Auto Unlock with Apple Watch

In Beta 2 of Sierra combined with an Apple Watch (watch OS 3 Beta 2) its now possible to aktivate Auto Unlock. I've tried to activate the Checkbox on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) and a Error says, that the Mac couldnt find the Apple Watch. The Watch is on, unlocked and on my wrist. After reboot from Mac and Apple Watch, the option to enable Auto Unlock is not shown anymore.


Any ideas about?

I'm also not seeing the setting. If I search for "watch" in System Preferences, I see "Allow Apple Watch to unlock the computer setting. Setting hidden if watch not paired." Clicking on that takes me to Security & Privacy | General.


I'm not sure what "paired" means. The watch is paired with my iPhone, but I don't know of any way to pair it with my Macbook Pro.

Same here. Early 2013 MBP 13" Retina. No option under Security and Privacy, although I also read somewhere the watch needs to be paired. Not clear if that's a manual process or is supposed to happen automatically, but there is definitely a pattern here.

same exact thing happend to me. 2015 rMBP 15"

I got it working by setting the 2FA in the Mac preferences then signing out and back in again on all my devices. You should also check the iCloud security screen on your iPhone to make sure it recognizes that 2FA is enabled. Once those are all in sync, reboot everything.


My issue is that having it actually unlock your Mac is a hit and miss. So far I have tried to show it off to 3 people here at office and on ALL 3 occasions it didn't work. However, when I tried it just before, it worked fine.


Of course when it doesn't work there is no way to tell why. I wish there was a way to determine why it didn't work so we can help solve the issues.


In order for this to be useful it MUST be more reliable.


I have noticed that in order for it to work your phone needs to be close by and UNLOCKED.


I had phone phone in my pocket locked with a passcode (like it usually is) and the auto unlock did not work. I tried several times. However, once I took my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it the auto unlock for the Mac started to work. Is this feature "unlock your mac with your Apple Watch" or "Unlock your Mac with your iPhone"?

Try unchecking handoff under System prefs> general> "Allow handoff between this mac and your iCloud Devices. Then restart your computer. Once the computer reboots, check that preference back on. This worked for me.

Apple Developer Relations08-Jul-2016 04:40 PM

It needs to be a Mid-2013 or later Mac. Please provide your response or results by updating your bug report. If uploading files, please compress first.

Mac MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

Sierra beta 2

iPhone 6, 64GB

iOS 10 beta 2

Apple Watch Sport

WatchOS3 beta 2


And still not visible


Tried:

Turn off 2FA (as they say)

Logout on all devices

Login on MacOS

Turn on 2FA (via MacOS Sierra b2)

Login on iOS / WatchOS

Serveral reboots, because beta software...


And no luck 😢


/Offtopic: Weird that there are so much topic about Auto Unlock, and no Apple Engineer is giving comments...

Was working great for me for a few days. Now it tries to unlock, times out, and presents the password box. Tried all the usual toggling settings, rebooting devices, etc. and it consistently fails to actually unlock now.


Yeterday it started unlocking my rMBP 15" when I walked nearby, even with the lid closed, so overall maybe it's not a bad thing that it isn't working for me right now...

The public beta is same beta 2 and not resolve this problem

>No option under Security and Privacy,


From the latest release notes:

Auto Unlock Users may experience no internet connectivity after a successful Auto Unlock, followed by a reboot of their Mac. Workaround: Turning WiFi Off-On on Mac will restore internet connectivity.
After an erase install, it can take minutes for the “Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac” checkbox to show up in Security and Privacy Preferences on your Mac (while your devices are iCloud pairing). This is normal, and does not happen on upgrade installs.

I am having the same issue. It may be related to the "macOS Recovery HD" update that was pushed out yesterday.

Same here -- tried singing in and out but luck :/

Quick and simple solution:


Sign out your iCloud-Account on your MB, delete all items if asked,

sign in on your iCloud account on your MB.


Now Apple Watch unlock feature is visible

Does anyone know why when Macbook is connected to Wi-Fi, Auto Unlock feature works fine, but does not work when connected to Ethernet? Never would have thought that the Internet Connection seems to be the reason why you can use this feature or not... So long as you allow 2FA on your devices to authenticate who is actually trying to log into the MacBook, which I assumed is the reason why we need to have 2FA working, not base it off of how you're connected to the Internet... Any thoughts or answers?

