Apple to Fix Issue Preventing iPhone 13 Users From Unlocking With Apple Watch in Upcoming Software Update

[newyorksole]

I am willing to bet this bug, and many other missing features and bugs are the direct result of so many Apple employees working from home. If this is the price we must pay to keep them safe, along with their families, and the people in their communities I am okay with that.

Omg lol there are bugs EVERY single year people jeez. Every. Single. Year.

This bug is extra annoying considering the state of the world, but come on…

Considering how feature packed these new iPhones are and how feature rich their OS’s are, having a couple of bugs here and there isn’t the end of the world.

 

[Tech198]

Omg lol there are bugs EVERY single year people jeez. Every. Single. Year.

This bug is extra annoying considering the state of the world, but come on…

Considering how feature packed these new iPhones are and how feature rich their OS’s are, having a couple of bugs here and there isn’t the end of the world.

It's the avenue of using technology. As convenient as this is, there is no substitute to manually unlocking directly

It's only an issue because everyone got used to it. If it was never there, nothing to worry about. Handy as unlocking from other devices, just one more piece to go wrong.

 

[Schnapps]

Apple today said an issue preventing some iPhone 13 users from using the Unlock with Apple Watch feature will be fixed in an upcoming software update.

In a support document, Apple said affected users can turn off Unlock with Apple Watch and use their passcode to unlock their iPhone 13 until the software update is released. The feature, which is designed to let you unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask or ski goggles, can be toggled off in the Settings app under Face ID & Passcode.

Apple did not specify which software update will include a fix, nor did it provide a timeframe. The first beta of iOS 15.1 was released five days ago, but Apple could also choose to release a minor iOS 15.0.1 update with bug fixes.

As we reported, affected users might see an "Unable to Communicate with Apple Watch" error message if they try to unlock their iPhone 13 while wearing a face mask, or they might not be able to set up Unlock with Apple Watch.

Article Link: Apple to Fix Issue Preventing iPhone 13 Users From Unlocking With Apple Watch in Upcoming Software Update

I had this issue with an iPhone 12. I restarted my phone and then my (series 3) apple watch and it worked fine.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Oh that's interesting to know. Most everyone on reddit who had problems had set it up doing transfer (and those who did iCloud or did a full reset with a restore from iCloud) had it working. That sucks that you are having the same issue.

I did iCloud approach and still got the issue. A lot of Reddit also used iCloud.

 

[joelisfar]

When you upgrade only once in while, the difference is amazing. It’s like Christmas.

Came here to say “okay, sure it’s like Christmas, good point. But also… Christmas comes every year.” 😉

 

[Kentoch Mervel]

3 months of beta testing for that? Come on Apple

 

[cmaier]

3 months of beta testing for that? Come on Apple

The issue only affects iphone 13s. How many months of beta testing involved iPhone 13?

Yeah, zero.

 

[macfacts]

Apple: It just works. 🙄

This wouldn't happen if you get hardware and software from one manufacterer.

 

[Freeangel1]

TIM COOK BUYS A MANSION

WE GET BROKEN AND BUGGY OPERATING SYSTEMS.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Buys Lavish Estate in La Quinta’s Madison Club

This deal actually closed a very long time ago, back near the dawn of time. (Two years ago, to be more precise, long before COVID-19 had entered the general lexicon and face masks were a political talking point.) But although long suspected, it’s taken until now to finally confirm that the...

www.yahoo.com

 

[cmaier]

TIM COOK BUYS A MANSION

WE GET BROKEN AND BUGGY OPERATING SYSTEMS.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Buys Lavish Estate in La Quinta’s Madison Club

This deal actually closed a very long time ago, back near the dawn of time. (Two years ago, to be more precise, long before COVID-19 had entered the general lexicon and face masks were a political talking point.) But although long suspected, it’s taken until now to finally confirm that the...

www.yahoo.com

So write your own OS.

 

[smoking monkey]

So write your own OS.

Timmy didn't write nuttin' either! He inherited a company built by visionaries.

In saying that, if I were TC I'd be living there as well. He doesn't need to apologise for that.

There are 3 2 certainties in life - death, taxes and the ultra rich will always get richer.

 

[scott523]

I feel like Apple is sacrificing quality contol for leak control in my opinion. Very disappointed. I shall hold my wallet for the next event.

 

[applefanboysince93]

Fwiw my AW unlocks Monterey b7, but I do have the iPhone 13 bug. Will change to an easier passcode till this is resolved…

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Everything is „coming soon“ with Apple lately😅

I mean, it feels like that every year but if you look back every year there was always these small issues that appear after iPhone launches. People just tend to look back with rose tinted glasses.

 

[Johnny907]

Yup this is an issue with my 13 Pro and Series 6. Tried rebooting both etc but still refuses to activate.
What is up with Apple’s QA lately?

 

[haruhiko]

For the record, unlocking with Apple Watch (6) is working fine with my iPhone 13 Pro.

