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How to Unlock Your Mac With Your Apple Watch

I have an Apple watch 1 with watch OS 3. My MB Pro is Late 2013 running OS Sierra. This morning i upgraded to sierra and activated 2 factor auth and unlock my Mac with my watch.

For 2/3 hours it worked absolutely fine (so i know it works!). Now all of sudden it's stopped, and the option to unlock my mac with my watch has disappeared from the options menu.

I'm signed in to iCloud on all devices (1 account), i'm wearing my watch, i'm close enough to the MB etc...

Has anyone else experienced this? Seeing as i haven't changed anything settings-wise i'm struggling to find the root cause :( It seems like the option has been deactivated somewhere? Maybe it's a bug?

Anyone have any ideas? :) - Screenshot of the missing option is attached.

Thanks!
 

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Keith_M said:
I have an Apple watch 1 with watch OS 3. My MB Pro is Late 2013 running OS Sierra. This morning i upgraded to sierra and activated 2 factor auth and unlock my Mac with my watch.

For 2/3 hours it worked absolutely fine (so i know it works!). Now all of sudden it's stopped, and the option to unlock my mac with my watch has disappeared from the options menu.

I'm signed in to iCloud on all devices (1 account), i'm wearing my watch, i'm close enough to the MB etc...

Has anyone else experienced this? Seeing as i haven't changed anything settings-wise i'm struggling to find the root cause :( It seems like the option has been deactivated somewhere? Maybe it's a bug?

Anyone have any ideas? :) - Screenshot of the missing option is attached.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
That is exactly the screen I get as well. On an original Apple Watch on wOS 3 but my laptop is a 2015 MBr on mOS Sierra 10.12.0 - iPhone 7 on iOS 10.0 ... two-factor is activated. Doesn't even show the option... :-/

No idea why...
 
magbarn said:
Got it working on my 'hacked' 2012 rMBP (I have a 2013 rMBP Airport Wireless AC card installed)View attachment 656793
Click to expand...

I installed the card on my 2012 rMBP as well and was able to see the option and enable it, but doesn't seem to work. I open my lid and it just sits at the login prompt waiting for a password.

Edit: So i get it to work only when hand-off is turned off on my phone. Reset my phone and now it doesn't work either way again. Pretty buggy.

Edit2: Annnnd it's working again. On it's own. I gave up on it and just left it alone thinking I'd just wait for the new laptops that I plan on buying. Oh well. Hopefully it gets more stable on the first Sierra update.
 
Last edited:
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for a late iMac 2012 which could be the solution to use the new unlock Sierra feature (a part to buy a new iMac)?
I use it on my newer MBP Early 2015 and it works really like a charm ...
Any chance that a new update software will enable the feature ?
 
fa.ce said:
for a late iMac 2012 which could be the solution to use the new unlock Sierra feature (a part to buy a new iMac)?
I use it on my newer MBP Early 2015 and it works really like a charm ...
Any chance that a new update software will enable the feature ?
Click to expand...

No, the software is already there. It's just looking for wireless AC.
 
And it could be possibile to change the Wi-Fi module to support the new AC standard ? At what price ?
 
fa.ce said:
And it could be possibile to change the Wi-Fi module to support the new AC standard ? At what price ?
Click to expand...
I think it would be possible as the 2012 and 2013 wireless modules have the same connectors and size. Unfortunately it's quite hard to open 2012 and later iMacs. I've cracked mine and that's using proper tools, the bottom part of the glass is very fragile and thanks to Apple bonding the exterior glass with the LCD it's now a >$500+ replacement instead of a $60 one on earlier iMacs.
 
AbSoluTc said:
I believe this is the key. If you had 2 step on with an AW already paired to your phone and then changed over to 2 factor, I think it breaks something between the two and you have to un pair and repair it to make the new 2 factor connection. Otherwise, nada.
Click to expand...

I only had to reboot my watch for the unlock option to reappear. After the watch booted, my iPhone asked for a passcode. After that, the unlock option returned.

I too had two-step with AW paired to iPhone and then switched to two factor.
 
CharlesShaw said:
I only had to reboot my watch for the unlock option to reappear. After the watch booted, my iPhone asked for a passcode. After that, the unlock option returned.

I too had two-step with AW paired to iPhone and then switched to two factor.
Click to expand...

I'm new to AW and was unable to figure out how to reboot it. Especially since the button on the side is now long press SOS.
 
I'm have to try this. Does it work if the computer is asleep?

Also, I wonder if they'll update it to unlock ios devices as ipad pro's are on track to replace the Macbook Air's at some point. I'm waiting for the next ipad Pro refresh to see if happens then.
 
