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How to Unlock Your Mac With Your Apple Watch

shareef777 said:
Works fine with MacID (a 3rd party solution). Any other excuses Apple can come up with?
Click to expand...

it works horribly on MacID, and any other BT-based Apps for that matter. The BT sensitivity is the problem for any of these apps. You would need to fine-tune it to register when your iDevice is near enough to unlock. On top of the wide spectrum of noise and interference around the home.
I bought MacID and a few other apps, result has always been abysmal. The mac would lock up when i'm sitting there with my iDevice, or won't unlock when i get near it.
Not to mention the complicated setup for all these apps. You would need to pair it, but not necessarily connected to it, while needing to have the app keep running on your phone. trust me i've look into this.
i welcome the native solution, then any 3rd-party workaround.
 
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Went to set this up on the GM version and it showed the option to "unlock mac with apple watch". However when I tried to turn it on, it said I need to activate 2 factor authentication and turn of 2 step verification. I did all that and the option went away and has never returned. Not sure what happened. Signed in to all devices with my account. No go.
 
I did a clean install of macOS in my MacBook Pro Late '13. Enabled everything as needed, but when trying to login the spinner spins some time and then the password field is presented.
 
dschulian said:
I did a clean install of macOS in my MacBook Pro Late '13. Enabled everything as needed, but when trying to login the spinner spins some time and then the password field is presented.
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Yeah I have the same issue on my 2014 5K iMac. It did work the first day, but hasn't worked since on the GM builds, or the release build from today. Spin, spin, spin, and then password field presented. Oh well.
 
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Does anyone that has this working, can you tell me if your appleid.apple.com - shows apple watch as a trusted device but not able to get codes? Mine is still showing the link on how to enable it as a trusted device.
 
3square said:
it works horribly on MacID, and any other BT-based Apps for that matter. The BT sensitivity is the problem for any of these apps. You would need to fine-tune it to register when your iDevice is near enough to unlock. On top of the wide spectrum of noise and interference around the home.
I bought MacID and a few other apps, result has always been abysmal. The mac would lock up when i'm sitting there with my iDevice, or won't unlock when i get near it.
Not to mention the complicated setup for all these apps. You would need to pair it, but not necessarily connected to it, while needing to have the app keep running on your phone. trust me i've look into this.
i welcome the native solution, then any 3rd-party workaround.
Click to expand...

It works, albeit not as intuitively and seamlessly as an Apple solution. Which is what my gripe is. If they can make it work then Apple (with their comparatively vast resources) should be able to make it work with older Macs.
 
shareef777 said:
It works, albeit not as intuitively and seamlessly as an Apple solution. Which is what my gripe is. If they can make it work then Apple (with their comparatively vast resources) should be able to make it work with older Macs.
Click to expand...

Except 801.11ac gives them distance accurate to within a meter. Other systems do not have that accuracy and there is no guarantee that the unlocking watch is really nearby or down the hall. I don't want my laptop unlocking when I'm 15ft away in another nearby office just because it can detect the Bluetooth.
 
This is a continuity feature, so at the very least you have to be able to do continuity. If your mac doesn't have bluetooth 4.0, it won't work. I'm not sure about the 802.11ac issue, but it doesn't work on my MP 5,1 because it doesn't have bluetooth 4.0.
 
AbSoluTc said:
Went to set this up on the GM version and it showed the option to "unlock mac with apple watch". However when I tried to turn it on, it said I need to activate 2 factor authentication and turn of 2 step verification. I did all that and the option went away and has never returned. Not sure what happened. Signed in to all devices with my account. No go.
Click to expand...

Reboot your Mac. That's what I had to do.
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WilliamG said:
Yeah I have the same issue on my 2014 5K iMac. It did work the first day, but hasn't worked since on the GM builds, or the release build from today. Spin, spin, spin, and then password field presented. Oh well.
Click to expand...

It worked for me this morning. I went out to get a coffee and came back and it stopped working.

Probably need a .1 release across devices.
 
