Same thing happened to me. I went back into the privacy and security settings on my Mac and unchecked the box to use Apple Watch to unlock Mac. Then I re-checked that box and it's worked fine ever since.
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Apple Explains How Unlocking iPhone With Apple Watch Works
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I had to turn it off on my Mac, then turn it back on. Went back to working fine.
The idea is too keep the super secure stuff secure, but make it easier to access things like text messages, grocery store lists, emails, etc. when in an environment that forces you to wear a face diaper.
If you haven't already, toggle it off, then on again on your Mac. That worked for me.
I'm not sure that it would be a great idea to have this 'on' by default. It's better kept 'off' by default because there is a slightly higher risk of loss of security using this feature.
I really like this feature. I already had it set up on my laptop; used it for the first time when I went to the store last night and surprised myself when my watch rumbled. I like that the watch checks if it was intentional and offers to lock the phone again.
Some random thoughts...
1) According to this article (and someone who posted in this thread about using it with a motorcycle helmet on), this requires you to look at the phone but doesn't seem to actually be using FaceID to authenticate any part of your face. If true, why aren't they utilizing FaceID to at least authenticate the un-masked part of your face (and couldn't they also authenticate the shape of the masked part of your face)? Has Apple explained any of this anywhere?
2) I don't get why it won't let you configure your security settings to just use your Apple Watch and proximity settings to fully unlock everything (including passwords). If you're really worried about a security risk, fine, you don't have to enable that. But why not make it configurable for the user to set it up as loose or as secure as they are comfortable with? If I'm wearing my Apple Watch and have a FaceID iPhone, I should be *allowed* to configure it to let me unlock it just by swiping up when my Apple Watch is on and nearby. I don't need them to be my nanny and do worry about what, in my opinion and in my personal situation, is a small risk that I'm willing to accept. And taking things to the extreme...if someone threatens you with a gun, they'll likely get you to comply with unlocking your iPhone with FaceID, anyway.
3) Why don't they support scanning/storing multiple FaceID "prints"? This is nothing new, so again, has Apple ever explained this? I know my wife's passcode and my daughter's passcode, and they know I know. In the past I've even stored my fingerprint on my wife's phone. She often has some problem with her phone that I need to troubleshoot, and this makes it easier for me to jump in and diagnose. If Apple's worried about someone abusing this and setting up their FaceID print on their spouse's phone (or whoever's), they could easily write some logic that would alert the primary user to the fact that another person's FaceID print exists and ask them to "OK" it. They could be asked/bothered one time, and then never again.
1) According to this article (and someone who posted in this thread about using it with a motorcycle helmet on), this requires you to look at the phone but doesn't seem to actually be using FaceID to authenticate any part of your face. If true, why aren't they utilizing FaceID to at least authenticate the un-masked part of your face (and couldn't they also authenticate the shape of the masked part of your face)? Has Apple explained any of this anywhere?
2) I don't get why it won't let you configure your security settings to just use your Apple Watch and proximity settings to fully unlock everything (including passwords). If you're really worried about a security risk, fine, you don't have to enable that. But why not make it configurable for the user to set it up as loose or as secure as they are comfortable with? If I'm wearing my Apple Watch and have a FaceID iPhone, I should be *allowed* to configure it to let me unlock it just by swiping up when my Apple Watch is on and nearby. I don't need them to be my nanny and do worry about what, in my opinion and in my personal situation, is a small risk that I'm willing to accept. And taking things to the extreme...if someone threatens you with a gun, they'll likely get you to comply with unlocking your iPhone with FaceID, anyway.
3) Why don't they support scanning/storing multiple FaceID "prints"? This is nothing new, so again, has Apple ever explained this? I know my wife's passcode and my daughter's passcode, and they know I know. In the past I've even stored my fingerprint on my wife's phone. She often has some problem with her phone that I need to troubleshoot, and this makes it easier for me to jump in and diagnose. If Apple's worried about someone abusing this and setting up their FaceID print on their spouse's phone (or whoever's), they could easily write some logic that would alert the primary user to the fact that another person's FaceID print exists and ask them to "OK" it. They could be asked/bothered one time, and then never again.
i assume they just can't do this. all they support is "alternate appearance" and it's not even clear what that is. if the mask worked with that, i'm sure apple would have gone with that. but it doesn't... it seems like all they can tell is they are looking at a human head, and then ask the watch for authorization. this is a subpar user experience which goes counter to apple's way of doing things so i have to assume they were forced into it by limitations of the hardware.
