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Apple Watch won’t unlock with iPhone after updating

My Apple Watch Series 5 won’t unlock with my iPhone like it used to after updating to the latest iOS 14.7 and the latest WatchOS 7.6. Are there any ways to fix this issue or is it a bug?

Apple Watch Series 5, watchOS 7

Posted on Jul 22, 2021 2:33 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 22, 2021 2:55 AM

Seems to be a bug:

...

When you have Unlock with iPhone turned on, unlocking your iPhone unlocks your Apple Watch as long as you're wearing it. An issue in iOS 14.7 affects the ability of iPhone models with Touch ID to unlock Apple Watch.

If you experience this issue, just type the passcode directly on your Apple Watch to unlock it. This is required only one time, as long as you keep your Apple Watch on your wrist. If you forgot your passcode, you need to reset your Apple Watch.

This issue will be addressed in an upcoming software update.

...

copied from: If your iPhone doesn’t unlock your Apple Watch after updating to iOS 14.7 - Apple Support

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 22, 2021 2:55 AM in response to JulianMatthew

Seems to be a bug:

...

When you have Unlock with iPhone turned on, unlocking your iPhone unlocks your Apple Watch as long as you're wearing it. An issue in iOS 14.7 affects the ability of iPhone models with Touch ID to unlock Apple Watch.

If you experience this issue, just type the passcode directly on your Apple Watch to unlock it. This is required only one time, as long as you keep your Apple Watch on your wrist. If you forgot your passcode, you need to reset your Apple Watch.

This issue will be addressed in an upcoming software update.

...

copied from: If your iPhone doesn’t unlock your Apple Watch after updating to iOS 14.7 - Apple Support

Aug 24, 2021 8:18 PM in response to JulianMatthew

I have this problem. It used to happen once in a while, and rebooting the phone would fix it. After updating to 14.7.1, which purportedly fixes the problem with a TouchID phone, my FaceID phone would not unlock the watch. Rebooting did not help. I finally dove in and did the unpair/repair dance, which fixed it for about 2 days. But it is once again broken. I am not very willing to keep unpairing and repairing to keep this working, so really hope that is not the solution going forward. It's painful to re-add all my credit cards to Apple Pay after unpair/repair. Especially as one of my cards requires a call to the issuing bank.


I think an obscure bug with FaceID was introduced when Apple fixed the TouchID problem. But evidently it's an obscure one or else many more people would be complaining about this.


Any ideas from anyone would be welcome. I may go ahead and do the unpair deal again, but I'm not eager to dive into that if there is any other way.

Apple Watch won’t unlock with iPhone after updating

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