Trouble unlocking Macbook

[yang88she]

Since switching out my Series 0 watch to the a new Series 2, I am unable to unlock my Macbook with my Apple Watch

I've tried several times as well as restarting my macbook, my watch, my iPhone, and continue to get the message: "Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch."

Nothing else changed other than switching out my watch.

TIA,

Yang88she

 

[groovyf]

I upgraded to watch os 3.2.2 yesterday, and now can't unlock macbook pro 13" (2016).
It was working OK prior to watch upgrade yesterday. Rebooted Watch, MacBook. Also de-selected the option to unlock the Mac in settings, and selected the option again.
Any thoughts?

 

[SDColorado]

I noticed after I did the upgrade(s), and wasn't sure if it was the Watch OS upgrade or the Sierra Upgrade, but my watch would no longer unlock my Mac. I checked system preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Allow Apple Watch to Unlock Your Mac. I found that the checkboxes had been unchecked and had to re-enable them. Worth a look if you have not already done so.

 

[yang88she]

I noticed after I did the upgrade(s), and wasn't sure if it was the Watch OS upgrade or the Sierra Upgrade, but my watch would no longer unlock my Mac. I checked system preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Allow Apple Watch to Unlock Your Mac. I found that the checkboxes had been unchecked and had to re-enable them. Worth a look if you have not already done so.

Thanks, but rechecking the box didn't work, and it gave me the "unable to communicate" message several time and still no luck after rebooting all 3 devices, and the apple watch just updated to latest OS, no go =(

 

[groovyf]

After a 90 minute support call with Apple earlier (and three different support engineers), I'm finally back up & running.
First engineer went through basic stuff: Reboot devices, untick "Allow Apple Watch to unblock..." - things I'd already done.
Second engineer started off by suggesting to reboot my router (!!!!!) - I explained the issue with no unlocking happened whilst on company network as well as my own - so ruled out such a thing. They then proceeded to get me to unpair my watch and iPhone - a tedious process - then pair again as a new watch (not to restore from backup).
Still no luck after all that!

The third, and final, engineer seemed to know his onions. First off we rebooted the MacBook into Safe Mode (Hold down shift when starting and let go when you see the Apple logo). You can verify you're in Safe Mode, by going to About This Mac (via Apple logo top left), then System Report. Scroll down to Software section (and click on it) on left-hand menu. "Boot Mode" should be Safe if you got it right on boot-up.
Sadly, even after logging-in, playing with the unlock your Mac option, nothng was helping.

We created a new user profile, (with Administrator rights, as opposed to Standard), logged-off and logged-on again to setup this new user. Logged-in with my own AppleID/password, then proceeded to select the unlock your Mac option.
Put the laptop into Sleep mode, and upon walking, the laptop logged-in via the watch.

So, we deleted my old "own" profile - luckily no big deal as I'd only just got the laptop yesterday so still had a lot of my usual apps to install. Then we created a new profile that would be my proper account to use - logged-off/logged-on and set it up as normal with AppleID/password when prompted.
First, we checked iCloud in Settings to make sure all was well there and my account showed. Then back to Security and Privacy to set the unlock your Mac option.
This was weird... as it seemed not to want to turn on... (spinning wheel and stating "Turning On"). After a few attempts (as well as the cannot authenticate error - engineer suggested making sure phone was unlocked and the watch had it's display showing), it eventually turned on correctly.
Upon testing Sleep/wake/login with watch we were up & running.

Quite a bit of messing around as you can see, and I'm still stumped by the fact only the Watch OS update to 3.2.2 that occurred seemed to mess things up.

 

[yang88she]

After a 90 minute support call with Apple earlier (and three different support engineers), I'm finally back up & running.
First engineer went through basic stuff: Reboot devices, untick "Allow Apple Watch to unblock..." - things I'd already done.
Second engineer started off by suggesting to reboot my router (!!!!!) - I explained the issue with no unlocking happened whilst on company network as well as my own - so ruled out such a thing. They then proceeded to get me to unpair my watch and iPhone - a tedious process - then pair again as a new watch (not to restore from backup).
Still no luck after all that!

The third, and final, engineer seemed to know his onions. First off we rebooted the MacBook into Safe Mode (Hold down shift when starting and let go when you see the Apple logo). You can verify you're in Safe Mode, by going to About This Mac (via Apple logo top left), then System Report. Scroll down to Software section (and click on it) on left-hand menu. "Boot Mode" should be Safe if you got it right on boot-up.
Sadly, even after logging-in, playing with the unlock your Mac option, nothng was helping.

We created a new user profile, (with Administrator rights, as opposed to Standard), logged-off and logged-on again to setup this new user. Logged-in with my own AppleID/password, then proceeded to select the unlock your Mac option.
Put the laptop into Sleep mode, and upon walking, the laptop logged-in via the watch.

So, we deleted my old "own" profile - luckily no big deal as I'd only just got the laptop yesterday so still had a lot of my usual apps to install. Then we created a new profile that would be my proper account to use - logged-off/logged-on and set it up as normal with AppleID/password when prompted.
First, we checked iCloud in Settings to make sure all was well there and my account showed. Then back to Security and Privacy to set the unlock your Mac option.
This was weird... as it seemed not to want to turn on... (spinning wheel and stating "Turning On"). After a few attempts (as well as the cannot authenticate error - engineer suggested making sure phone was unlocked and the watch had it's display showing), it eventually turned on correctly.
Upon testing Sleep/wake/login with watch we were up & running.

Quite a bit of messing around as you can see, and I'm still stumped by the fact only the Watch OS update to 3.2.2 that occurred seemed to mess things up.

wow that is terrible haha, not that big of deal for me, was just a very convenient thing to have since I leave my laptop on my desk all the time, it's nice to wake it up from my watch and start typing away without having to type in a password.

I appreciate the thorough write up, may attempt next weekend, since my wife is out of town and I got all my kids home this weekend.