Q: Tried everything, still can't unlock Macbook Pro with Apple Watch
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Sep 25, 2016 5:37 PMby dgturc83,Do you have any Bluetooth devices connected to you Mac? I was having the same issues with the unlock feature, then I noticed the Bluetooth symbol in the menu bar was showing it was paired (three dots through the center of the symbol) even though I had nothing paired with my laptop. I opened Bluetooth preferences and deleted the two devices listed there that had been previously connected, but were not currently connected. After deleting these items, the Bluetooth symbol returned to its normal unpaired look, and the unlock feature started working 100%.
I then tried experimenting a little. First, I paired my Bose speaker. 100% failure, required my password every time. Next, I unpaired the speaker and paired an Apple Magic mouse. This resulted in about a 50% failure rate but always worked when I clicked cancel then tried logging back in. I have not tried any other devices or multiple like a mouse and keyboard.
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Sep 25, 2016 8:09 PMby Jim Constant,When I read your reply I thought for sure it was going to solve the problem. Unfortunately, it didn't make a difference. After disconnecting from all Bluetooth devices I rebooted everything and still, nothing. So I then logged out of iCloud on my Mac, the logged back in. Now, when I click the checkbox to "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac", it looks for my watch and then says, "Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch. Make sure your Apple Watch is unlocked, on your wrist, and powered on."
I really appreciate your reply and even though it didn't work, I think you're onto something and it must have something to do with Bluetooth.
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Sep 25, 2016 9:00 PMby dgturc83,Have you tried restarting signing in and out of iCloud on you iPhone? About a week ago my Mac stopped unlocking from my watch. After rebooting the watch and Mac and signing in and out of iCloud on both devices with no success, I tried restarting my phone and everything starting working again. Could of been an isolated incident though, where something was hung up on my phone which caused issues with the watch.
This seems like a very fragile feature, probably due to the need for high security and the difficulty of calculating time of flight at such a short distance. The fact that other bluetooth devices can cause problems with this is troubling considering how much Apple pushes BT hardware. I think this feature should of kept its Beta label like Siri did when introduced on the iPhone 4S.
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Sep 27, 2016 10:18 AMby Alex Johnson2,Try also disabling 2FA - in Apple ID. Give it a few minutes. Then re-enable 2FA. It changed - I had early-adopted it and was used to the four-digit; the new one presents a dialog box with a map, and it's six digits. Once I had that set up, I enabled unlocking again, and now it works, more than 95% of the time. It is the one thing I was really waiting for as I was a perfectly satisfied watchOS 2 user, and it's great. I wish it worked on all my devices - and in generation 5 or whatever I presume it will.
This did have the effect of freaking out my iMac which can't run Sierra and which told me that iCloud login was no longer allowed. Apple giveth and Apple taketh away...
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Sep 28, 2016 5:53 AMby Jim Constant,Guess what. Last night I closed my Macbook (didn't turn it off), stuck it in my bag and when I got to work this morning and opened it up, Apple Watch logged me in. No fuss, no fanfare, it just did it.
I did nothing after my last attempt of signing out of iCloud on my iPhone and then signing back in. Actually, the only thing I did do was pair some Bluetooth headphone with my Mac but that obviously has nothing to do with it.
I don't know if it will work a second time. For now I'm just going to enjoy the fact that it worked once and then I'll cross my fingers later and try it again.
