Unlock Mac with Apple Watch stopped working.

This happened to me after working perfectly well. Here was the solution that worked (and what did not) work for me.

1. Turning off bluetooth on all devices DID NOT work for me.

2. Turning devices on and off DID NOT work for me.

3. Signing out of the iCloud account on the Mac AND phone, and resetting the watch with a fresh install DID work for me.

It's all back to normal again. My problems started after having to reset my Apple ID password. I recommend this to anyone experiencing these issues to see if it resolves your sitation

Apple Watch: Series 2

Macbook Pro, 15" Touch Bar, 2017

Iphone 7+

I have the exact same issue. It works perfectly until ... my wife logs in as another user on the same iMac. The only way to fix it after that happens is to [1] restart the iMac, and [2] disable/enable the "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" setting under "Security & Privacy".

Otherwise, the iMac would always ask me for my password. There is also a short wait (around 5 seconds) before the password text box appears, so I guess the iMac is actually searching for my Apple Watch, but eventually decides to ask for the password. I was able to get rid of the 5-second wait by disable the feature altogether.

I can either I ask my wife NOT to login (maybe not), or I can disable the feature for now at least until somebody from Apple actually fixes it. Got people from the Apple Support (via twitter and via phone), but looks like it's not worth the hassle.

Oh well.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) running macOS 10.13.1

Apple Watch Series 3 (GPT + LTE) running watchOS 4.1

Actually the WiFi tip did the trick for me. iMac is on LAN but the WiFi was linked to one of neighbours WiFi. Just after I prioritised networks to first connect to mine, unlocking with Apple Watch started working again.

Thank you so much. Retting NVRAM solved my problem.

Replying to the thread in general, as I have tried all of the things mentioned and I still cannot restore the functionality of unlocking my Mac with my Watch... Specs below if it matters:

2016 13" MBP w/Touchbar, running 10.12.2

iPhone 7+ iOS 10.2.1

iWatch WatchOS 3.1.3

No love all the way around... and the bummer is it worked when I first got the MBP in early January.

I have the same issue apple watch unlock only works with bluetooth turned OFF on the iPhone. Continuity also hasn't been working. Talked to Apple Support shared the mac screen with them and they couldn't resolve it. They acknowledged that this is a problem. The support personnel was super patient and we tried everything, from logging out of iCloud and logging back in, un-pairing and re-pairing the watch, toggling handoff on and off and restarting all devices. I have done almost everything I can short of reinstalling the macOS mon my iMac and mac mini.

I have a feeling this issue is fixed from macOS Version 10.13.3. I enabled auto unlock. Then asked my wife to login to her account. When I tried to login back to my account, I was still able to auto unlock it. This *always* failed when I was checking this back in November 2017. Hope it stays this way. 🙂

I have investigated this issue from my side as well.

The problem happens when you are changing account on your Mac to one with different AppleID.

In some cases turning Bluetooth off and on makes it work, in some cases, unlocking works just with Bluetooth turned off on iPhone, but it can stop working anytime. All these solutions are temporary.

The only thing that helps 100% is resetting of NVRAM. Here is a link how to do it - How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support.

The bad thing is that unlocking starts to work until the moment you will log in to your Mac with another user with different AppleID.

Dear Apple team, please fix the root cause of this issue. Mac can be used by different users with different AppleID's and it should not break any user experience. It is very disappointing.

Yes, I have the exact same problem after having to reset my Apple ID password. MacBook Pro late 2013, Apple Watch 3.

I've had an ongoing issue with the watch login to a Mac and its taken a while to find a pattern.

The problem seems to happen when the other user in the house logs into the iMac 2013 with his own watch. When I use the iMac subsequently & switch to my user login, neither of my watches will login.

The only thing that has consistently corrected this has been to shut down the iMac completely and reset NVRAM on boot with option-command-P-R.

I also try everything else... disable the watch login in settings and then set that up again. Reboot the iPhone, disable handoff in settings, general and then re-enable it; reboot the iMac. Shut off bluetooth on everything and turn it back on, etc, etc. Periodically the watch login starts working again with one of more of the preceding.

However, the only thing that seems to consistently fix the issue temporarily is the NVRAM reset.

The watch login to the mac simplifies the use of a complex login password. However, the time it takes to get this working again after another user switches to his mac profile and logins with his watch seems to neutralize any benefit to the simplicity of the watch login. LOL

I hope they figure this out. I've spent literally hours on the phone with AppleCare advisors and Senior Advisors about this and it's mostly one big PITA.

The fact that people are having to jump though hoops to get this to work is a failure and contrary to the "it just works" mentality. Apple, please fix this. If you fixed provisioning on Xcode, you can fix anything.

I have exactly the same experience, except in my case, it's the MacBook Pro that's working while the iMac continues to just spin indefinitely saying that it's "turning on" (like for 5 minutes, with no results).

Grrrr.....

Try turning off Bluetooth on your iPhone. Then wait 30 seconds and try Auto Unlock again. Does it work now?

Wait we're not done. What happens if you turn Bluetooth back on? Does it stop working again or does it continue working?