Needs iphone only support for this feature as well. Its clear they limited it to make the watch do something w the mac.
 
Carlanga said:
Needs iphone only support for this feature as well. Its clear they limited it to make the watch do something w the mac.
Click to expand...

Disagree. Not everyone wears an iPhone on their wrist, thus securing their computer... I would not want this to work with an iPhone as well. Think of this feature as a key to your computer, but you always want the key on you. When the Watch is on your wrist, it's unlocked. When your Watch is off your wrist, it's locked.

This wouldn't work at all with an iPhone.
 
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nagromme said:
Wondering how it works with multiple users. Can I assume that multiple users with Apple Watches in the same household would each auto-unlock their own separate Mac user account? That would be neat—avoid even having to specify who you are, maybe? It unlocks to whoever is physically closest?
Click to expand...
Same questions here. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
 
I feel like i've tried everything. Two Step is on. Reset handoff. Restarted computer and phone. Urg mine just DOESN'T SHOW an option for the locking system.
 
I'm still trying to get this to work on a mid 2013 MacBook Air. I have 2 apple accounts, a @me.com one and an older gmail one which I use on the iTunes & app stores.

But the main iCloud one is the @me.com one yet still no dice. Have rebooted and tried restarting handoff.

No dice.

Anyone got any other tips?

I still can't believe we can't ever do a one time merge from old apple accounts...
 
Cant get mine to work. I get a error that my iMac was unable to communicate with watch.
Make sure your Apple Watch is unlocked, on your wrist, and powered on. I have tried restarting the iMac and watch. Late 2015 iMac, Apple watch one.
 
kylekeesling said:
Same here. I've signed out/back in to iCloud on my Mac twice and just unpaired/paired my Watch with no luck
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat. I saw the checkbox when I first tried, but that told me to stop using two step verification. Disabled that, turned on two factor auth, went back to Settings, and the option is gone. Frustrating.

EDIT: Well, it's working now. I guess it was just a waiting game.
 
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bmiz said:
I'm still trying to get this to work on a mid 2013 MacBook Air. I have 2 apple accounts, a @me.com one and an older gmail one which I use on the iTunes & app stores.

But the main iCloud one is the @me.com one yet still no dice. Have rebooted and tried restarting handoff.

No dice.

Anyone got any other tips?

I still can't believe we can't ever do a one time merge from old apple accounts...
Click to expand...


So for some random reason, after a couple hours, logging in and out of the iCloud account, enabling and disabling handoff, it's now decided to work. Had to happen whilst on the phone to apple support, as it always seems to, but maybe try again in a bit?
 
bkaus said:
Except 801.11ac gives them distance accurate to within a meter. Other systems do not have that accuracy and there is no guarantee that the unlocking watch is really nearby or down the hall. I don't want my laptop unlocking when I'm 15ft away in another nearby office just because it can detect the Bluetooth.
Click to expand...

Nunyabinez said:
This is a continuity feature, so at the very least you have to be able to do continuity. If your mac doesn't have bluetooth 4.0, it won't work. I'm not sure about the 802.11ac issue, but it doesn't work on my MP 5,1 because it doesn't have bluetooth 4.0.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that the issue is 802.11ac and not BT 4.0 on my early 2013 Retina MBP -- which has BT 4.0 and 802.11 a/b/g/n.

Further, this Apple support kb, https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25156?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US, reinforces the wifi dependency in the following sentence:

System Information can confirm if your Mac supports Auto Unlock. Choose Apple menu > About This Mac, then click System Report. In the sidebar, click Network, click **Wi-Fi**, then look in the Interfaces section for Auto Unlock.
Click to expand...

Does anyone know if substituting a replacement 802.11ac wifi card can enable this feature?
 
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a1kim said:
I'm in the same boat. I saw the checkbox when I first tried, but that told me to stop using two step verification. Disabled that, turned on two factor auth, went back to Settings, and the option is gone. Frustrating.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. Did the same thing and the option vanished.
 
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