Series 3 watch; Unlocking your Mac not supported with your Apple Watch.

High Sierre fixed it now also for me - but not initially - I had to rebind my watch on the iPhone first as a "new watch" - after that unlocking worked perfect again..

So reseting the watch after installing High Sierra also resolved it for me! 🙂

I meant to add that the High Sierra update resolved the issue for me (in case that wasn't clear).

High Sierra solved the problem for me too.

But they should solve the problem also with the "'normal" Sierra...

I have some good news for the people who have had this issue resolved by upgrading to High Sierra. Previously, I found that my old Watch (series "0" on Watch OS 3) and my 2017 MacBook Pro (on Sierra), would mostly work, but had issues. In general, the Mac would unlock ~80% of the time and 20% of the time it would try to unlock for about 20 seconds, then give up. I couldn't even unlock the Mac manually during this period because it was "busy."

After upgrading to High Sierra and using my new series 3 Watch, it has not failed to work a single time! This has been a big improvement for me.

My guess is it will require High Sierra? Otherwise it makes no sense.

It's not working for me on 10.12.6 either. I've got a call in to Apple Support where it's been escalated twice, and now it's being forwarded on to the engineers (who are not available on weekends). It's not looking promising for a solution that doesn't involve 10.13.

Same issue here.

I had the original Watch 0 and upgraded to a series 3 today. I am using MacOS 10.12.6 on a 2013 MacBook Pro. My original Watch unlocked the MacBook with no problem with WatchOS 3, but my Series 3 Watch running WatchOS 4 just gives the message "Unlocking your Mac not supported with your Apple Watch… Update your Mac’s software to allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac“ when trying to configure the settings on the Mac.

Thomas,

You probably already did this, but did you go back to system preferences and check the box to allow the watch to open it? Do you still get the same message about needing to upgrade your Mac software, or does it allow you to check the box and just fail with no message?

Hi David,

yes - I tried to check the box - but with no success 😟

Also restartet all devices, etc..

High Sierra though changed the error-message - from "update your mac" to "communication error between your watch"... 😉

But the result is still - can't unlock my MBP with my new Series 3 watch..

Happy for you, that your problem is solved - still believe, that mine will also be solved soon 🙂

It may work for you but it doesn't for me - despite using HighSierra. Apple Support was not helpful, so I guess that I have to wait and see if Apple releases a patch or just shrug my shoulders and live without it.

Can anyone with a series 3 watch running High Sierra confirm this? If not, we won't have long to wait to find out 🙂

Thanks for the update. Good to know my new watch is at least ok. I’m sure the issue will be resolved soon.

It happens to me too, watch 3 and sierra, latest update.

I am sure that they will fix it, but honestly, this is quite disappointing... we are not speaking about a small and unused feature...

I am having the same issue with my Series 3 Apple Watch as well. Hopefully High Sierra will fix.