Resolved watchOS 7 Beta 5 - unlock mac doesn't work

[daniesy]

So with iOS 14 releasing tomorrow, we most surely are running GM versions of the software. Small chance if getting it fixed now.

 

[mnin]

I tried to re-enable (after reboots, re-pairing and so on) 'Use Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac' with the GM versions on my iPhone 11 Pro and my Apple Watch Series 5 Edition.

Problem is still there.

This kind of reminds me of iOS 13, it worked the same way, the bugs were simply released as stable.

 

[LongZheng]

Can also confirm still not working with watchOS 7 GM, Watch Series 3 and macOS 10.15.6

 

[Apple_Robert]

Can also confirm still not working with watchOS 7 GM, Watch Series 3 and macOS 10.15.6

Are you still seeing any random reboots with the series 3 on the GM?

 

[LongZheng]

Are you still seeing any random reboots with the series 3 on the GM?

I've not experienced with random reboots on the betas. GM is running as well as the last beta, no issues except this unlock Mac.

 

[Perana]

Still occurring on GM here as well

Series 5 and macOS 10.15.6

Had a slim hope that it might have been fixed but not yet

 

[arfung]

Still broken. Watch on GM still not unlocking my Mac either - I re-paired and that didn't fix it - 10.15.6

 

[ghostface147]

Cannot communicate with my watch to unlock. Silly. All running GM and 10.5.6.

 

[daniesy]

I think the problem is between the watch and phone. I tried on multiple macs with different OSes and none worked anymore.

 

[a.y.n]

My AW5 went through watchOS 7 b1 - b8, unlocking Mac worked fine. But b8 really screwed up my watch, and I had to set it up as new, I was never able to setup Mac unlock again after that. I also picked up a another new AW5 yesterday (yeah I know), set it up today, had to update to watchOS 7 official release before I could even pair with my phone, would've wanted to stay on watchOS 6 otherwise. After setting up the new AW5, I couldn't get Mac unlock working with it either. I've tried with both AW5s (my titanium one is a little screwed up by the watchOS 7 betas, and a brand new aluminum one), Catalina on my iMac, and Big Sur on my 16" MBP. Nothing worked. I've tried everything out there anyone suggested, no joy.

Other Handoff features work just fine between Macs/phone/watch, just can't setup Mac unlock with watch.

I think there is a bug with setting up Mac unlock with AW, unless you already had it setup previously, it doesn't work.

 

[LongZheng]

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. After clearing/resetting them, I can now successfully pair my watchOS 7 Series 3 to macOS 10.15.6.

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
    (Some users have reported better success restarting macOS at this stage)
12. Open "System Preferences" and try enabling auto unlock. You may need to enable it twice, the first attempt will fail.

 

[a.y.n]

I don't see them in my keychain, I deleted those 2 files, tried again, and still didn't work.

Looks like this was the issue:

 

[LongZheng]

I don't see them in my keychain, I deleted those 2 files, tried again, and still didn't work.

Make sure "All Items" or "Passwords" is selected in the "Category" in the sidebar.

 

[a.y.n]

Make sure "All Items" or "Passwords" is selected in the "Category" in the sidebar.

I did.

filtering with "autounlock" in Console.app gives some relevant information (mostly with /usr/libexec/sharingd with category AutoUnlock. I think this is another error of note:

Watch missing LTK and is unable to communicate with Companion to potentially sync it

I guess the OP already included that.

 

[LongZheng]

I did.

Oh whoops I forgot one crucial step, you need to enable "Show Invisible Items" in Keychain.

 

[a.y.n]

That helped, but nope, at least not yet. Now I get this:

Watch has old LTK for Mac

At least it now fails a whole lot faster.

 

[LongZheng]

That helped, but nope, at least not yet. Now I get this:

Watch has old LTK for Mac

At least it now fails a whole lot faster.

Interesting. If you haven't already, I'd probably try wiping the watch and pairing as new (I did that before all this).

 

[a.y.n]

Interesting. If you haven't already, I'd probably try wiping the watch and pairing as new (I did that before all this).

I did, this is a brand new AW5 I just unboxed today for testing coz my personal AW5 got really messed up by the betas. I re-paired both watches and set up as new. I guess I can do all that over again tomorrow, I'll see if anyone else here gets theirs to work first lol.

 

[Tigrao]

I followed your instructions, LongZheng, and at first it didn’t seem to work. I would still get the error message about not being able to communicate with the Watch. Then I rebooted, tried again, still the error message. Trying a second time after rebooting it worked!

Thank you so much for posting these instructions! This has been so frustrating to me not having the Apple Watch Mac unlock feature.

 

[LongZheng]

I followed your instructions, LongZheng, and at first it didn’t seem to work. I would still get the error message about not being able to communicate with the Watch. Then I rebooted, tried again, still the error message. Trying a second time after rebooting it worked!

Thank you so much for posting these instructions! This has been so frustrating to me not having the Apple Watch Mac unlock feature.

That's good to hear. Just for others' benefit, did you reboot your Mac or Apple Watch?

 

[a.y.n]

I rebooted phone, mac, watch, tried many times, no luck yet.

 

[Perana]

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. After clearing/resetting them, I can now successfully pair my watchOS 7 Series 3 to macOS 10.15.6.

Followed these instructions and worked! Needed to try activating the watch unlock twice before it worked, no rebooting of anything completed, just worked!

Tried setting up my MBP as well, clearing those worked as well, but then Auto Unlock stopped working on my Mac Pro, and took a bit to get working again, once working auto unlock has stopped working on my MBP, so there is definitely something going on still. At least I can get one unlocking now.

Eventually got both working by clearing everything as per instructions above, then setting up on my Mac Pro as per above. Then on the MBP attempt enabling unlock, it failed, then in keychain access I removed the auto unlock entry for the mac book pro only if it has appeared again (as the first step), then enable unlock and it appears to be working now.

Thanks!

 

[LongZheng]

Followed these instructions and worked! Needed to try activating the watch unlock twice before it worked, no rebooting of anything completed, just worked!

Thanks!

Interesting. I think I also activated it twice myself (without restarting), I thought that was maybe a glitch but sounds like you might need to activate twice. I'll update instructions.

 

[rurza]

Dude! You're my hero!!! It worked

 

[petterihiisila]

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. After clearing/resetting them, I can now successfully pair my watchOS 7 Series 3 to macOS 10.15.6.

Steps (follow at your own discretion)

1. Open "Keychain Access"
2. In "View", enable "Show Invisible Items"
   View attachment 954412
3. Search for "Auto Unlock"
4. You should see a whole bunch of application passwords for "Auto Unlock: XXXX's ..." (this will reset/disable auto unlock on other Macs if you use multiple Macs)
   View attachment 954403
5. Select all records and delete
6. Whilst still in "Keychain Access", search for "AutoUnlock" (no space)
7. There should be 4 entries for "tlk" "tlk-nonsync" "classA" "classC"
   View attachment 954382
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"
    View attachment 954386
11. Delete both files
12. Open "System Preferences" and try enabling auto unlock and pray ?. You may need to enable it twice, the first attempt might fail.

Thank you! This process worked on the second attempt, by adding a Reboot between steps 11 and 12. Auto unlock is back. Hire this hero, Apple! ?