBook .

    After switching on Bluetooth and a restart, Auto unlock switched on within a minute and it works!

  • by coopercsc,

    coopercsc coopercsc Sep 25, 2016 11:17 AM in response to Adam MJ Barnes
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 25, 2016 11:17 AM in response to Adam MJ Barnes

    I've been trying to get this to work for days. I managed to finally fix it by signing into my Apple ID in the Apple Watch app on my iPhone. Go to the Watch App>>General>>Apple ID and log in. Once I did this, the Apple Watch setting finally showed up in my Security and Privacy page on my Mac.