What does suck is that if you have 2 AW's like I do, when ever you swap watches you have to go into settings on the phone and enable/disable the correct watch or it does not work.
This may be a bug, I reported it to Apple and they were not sure, its being looked into.
So you're saying you have two AWs paired to your iPhone and they both appear under Unlock With Apple Watch (see screen cap below) but only one can be selected at a time?
I don’t think “the unmasked part of your face” is consistent enough with various masks or other potential coverings to allow using authentication of the unmasked portion of a face.
In my case, using it with a full face helmet with a breath guard and balaclava, there is only about a 6“ x 3” oval surrounding my eyes, so top of nose, and eyebrows are completely obscured. It’s obvious it’s looking for eyes only as part of the unlocking sequence.
This really is a great thing for motorcyclists.
thought this was great but have turned this off. As it worked for me with my eyes shut and bottom part of my face covered. Does that mean someone can unlock my phone as I sleep?! The haptic won’t wake me up!
there are definitely bugs around this... i have 2 apple watches as well, and in my settings my main watch (which i am currently wearing) is greyed out (but turned on) saying it needs a software update to be eligible to unlock the phone... however, i am wearing that watch and it does successfully unlock the phone when i am wearing a mask.
so yeah, there will be a .1 update soon i'm sure.
But does your OTHER watch unlock the phone as well without having to change anything in Settings, or are you having to switch settings every time you switch watches in order to get it to work like the other person I was replying to says he has to do?
Yes and no. When I was first trying to set this up, only one watch could be turned "on" and the other one was grayed out and had the message "Software Update Required" even though both were updated. However, if you put the grayed out one on your wrist and unlocked it, then power cycled the iPhone, it would then be available and the other one was grayed out. At that point I got Apple support involved.
Soon after and I am not quite sure how, both watches became available in the settings on the phone. neither was grayed out. However, still only one of them would do the unlock trick. I then discovered that instead of power cycling the phone, all I had to do was wear the watch as normal, and turn off then back on the unlock setting on the phone and that watch was activated and would do the unlock.
Both I and the Apple rep agreed this did not seem to be the desired method, like everything else it should change automatically based on which watch I was wearing. I could still go into the watch app and the phone was aware of which watch I was wearing, that had not changed.
This question was submitted to engineering and we are still waiting for their answer. Maybe will be an update coming to fix this I hope.
See my post above, was the same for me and you can force the phone to cycle by powering off. And I (somehow) got both watches active without the software update message, but I still have to turn off and on the Unlock with Apple Watch setting on the phone to force the phone to cycle between the 2. This happened when I was doing the power cycle trick, both watches just appeared activated without the software error, not sure why.
So it’s insecure to unlock the entire phone but not secure enough to open Apollo? I’m not buying it, if it was so insecure they wouldn’t have released it. And besides that it’s been unlocking macs for years now.
Agreed. But I'm assuming it would be up to individual developers to implement this functionality.
Maybe thats true, I would have assumed it was baked into the OS though. Considering now the unlock with faceid just returns a true or false essentially.
Anybody know if after a certain amount of time watch unlock needs to be re-activated by entering your passcode again? Let's say I have it working, then I don't use it for an entire day. The next morning when I put my watch on and grab the phone off the charger, FaceID works fine and unlocks my watch but if I put my mask on and try to unlock the phone it asks for the passcode. After the passcode is entered, watch unlock works normally ...
both watches were unlocking the phone without changing anything... i think this might be a "display bug" more than anything, at least for me.
I have not been able to make that happen. For the time being I have had to continue to go into settings when I change watches, and for ease of remembering, I have adopted turning the watch I am wearing "on" and the other one "off" since I will need to toggle it off next time anyways. Leaving both on still only has one working.