Why is unlock Apple Watch with iPhone not working?

I have a new Apple Watch series 10 running Watch OS 11 and my iPhone 14 Pro still does not unlock my watch automatically. The setting is turned on in the Watch app on my iPhone. I contacted Apple today and was walked through a hard rest and a re- pairing, neither of which got this feature working. I have to unlock the watch manually. The advisor told me this is a known issue and is being addressed by Apple engineering. Let’s see….

Same watch & iphone combo here and struggling with the exact same problem.

I have tried to boot both devices and changed the watch passcode to four digits. Issue persists still.

Just resetting and re-pairing my Apple Watch 10 finally solved it for me. However, it does not always unlock when I first open my iPhone but always on waking the phone a second time. It then stays connected. A bit disappointing but it’s working. Thanks all.

I’ve had the same issue since 30th November and have a case open with Apple. My issue is that unlock with iPhone is enabled in both devices but simply doesn’t work.

iPhone 15 Pro - 18.2

Apple watch series 8 - 11.2

They even took my watch back outside of warranty to reinstall software via technicians and reported back that it’s fixed, but it’s not at all 😡

Lost count the amount of times I’ve unpaired and reset it, even linked to two other iPhones available to me (Xs and 12 mini) and the same issue so it’s certainly a watch issue.

I don’t get any notifications either on my watch anymore, my just over 2 year old watch is now rendered useless and frankly giving up any kind of hope.

I managed to fix this issue by unpairing & resetting my Apple Watch and restoring it from a backup.

You have to unlock your iPhone for your Apple Watch to be unlocked automatically.

That’s odd. I have no issues with iOS 18 and watchOS 11. Try to force restart both devices.

Same for me. Did you fix this?

restart does not solve the problem. iOS 18 and watchOS 12