Pavel Jelic If you own a Mac or MacBook together with an Apple Watch, you have probably already tried to activate the function, thanks to which you can unlock the macOS device using the Apple Watch and possibly also confirm various system actions. Thanks to this great feature, you don't have to enter your password every time, which saves you a lot of time throughout the day. Unfortunately, it often happens that unlocking and approving actions on a Mac using the Apple Watch simply does not work. You can most often encounter problems, for example, after updating the operating system macOS or watchOS, but sometimes the function stops working by itself.
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Flying around the world with Apple If you too have problems with unlocking your Mac using the Apple Watch, that is, if you are currently looking for a solution to this problem, or if you simply want to "arm yourself" for the future, then you are absolutely right here. In this article, we will look together at what you can do if you are unable to get the mentioned function up and running. In most cases, the procedures below should help you, so you won't have to get angry in the future when your Mac or MacBook won't unlock simply by using an Apple Watch located nearby.
Apple Watch and unlocking a Mac or MacBook
Before we dive into the tips themselves, in this paragraph we will show you where the Apple Watch unlock function is located within macOS. To activate this feature, follow these steps:
- In the upper left corner of the screen, tap icon .
- Once you do so, tap on the option from the menu that appears System Preferences…
- In the new window with all available system preferences, move to the section Security and privacy.
- Once you've done that, make sure you're on the tab in the top menu In general.
- Here it is simply enough to use the function Unlock apps and Mac with Apple Watch ticked.
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Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, this procedure does not work in every case. It often happens that after activating the macOS unlock feature with Apple Watch, it only works for a few days, or does not activate at all. If you also belong to this group of people who have problems with unlocking a Mac or MacBook using the Apple Watch, then continue reading.
What to do if unlocking your Mac or MacBook with Apple Watch does not work
1. Deactivation and reactivation of the function
The first step you need to take to get it up and running is to disable and re-enable the macOS device unlock feature with your Apple Watch. So just stick to the procedure that is given above. Function Unlock apps and Mac with Apple Watch so in System Preferences -> Security & Privacy first deactivate. After that it is necessary to wait at least 30 seconds for the device to register the deactivation. Once half a minute has passed, function on the Mac again tick to activate. Then again half a minute wait for the device to register the activation. Only then proceed to the second step.
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2. Deactivating and reactivating Wrist detection
The biggest mischief in the case of Mac unlocking with the Apple Watch not working is the Wrist Detection feature on the Apple Watch. In order to activate Mac unlocking using the Apple Watch, it is necessary that the Wrist Detection function within watchOS is active. Unfortunately, this function is sometimes annoying and even if you see in the settings that the Wrist Detection function is active, it is often not the case. The switch for (de)activating this function sometimes gets stuck in the active position, the function can be deactivated (and vice versa). So, to reactivate, proceed as follows:
- On the iPhone you have your Apple Watch paired with, go to the native app Watch.
- Once you have done so, move to the section in the bottom menu My watch.
- Here, then go down a bit until you come across an option Code, which you click.
- In this section, it is necessary to find an item at the bottom of the screen Code, and then proceed as follows:
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You will most likely have this feature enabled. So you need to tap the switch to disable the feature. After deactivation, wait a few tens of seconds, and then activate the function again. In some cases, the function will not be activated on the first try, so do not leave the Watch application immediately and wait for the switch to automatically return to the inactive position after a few seconds. If this situation occurs, simply try to activate the function again and wait a few seconds. On the second attempt, everything should be successful, so you can proceed to the third step, see below.
3. Restart both devices
Once you've done the steps above, all you have to do is restart both devices. You can achieve this on the Apple Watch by: you hold the side button until the sliders appear. Then just drag your finger on the sliders screen from left to right slider Turn off. This will turn off the Apple Watch after a few seconds, then just turn it back on. Within macOS, you restart by tapping on the top left icon , and then tap the option in the menu Restart… After restarting, the Apple Watch unlocking feature should work. If not, try again again on a Mac deactivate a reactivate function Unlock apps and Mac with Apple Watch (see the procedure in the first step).
There is one more thing that helped me and that was signing out and back in to iCloud
This should probably start with the fact that not every Mac and not every Watch supports this function. Then just go look for where it turns on. In my case, everything else would be completely useless, because I completely missed the option to turn on this function. And then what to do? I called Apple support, we went through what we could and the solution was to log out of iCloud and log back in, as in many cases.
I miss that option there too, it worked fine before