iPhone 13 Users Experiencing 'Unable to Communicate with Apple Watch' Bug With Mask Unlocking

[Razorpit]

Touch ID still works flawlessly everytime on my 8+ running iOS 15 while wearing a mask.

Too bad it doesn't whenever your fingers are wet/dirty and or wearing gloves.

 

[dampfnudel]

There’s usually some issues on day 1, including temporary software incompatibility with older devices. Nothing new here.

 

[subi257]

I wonder how many are having this problem. Based on the reddit thread every single person with a watch/iphone has the problem. You know how it goes with threads on the web. LOL.

Exactly!

 

[subi257]

Too bad it doesn't whenever your fingers are wet/dirty and or wearing gloves.

If it worked with gloves, that would be scary! That would mean it's unlocking without being able to scan your fingerprint.

 

[Razorpit]

If it worked with gloves, that would be scary! That would mean it's unlocking without being able to scan your fingerprint.

That's my point... TouchID has failed/cause far more inconveniences than FaceID ever has. People having problems "smiling, off to the side glances" etc. have to either be lying or have the worst luck in the world. I was brushing my teeth yesterday morning and was able to unlock the phone for something.

 

[zpjet]

Because it’s only currently affecting iPhone 13 users I presume.

Whilst true, it could also be affecting other phones which you migrated to using iOS 15.
Or, it’s really just 13 as they had a special build.

 

[DocMultimedia]

That's my point... TouchID has failed/cause far more inconveniences than FaceID ever has. People having problems "smiling, off to the side glances" etc. have to either be lying or have the worst luck in the world. I was brushing my teeth yesterday morning and was able to unlock the phone for something.

LOL. I've done that so many times at the start of the day.

 

[zpjet]

Dumb question, but why would this be an iPhone 13 issue and not an iOS 15 issue?

edited to clarify: I understand that it only affects iPhone 13. My question is *why* does it only happen with 13s? If X, 11, 12 and 13 are all running iOS 15, why is it only the 13s with the issue? From what it sounds like, it seems it would be more of a software issue than hardware.
I hope that clarifies things

Dumb question, but why would this be an iPhone 13 issue and not an iOS 15 issue?

edited to clarify: I understand that it only affects iPhone 13. My question is *why* does it only happen with 13s? If X, 11, 12 and 13 are all running iOS 15, why is it only the 13s with the issue? From what it sounds like, it seems it would be more of a software issue than hardware.
I hope that clarifies things.

I’ve got two answers.

1) it only affects 13 because they had a special build and I wonder if this issue would be preventable if I first set up the phone as new, updated, resettled and then migrated from my 12 mini.

2) it affects all phones migrated to using iOS 15.0. So not only 13, but also everyone else who recently moved to a new phone. But surely, numbers of these who bought an old phone in the last few days is much smaller than all the new 13s.

 

[zpjet]

So glad my 13 mini is working like it should with this feature. So far, I haven't experienced any problems, unlike the 12 mini launch day release lol.

We have questions.
Did you migrate from an old phone?
Did you upgrade before migration?

 

[Apple_Robert]

We have questions.
Did you migrate from an old phone?
Did you upgrade before migration?

I did not migrate. I installed the iOS 15 update and then set up as new.

 

[moyjoy]

Everything worked wonderfully on 12 pro, iOS 15. My 13 pro refuses to acknowledge I have an AW.

 

[nt5672]

Probably planned this way by Apple. After all they would have even looked worse if they had pulled this functionality for 15.3+. The probably felt like they had to release something, even if it had a lot of bugs.

 

[NARadyk]

Add me to the list of people with this issue!

 

[maxsquared]

Anyone experience any issues with Airdrop with iPhone 13/Pro?

 

[subi257]

That's my point... TouchID has failed/cause far more inconveniences than FaceID ever has. People having problems "smiling, off to the side glances" etc. have to either be lying or have the worst luck in the world. I was brushing my teeth yesterday morning and was able to unlock the phone for something.

Sorry, I miss understood the point.

 

[subi257]

Everything worked wonderfully on 12 pro, iOS 15. My 13 pro refuses to acknowledge I have an AW.

I had that last year when I got the AW 6. I unpaired, repaired, wiped, etc. Then it connected, but GPS mapping...on walks/runs didn't work.

 

[B4U]

How does it do when wearing gloves?

Or a greasy finger after eating chicken wings. ?

 

[petvas]

I am also experiencing the same issue. I transferred all apps and settings directly from my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I have a Series 6 Apple Watch. I am not going to reset any of the devices since others have already tried that to no effect.

 

[tomiwah]

Same isssue here after device-to-device transfer from 12 Pro Max to 13 Pro Max.

 

[jackbauer1909]

Same issue here after setting up as new.

 

[SaguaroSeven]

Well - the *Unlock items are in iCloud Keychain, so it would make some sense.
There was a weird thing there - I had two entries for iPhones, one was 12 mini I used last year and another iPhone 13 Pro I got today, but the dates on those two records were kinda swapped (mini had today's date, 13 much older), so I got them passwords and talks etc recreated but it is still the same.
I did have a moment when I didn't delete all of it and I got the very same error on the Mac so I guess if we had a chance to edit Keychain on iPhone we could fix it.
I'm so used to unlock when wearing a mask but it's not the end of the world, someone will find a fix or it will be solved by an update.

This. I’ve used the “keychain surgery” method in the past with success for Watch/Mac unlock problems. Watch unlock works through Continuity using keys synced via iCloud Keychain. When you unpair your watch iOS will (or should) remove those keys. When you transfer the Watch, new keys must be created on the new iPhone. Possibly the old ones are being migrated or maybe they aren’t being created. This wouldn’t be an if you set up the new iPhone new. The odd thing is that it occurs with many but not all.

Having said that, I would not do the Keychain surgery or unpair Watch today. I’d give it a day or two to see if there is an iOS update to fix this, 0% storage, more storage available than device capacity, and other known broken things.

Now if UPS would arrive… now 30 min overdue…

edit: ok, didn’t see the post with problem after setting up as new… but doesn’t seem most have that problem.

 

[rmiller065]

my 13 pro came with iOS 15 installed, but I notice there is an update. Going to give this a try - NEED my watch back. I also did the phone-to-phone data transfer from my 12 pro, watch is dead

 

[Damstr]

my 13 pro came with iOS 15 installed, but I notice there is an update. Going to give this a try - NEED my watch back. I also did the phone-to-phone data transfer from my 12 pro, watch is dead

I noticed the same thing. I checked my version afterwards and it still says iOS 15.0.

 

[Turtle353]

Yep I’m on this wagon.

 

[alex2792]

This is really annoying, Apple better fix this ASAP.