Unlocking MacBook temperamental

[Mic2904]

Hi,

over the last 2-3 days I have experienced issues with unlocking the MacBook with my S5 Apple Watch. It is very temperamental. It works for a few hours and then stops working. I have to untick the settings on my MacBook, sometimes disable handoff etc. Then it works again and it stops again...

My MacBook is on Beta 10.15.4
My watch and iPhone are on the latest software, but NOT Beta.

Any idea?! Maybe related to the beta..?

Markus

 

[NoBoMac]

Maybe beta related.

I get this from time to time of late, but find that if I cancel the unlock attempt, the second try with the watch works.

This is Catalina and S3.

 

[ruslan120]

Buggy on a non beta version here.

 

[SRLMJ23]

Happens to me with a S5 and Catalina both on non-beta software.

I read in the Apple Support Forums (no clue if it is true) that 2.5ghz internet, and other things in your house that run on it or use it (microwave for example) etc can interfere with the unlock process. Essentially 2.5ghz interference.

Imagine living in a condo building like I do with literally 75+ SSID's running both 2.5ghz and 5ghz WiFi, I could see how maybe in my case that 2.4ghz interference thing might be true, but in the average home, I am not sure.

But I do what @NoBoMac mentioned and that generally works, though for the past few weeks, sometimes that will not work and I have to enter my password quite a bit throughout the day, and then other times it will work flawlessly for days.

No clue if this is just a bug that Apple needs to sort out, or if the 2.5ghz thing is true, or it is something else entirely?

 

[dogg]

It’s always been buggy with me. S4 and Catalina. Only way I can fix is to re add it. Fixes for a while then back to bugginess.

 

[CC88]

After restarting my macpro I'm not able to unlock it with my 6.2 watch 5 anymore.

 

[SRLMJ23]

After restarting my macpro I'm not able to unlock it with my 6.2 watch 5 anymore.

Just re-pair it with your Mac Pro.

Settings--->Security & Privacy--->Use Your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac

Untick that setting, then tick it again and it will re-pair and it should work.

What I usually do is I untick the setting on my Mac, restart both my Mac AND Apple Watch, login and tick the setting back on once my AW is restarted and unlocked.

Hope that helps, and do not worry...you are obviously not the only one that this feature is temperamental for.

Good luck!


[automerge]1583257261[/automerge]

It’s always been buggy with me. S4 and Catalina. Only way I can fix is to re add it. Fixes for a while then back to bugginess.

If I recall correctly, it seems it was much more stable on Mojave?

Would not seem like a hard feature to carry over from Mojave to Catalina while keeping it as stable, if not more stable.

 

[CC88]

Just re-pair it with your Mac Pro.

Settings--->Security & Privacy--->Use Your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac

Untick that setting, then tick it again and it will re-pair and it should work.

What I usually do is I untick the setting on my Mac, restart both my Mac AND Apple Watch, login and tick the setting back on once my AW is restarted and unlocked.

Hope that helps, and do not worry...you are obviously not the only one that this feature is temperamental for.

Good luck!

Unfortunately I have already tried this but it doesn't work

What I haven't tried is to restart both Watch and Mac after unticking. Will give it a try and report back.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

 

[CC88]

After restarting my watch it now unlock my Mac Pro.

Thanks a lot @SRLMJ23

 

[smf72]

Please check this feed : Mac Unlocking and Apple Watch Series 5

 

[smf72]

Can anyone confirm if 10.15.4 and Wacth OS 6.2 cured this issue? I am still having problems.

 

[jaybar]

The unlock is not well thought out IMHO. I share an iMac with my husband and we each have an account. I am tge one with the Apple Watch. If we switch from my account to my husband’s and then back again—unlock no longer works. Unlock is poorly designed b/c it does not provide for multiple accounts on the same Mac.

 

[nph]

After last watch update 6.1.3 it started working really well for me. Makes me think twice about 6.1.4...

 

[SRLMJ23]

After I installed all the updates yesterday, my watch has unlocked my MBP every time since. I think they might have fixed it, but as usual, YMMV.

 

[smf72]

After I installed all the updates yesterday, my watch has unlocked my MBP every time since. I think they might have fixed it, but as usual, YMMV.

Works great on my MBP but not on my iMac Pro. So confused ?