Unfortunately this won't work unless the *Mac* is using WiFi. This is fine on my Mac Book Pro I guess, but why *on earth* would I use WiFi on my iMac ? My home has Cat. 6 cabling. Even with the latest AC Airport Extreme gigabit ethernet will outperform WiFi. It's just more reliable. Turning on wifi and giving it a lower priority with respect to ethernet won't work either. It only works if WiFi is the "main" connection. :( It looks like I won't use this feature.
[doublepost=1474826399][/doublepost]
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...

Are you using ethernet (ie: cable) with the iMac ? I had the same issue. Only seems to work if the Mac is on WiFi, which is unfortunate. :(
 
NoOne777 said:
Unfortunately this won't work unless the *Mac* is using WiFi. This is fine on my Mac Book Pro I guess, but why *on earth* would I use WiFi on my iMac ? My home has Cat. 6 cabling. Even with the latest AC Airport Extreme gigabit ethernet will outperform WiFi. It's just more reliable. Turning on wifi and giving it a lower priority with respect to ethernet won't work either. It only works if WiFi is the "main" connection. :( It looks like I won't use this feature.
[doublepost=1474826399][/doublepost]

Are you using ethernet (ie: cable) with the iMac ? I had the same issue. Only seems to work if the Mac is on WiFi, which is unfortunate. :(
Click to expand...

I'm wired, but wifi is on, which is all you need. It does work with the Watch, but it's not consistent.
 
For me the unlocking works flawlessly at home but can be hit and miss at work. I'm guessing there could be interference at play that messes with the distance measuring. My prime suspect are Logitech RF dongles for wireless mice and keyboards. Colleagues near me use those.
 
I am wondering if this requires the watch to be connected to the same wifi network as the mac? Some wifi networks will only let trusted devices access so that is a possible reason why it may not work for some. I thought it made an adhoc connection between mac and watch because it measures the distance between so the watch's ability to connect to the same wifi would not matter.
 
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Peepo said:
I am wondering if this requires the watch to be connected to the same wifi network as the mac?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. At work, neither my phone nor my watch are connected to the WiFi, but the Macbook is. Watch unlock still works (albeit not as reliably as at home).

Also, at home my watch is not normally connected to my home WiFi, it only connects when it loses the BlueTooth link to the phone.
 
MyopicPaideia said:
That is exactly the screen I get as well. On an original Apple Watch on wOS 3 but my laptop is a 2015 MBr on mOS Sierra 10.12.0 - iPhone 7 on iOS 10.0 ... two-factor is activated. Doesn't even show the option... :-/

No idea why...
Click to expand...

Hmmmm strange.

I noice you've said a hard reboot of the watch worked for you. I'm assuming this is holding the Digital crown and button at the same time until the apple logo appears?

I've tried this and it's still not working :(

Did you do anything else to get it to work? Reboot MacBook/iPhone?
 
Quick followup: I had the "unable to communicate with watch" error that one or two others had reported as well (this is distinct from the error in which the preference to unlock with the watch doesn't show up in System Preferences at all).

After a bunch of experimenting, I deduced that the issue was that my login keychain password was different than my user password. This is pretty rare -- I had changed them to be different many years ago for a little extra security. As soon as I resynchronized them (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201609) and restarted, the Apple Watch was able to unlock my Mac.

Bottom line: Make sure your login keychain password is the same as your user account password (i.e. your login password).
 
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Keith_M said:
Hmmmm strange.

I noice you've said a hard reboot of the watch worked for you. I'm assuming this is holding the Digital crown and button at the same time until the apple logo appears?

I've tried this and it's still not working :(

Did you do anything else to get it to work? Reboot MacBook/iPhone?
Click to expand...
Yeah that is correct. I did reboot everything, of course. It seems a bit mystical to be honest. Everything seems to have to align perfectly for the option to even show up...
 
Just in case anyone was wondering, it does NOT work with a Late 2011. Not that I had expected it to, I just really wanted it to lol. Just like I cannot do AirDrop from my phone to my computer or vice versa... I dont know how much longer I can make it till this new model gets announced. Now I am reading they wont come till the next iphone launch.
 
MyopicPaideia said:
Yeah that is correct. I did reboot everything, of course. It seems a bit mystical to be honest. Everything seems to have to align perfectly for the option to even show up...
Click to expand...

I managed to fix it :)

I had to completely remove my iCloud account from my MacBook. Once done, i re-added it to my MacBook and the 'unlock' feature suddenly re-appeared!
 
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