Apple Watch not unlocking Mac (resolved)

Tried a number of these steps but then did something else. If like me you have multiple WIFI networks then double check to be sure that both the Mac and Watch are on the same one. Seems simple enough, however sometimes my devices will automatically switch networks when restarting. I checked and the Mac was logged in to a different one. I changed it now to match the watch. Doing this fixed my problem.

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.

Thank you for posting this solution! I found this to be the problem for me, as well (we have 2 wifi networks - watch was connected to one while mac was connected to the other). Made sure both were on the same network and problem solved. Simple solution I had not thought to check until I read your post. Thanks again!

I had the same issues (started in April 2025) and the recommended solution worked for me with one additional action: In Step 3, I also had to restart the iPhone that my watch is paired with, before restarting the MacBook and turning the Open with Watch setting back on.

Sequoia 15.3.2

That solved the problem for me, maybe it will be good for others:

I've finally fixed it! I found a bunch of errors related to "AutoUnlock" in the Console that was hinting to me that there was some invalid state on my Mac with keys and plists not being reset properly. 

Steps (follow at your own discretion)

1. Open "Keychain Access"
2. In "View", enable "Show Invisible Items"
3. Search for "Auto Unlock"
4. You should see a whole bunch of application passwords for "Auto Unlock: XXXX's ..."
5. Select all records and delete (this will reset/disable auto unlock on other Macs if you use multiple Macs)
6. Whilst still in "Keychain Access", search for "AutoUnlock" (no space)
7. There should be 4 entries for "tlk" "tlk-nonsync" "classA" "classC"
8. Select 4 records and delete (don't worry if they re-appear, the system repairs this automatically)
9. Open "Finder" and navigate to "~/Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock"
10. There should be two files "ltk.plist" and "pairing-records.plist"
11. Delete both files
12. Open "System Preferences" and try enabling auto unlock. You may need to enable it twice, the first attempt will fail.

Hi parsons3, You responded to the OP. But I am assuming you meant to respond to me, Mr. Luigi. Checking to make sure you were not inadvertently auto-logging out of your Mac was a long shot. But it was worth a look. The symptom you describe is not unusual for folks who have this problem. The unlocking message will appear, then goes away, as if the opportunity to unlock via your Watch has timed out. Have you HARD reset your Apple Watch. Hold down both side buttons on the Digital Crown side of the Watch. (That’s the only side of the Watch that has 2 buttons so it’s hard to mess up! 😆) The screen will go blank. KEEP HOLDING DOWN THE TWO BUTTONS until the Apple Logo appears. This could take a while…10-15 seconds. Let go of the buttons when the Apple Logo appears and allow your Watch to go through its start up procedure. Pray to God it works. 🙏

Make sure your iMac, phone & watch are all on same network. I find my watch (watch is wifi only) is often not on a network at all. Toggle off the wifi in the watch and iPhone. Toggle the iMac wifi off wait a little bit and then on. Then toggle on iPhone, and after that toggle on watch. Verify they are on same SSID. It hasn't failed for me yet. It's only been a few weeks but that is much better than the every few days failure like it used to be.

Sequoia 15.2 on M4 mini, iOS 18.2.1 on 15PM, watch 11.2 on S8.

pdb206 wrote:

This may be an artifact of running a single SSID across two different wifi networks but that's not something I care to change. …

Are you extending the first network with the 2nd WiFi router?

If you put the 2nd router into “Bridge” mode, they will have the same sub-net, and devices on each will no longer be isolated from each other. Putting a router into bridge mode is different, depending on the vendor. If there is no explicit bridge mode settings, then see about disabling DHCP and/or NAT routing, which is the other common way to merge the 2 subnets.

If you do not want to bridge your subnets, then at least turn off one of them for testing, and then you will know for sure if this is network related.

Make sure Apple’s setup instructions have been followed:

https://support.apple.com/en-lamr/102442

Make sure your Mac and your Apple Watch are using the same WiFi network

o Apple Watch -> Settings -> Wi-FI -> 2nd item is the WiFi name.

o Mac -> System Settings -> Wi-Fi -> 2nd item is the WiFi name.

Both should be using the same WiFi network

Make sure you have disabled “Log out automatically after inactivity”.

System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Advanced (at the very bottom) -> Log out automatically after inactivity -> disable [_]

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.

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

for me all I had to do was turn on wifi

Hi,

Not sure if you have the same issue as me, but we have 2 wifi networks at home, 1 for the 2.4ghz and 1 for 5ghz.

Despite ensuring that the watch and Mac were on the same one I still had issues. So I went into my wifi network settings on all my Apple devices and asked them to "forget" the 2.4ghz connections and ensured they were all on the 5ghz one. (expect it will work the other way around)

Bingo! All running smoothly now. Hope this helps!

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

What fixed it for me was that somehow Bluetooth had gotten turned off on my Watch. Turning it back on fixed the issue.