Apple Watch (waiting for first unlock) in Xcode

I ran into this problem and other while building a watch app. Developing watch apps in XCode 14 using a physical device is now extremely difficult. All solutions above partially working, you need to experiment.

It feels to me like every year advances are promised in improving watch app build, installing & debugging with Xcode. Sadly these fixes and changes seem to either not do that or introduce other errors. Having an Apple Watch Series 6 & Newer or SE 2 is a good start because they have the dual band wifi chip needed to work with networks at 5GHz, debugging over Bluetooth is pointless. Using Xcode 14 is probably the best debugging experience I've had over the Apple Watch lifetime, but the standard is so low its not saying much. Once I have app building and debugging working I can do endless app builds to the watch without issue in one session. But its just getting it working initially thats the issue. Problems such as:

• Copying Watch debug symbols
• Saying Developer mode not enabled on watch when it is
• Getting a random failed to install WatchKit app on Xcode with no further details
• No paired Apple Watch even being listed for an iPhone that definitely has one

You get this idea....

Just wasted 3 hours and counting on this. Developing for Apple Watch is turning into a bigger and bigger waste of time with every version of Xcode because certain things are not available in the simulator (like file transfers for some dumb reason), and each build on the physical watch seems to take hours.

• My watch shows it is connected to the phone
• "Devices & Simulators" in Xcode show both my phone and watch as ready
• But the main Xcode window won't change from "Apple Watch (waiting for first unlock)." It randomly seems to work every hour or so after reconnects and restarts.

Hardware:

• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• Apple Watch Ultra

This has been one of the crappiest, most frustrating developer experiences I've ever had. And I've been developing for the ecosystem since the days before ARC.

Getting the same error on Apple Watch SE and iPhone 14 Pro.

Seeing the same error "(waiting for first unlock)" on an iPhone 12 mini, with an Apple Watch Series 7. Phone is connected via USB-C cable directly to the Mac, no hub.

Xcode 14.2, iOS 16.2, watchOS 9.2

This is my first attempt at watchOS development (years of Xcode experience in macOS/iOS) and I've tried all the workarounds, restarted everything. Not sure where to go next - kind of a bummer.

Unfortunatly updating to iOS 16.3 and WatchOS 9.3 didn't help. Still 'waiting for first unlock'. Hope there will be an Xcode update soon that will resolve this problem. I cannot test watchOS apps on my watch (only the simulator works).

I ran into this problem as well. Here is what I found that helps me fix this issue.

1. Make you your iphone and apple watch are unlocked
2. Connect your iphone to your Mac
3. Open Xcode

It is important that Xcode is not opened before (1) and (2). This is just from me experience, I have no other explanations....

Hope it might help.

I continue to experience this all the time.. I reboot everything...MacBook, iPhone, watch and every so often deployment works and, more often than not, it fails (waiting for connection/unlock). Really poor. How do people manage with this?

After many many tries with above solutions, I finally had success with:

Apple Watch > Settings > Bluetooth off/on

and the error was gone!

At least in my case ;-)

I was able to get Developer Mode option in Privacy&Settings following these steps (watchOS 9.3):

1. I turned on developer mode on my iPhone
2. I tried to run watchOS app from Xcode on my watch although it said its unavailable
3. I turned off developer mode on my iPhone and they turned it back on
4. Tried to run app watchOS app from Xcode again on my watch, this time I got error massage that I need to turn on developer mode
5. I went back to Privacy&Settings on my watch I Developer Mode appeared on the bottom

Hope this helps!

My lightning cable was going through my LG 5k. Plugged it in directly into the mac, seems to work for now. I lost so many days fighting this.

I see this a lot and found the following workaround (after ensuring the developer mode settings):

• First install the Phone build. That is Build & Run the Phone target to your phone that is paired with Watch
• Then, switch targets and Build & Run the Watch target.

This seems to make the app ready to run in the eyes of Xcode. It just seems like the message displayed by Xcode is a red herring and the real issue is not communicated properly.

I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled on it while wasting hours today trying to get a simple 'watch only' Xcode app installed on an Apple Watch. Here's what finally worked for me. After all of the other items mentioned (restarts; setting the developer mode to yes on both the iPhone and Watch; switching between network & direct connection; adding & removing the iPhone from 'Manage Run Destinations'; and probably some steps I'm forgetting). I did have to clear one last hurdle which was signing the app, but I did that as a 'personal' team and restarted Xcode to get around that issue. But even with all that, I kept having problems getting my app to load on the phone. So I tried one last trick that worked for me when everything else failed. I put the watch on! That kept it unlocked and the code was able to deploy successfully to the watch through the phone (I used a direct connection instead of the network). It still took some time, saw various messages in Xcode about loading symbols from the phone or installing the app, but it finally worked! From a developer experience, it was a truly miserable one today. This should have taken me 5-10 minutes, tops; instead, it took me 2-3 hours, maybe more.