Apple Watch not unlocking Mac (resolved)

THANK YOU!!!!!!! This worked seamlessly!

My Apple Watch recently quit unlocking my iMac (on Sequoia). I checked out several of the solutions posted here and on other posts. After turning off the ability to unlock my iMac with my Apple Watch, turning it back on failed due to a communication error. In checking Settings | Wi-Fi on my Apple Watch, I discovered it was not consistently connecting to our Wi-Fi network. Forgetting and reconnecting to the network didn't help.

Finally, I turned off and restarted my Apple Watch and that resolved the problem.

Thanks, I learned something. I just checked my settings. I had not selected automatic logout. I can see now why that setting is "advanced." By the way, my Apple Watch was unlocking my Mac up until yesterday, but after I changed my password for my Apple Account, it no longer did. After some time, I finally figured it out. So, I learned another thing. Changing one's password is easy, but then one has to change settings on all one's devices. I have 11 devices so It's a bit of a pain.

aaaaannnnnd…almost exactly one month later, it's failing again. A recent macOS update is all I can think of as far as changes. trying a hard reset now…OK, same same. A hard reset restores that functionality. Somehow it got lost (?) in the upgrade, maybe some keys or tokens got cleared out.

I had the same or similar experience after Sequoia 15.2. This article helped me fix the issue using the following steps.

1. On the Mac go to SETTINGS > Login Password > toggle Apple Watch setting to ON.
2. Entered my Mac's user password.
3. Tested.

I hope this helps, I was going nuts trying to figure out why my Mac would not unlock while wearing my Apple Watch.

I was having the same issue - This solution worked for me. Thanks

This worked for me until it didn't. I have to do this every couple of days to be able to unlock with my watch. Searching for a permanet solution. (Macos 14.7.1. Safari 18.1.1)

Update: Recent update to Sequoia 15.1.1 seem to fix the issue.

Same

Have no idea why the iWatch was greyed out as it was working perfectly but your solution worked. Thanks 👍

Thank you for the step by step. Very easy to follow and fixed my issue the first try. All the best.

The solution is sporadic sorry

WatchOS 11.3.1 update sorted it - works perfectly now - thanks for the help

Sequoia 15.3.2 on M4 mini, iOS 18.3.2 on 15PM, watch 11.3.1 on S8.

Unlock working fine here

for me all I had to do was turn on wifi