Has anybody got other solutions to get unlocking Mac with Watch to work?
I have followed all the latest advice and I still get the message unable to communicate with Apple Watch
iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS Sierra (10.12)
THAT finally worked for me! I use a foreign language keyboard with special characters, after changing a "standard" keyboard password, NO problem! thank you a lot!
I found one cause of this issue. A seperate discussion was created as it only applies if you have multiple user profiles on your Mac.
Hi,
a few minutes ago I finally got this vexing auto-unlock problem solved by a solution that I did not found mentioned in every support forum I tried so far.
I understand you have checked the principal requirements for the unlock feature.
Try this: Check your Mac-Password for special characters like @ or €. I had a password using those characters and communication / connection between my Mac and my Apple Watch always failed (in German: "Die Kommunikation zwischen deinem Mac und der Apple Watch ist fehlgeschlagen."). After changing my Mac-Password (using only ordinary characters including numbers) it worked like a charm...!
May be this can help - I hope so!
Best wishes for 2017!
I finally got unlocking to work! By buying a new Mac. I tried everything on that Mac mini and could not get it to work. Then I bought a Refurbished MacBook Pro 13 inch (Early 2015) from the Apple Store, and now unlocking with the Watch works all the time.
Hi please see my post that I have just put on re
opening mac by Apple Watch. Hope this works
for you.
After a long research I found these 2 links and it resolved my similar problems:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207198
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915
follow the instructions. Hope, it'll help.
This did not work for me. I already switched from two-step to two-factor authentitation (this works fine) before the problem occurs. A message "Your mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch" turns up after marking the tickbox 'Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" (see screenshot).
Having the same problem.
A message "Your mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch" turns up after marking the tickbox 'Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" [see screenshot; the tick box is not marked in the screenshot, but i did click/mark it 😉]
Make sure, Bluetooth is still enabled on the Mac.
Your paired iPhone may not yet be able to connect to iCloud.
After you upgraded from two-step authentication to two-factor authentication restart all devices and sign into iCloud again.
Thanks Léonie. I tried your suggestions but this did not work for me. Strangely now even the tickbox 'Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac' is gone. Weird.
Thanks Léonie. I tried your suggestions but this did not work for me. Strangely now even the tickbox 'Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac' is gone. Weird.
This option will be hidden, if the watch is not paired with iPhone - or the Mac thinks so.
How to check if a Mac Supports Auto Unlock with the Apple Watch
So check, if your watch is still paired with its iPhone if you no longer see this setting in the System Preferences.. Then unpair and pair the watch again with the iPhone.
@Léonie. I unpaired and repaired my Apple Watch. After that the tick box 'Allow your apple watch to unlock your mac' came back. But i still go the initial error message "Your mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch".
That said, the tickbox also was gone, and came back on my MacBook and here the Apple Watch unlocking does work (again). Could the problem be that the new unlock feature is not yet set up to work with multiple macs ?
ps - thanks for your help so far. I am happy to take more suggestions and troubleshoot more; but may do so a little later (the sun is shining outside..:) //Frank
Could the problem be that the new unlock feature is not yet set up to work with multiple macs ?
I am using the watch to unlock three different Macs, that are compatible with unlock.
It is working very well with my two MacBook Pros, when I am at home and have only one Wi-Fi available (unless I moved too far away from the iPhone), but when I am in my office at work, where my two Macs are on different networks for different Time Capsules, I can only unlock the Mac that is on the same network as the iPhone.
Is the network card of your Mac compatible? It should be for a Mac mid 2013 or newer.
But check, if the Mac lists it as compatible in the System profile: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10672
Enjoy the weekend and the sunshine!
Thanks. My iMac is one year old (Status: supported, as in the system report).
Have a good weekend too 🙂
/F
Interestingly, after a couple more tries (including taking off my AppleWatch and put it on again) I now managed to get my Apple Watch to unlock my iMac. Something seems to be fragile in the communication between my iMac and AppleWatch.
Unlock Mac with Apple Watch