 

[Krizoitz]

Didn’t they have a spare iPhone and Apple Watch to test this? I wonder why do they have a couple of months for “beta testing” and this happens

"Apple today said an issue preventing some iPhone 13"

Emphasis on SOME. Testing is hard. There is no way Apple (or any company) that makes products as complicated and diverse can test all possible combinations. Trying to do so becomes prohibitively costly in terms of both money and time. If you want Apple to never release a product until they've ironed out every possible bug, well you'd still be waiting on the original iPhone to be released. There is never ever ever going to be a completely bug free iPhone, Apple Watch, etc. release. Ever.

 

[marlman]

All working great on my 13 pro max and series 6 watch.

after setting it all up the setting was turned off in settings.
Turned it back on and all working.

 

[ian87w]

As a software developer, I don’t really understand how this bug wasn’t caught. It affects everyone, no? I can understand bugs that get through that affect a percentage of the user base — but how was this not caught? Certainly there wasn’t a last minute untested change that they just lobbed out the day before. This is odd to me. The widget issue too… but I don’t think that affected everyone.

A bug can get through when everyone who were supposed to be testing it were told to be doing something else.

 

[Abazigal]

As a software developer, I don’t really understand how this bug wasn’t caught. It affects everyone, no? I can understand bugs that get through that affect a percentage of the user base — but how was this not caught? Certainly there wasn’t a last minute untested change that they just lobbed out the day before. This is odd to me. The widget issue too… but I don’t think that affected everyone.

The Apple Watch bug apparently affected everyone who was transferring their data from their older iPhone to the iPhone 13. If we assume that the developers were working on iPhone 13 hardware with the software already preloaded, I imagine this issue would not have been picked up because the conditions never materialised for them.

I suppose it’s the classic case of a problem going unnoticed because nobody is going out of their way to look for it.

 

[AirunJae]

You have to reset both the watch and phone. I tried just resetting my watch, but that didn't work. Had to reset both devices and then it should work. Annoying, but you won't have to wait for an update.

 

[WaterOz]

The Apple Watch bug apparently affected everyone who was transferring their data from their older iPhone to the iPhone 13. If we assume that the developers were working on iPhone 13 hardware with the software already preloaded, I imagine this issue would not have been picked up because the conditions never materialised for them.

I suppose it’s the classic case of a problem going unnoticed because nobody is going out of their way to look for it.

Exactly. And as someone who has had to troubleshoot things in a job before, when things like this happen you add new steps in your testing procedures for next time.
I’d be disappointed if the same sort of bug happened again with the next new iPhones because I would hope after this, Apple will add more procedures to test upgrading from one iPhone to another

 

[jarman92]

Is "Apple to fix software bug" really a story? Like, duh.

 

[Thor774]

It's not only that Unlock with Apple Watch is now broken on iPhone 13 to prevent the function from working, the update to iOS 15 messed up the feature on other iPhones too creating the following security hole:

Security alert: iOS 15 broke "Require attention for Face ID" when using "Unlock with Apple Watch"

I created a separate thread for this issue but it is related to the same module related on this thread. Here's a link to the other thread:

Security alert: iOS 15 broke "Require attention for Face ID" when using "Unlock with Apple Watch"

iPhone XS Max and AW Series 6 owner here. I have been using the function Unlock with Apple Watch since its inception and have loved it, but something has changed since the update to iOS 15 and watchOS 8. There is a Face ID feature that I consider very important to keep my iPhone secured...

forums.macrumors.com

iPhone XS Max and AW Series 6 owner here.

I have been using the function Unlock with Apple Watch since its inception and have loved it, but something has changed since the update to iOS 15 and watchOS 8.

There is a Face ID feature that I consider very important to keep my iPhone secured: Require attention for Face ID. Without this I'd never feel safe using Face ID to unlock my iPhone. It is simple: Someone can easily take my iPhone while I am asleep, point it to my face and unlock it without me ever noticing it.

While using Unlock with Apple Watch on iOS 14 / watchOS 7, my iPhone was never unlocked without me looking directly at the screen. After the update to iOS 15 / watchOS 8 I started noticing a high number of alerts on my Apple Watch about my iPhone been unlocked by it when I was not doing this myself. I discovered that the iPhone was getting unintentionally unlocked by just getting an accidental glance of my face while i was holding it in my hand. This never happened before the OS update.

I decided to conduct an experiment: I closed my eyes and tried to unlock my iPhone while my watch was on my wrist, the iPhone effectively got unlocked without needing attention and I got the respective alert on the watch. Then I removed the watch and tried again to unlock the iPhone with my eyes closed, this time the iPhone didn't got unlocked, which is the expected behavior when you have Require attention for Face ID enabled.

I can only conclude that one of the OS updates has broke something, and now Require attention for Face ID isn't been used in conjunction with Unlock with Apple Watch.

I am going to have to turn off this until Apple fix what they have broken.

I have already sent feedback to Apple about this. Try it yourselves and if you can reproduce the issue please send feedback to Apple too using https://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[tbayrgs]

Bit the bullet and ran a new iCloud backup, erased and then restored my iPhone 13 PM with that backup last night—didn’t unpair the Apple Watch. After the restore, Apple Watch automatically repaired/reconnected and unlock with Apple Watch is now working again.