Watch unlock appears to require authentication through the same iCloud service used by Back to my Mac. I was able to get it working again by disabling and then re-enabling BTMM under the iCloud prefs. I note I have to do this especially often on my rMBP after changing locations (and the associated changes to Wifi and BTMM authentication).

Dissapointing to see that the late 2012 iMac models aren't deemed worthy of the feature. The interesting thing is though that if you search Apple watch in System Preferences search bar it shows the option is coded into System Prefs, just not something you can enable. Really hope they allow that in release. I don't beleive there to be any technical reason why they could not.

Ok...


I install MacOS Sierra 16A254g in my iMac 27" Late 2013 (i7 / 16Gb / GTX 780M / 3Tb fussion) but this auto-unlook options does´t appear... Have iPhone 6s with iOS 10 dev beta 3 and AppleWatch with WatchOS 3 beta 3 too

Hello.

the auto unlock activation with apple watch disappeared in Beta 4 MacOS Sierra? I have an iMac mid 2015 and I'm using MacOS Beta 4.

my devices


apple watch3 beta 4

iMac mind 2015 macOs Sierra Beta 4

iPhone 6S iOS 10 beta 4



thank you for your help.

Wifi is part of it. It appears this feature uses both bluetooth as well as wifi to communicate with Apple Watch for the handshake to occur. (this is part of the reason that earlier Mac's aren't supported - appears there's a feature there that Apple needs for this functionality).

Me, I'm trying to get it to work on my 2008 MacBook Pro, but I have to get the 802.11AC usb wifi adapter working under Sierra PB3 first. 🙂 (yes, I also have a USB Bluetooth adapter that supports 4.0LE as well). Hoping the two of them will make this work for me. (then I'll do the same hack for my 2012 mac mini) 🙂

Well that's unfortunate because half the time my Macbook is connected to Ethernet, not Wifi... Gotta come up with a way to fix that

This started working perfectly (so far) in beta 5!

I agree, in beta 5 it has consistently unlocked all my Mac's.

For me with Beta 5 is the same issue ... still be able to pair (maybe more easy) but it always ask for my password ...


if somebody find a way to debug I'm interested ...

I received this reply to bug #27738928. Create a new bug report and attach your sysdiagnose output if it is still happening for you.

Apple Developer Relations11-Aug-2016 12:37 PM

Please provide sysdiagnose output from the affected system(s). Please collect this either while the issue is occurring, or as soon after as possible (for example, take it after a reboot if necessary). Please let us know what you were doing that caused the issue, so we can correlate your actions with the diagnostic output in sysdiagnose. Please try to focus on one or two actions that cause an issue. If you perform many different actions, it will be difficult for us to determine which action caused the sysdiagnose output. Note the date and time of the failure also, please. sysdiagnose Instructions: https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/profiles-and-logs/


https://developer.apple.com/services-account/download?path=/OS_X/OS_X_Logs/sysdiagnose_Logging_Instructions.pdf

Looking for critical difference between "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)" and "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2013)" if this is going to be the deciding factor for Apple's delineation for auto-unlock.


On my "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)" I have never seen the checkbox to enable the auto-watch unlock. Up to beta 6 on everything now, no dice.


<editorial on options>

But the consolation prize is that Kane's MacID (http://apple.co/2bfxZlv) smokes Apple's implemenation badly. MacID (iOS + macOS app) not only unlocks after thumb print confirmation on phone or button confirmation from secured Apple Watch, it prompts for and enters your password into those infernal dialogs where you are stuck providing administrator access to Keychain constantly during the day of Mac'n. More secure with the confirmation option, more utility in the system overall, works with your iPhone!, and or your iPad!! and or your Apple Watch and any Mac with BT4LE. I was amazed that Apple came out with such a weak implemenation considering Kane's product. They should have "bought Kane" like they did for the SoundJam guys (the beginning of iTunes).

<\editorial on options>

Auto Unlock with Apple Watch
 
 
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