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

[kamus]

Thanks for doing all that leg work. But it didn't work for me. Running Big Sur on 2018 Mac Mini with series 3 watch on 7.1 and iphone 12 on ios 14.2.1. I also reset my AppleID password, as well as the watch passcode. I keep getting the error message that my computer can't communicate with my watch. View attachment 1681001

1. Try the solution mentioned by LongZheng in this thread
2. Reboot all the devices, including Apple Watch and your computer
3. Change the Login password of your computer, no need to change the AppleID password (at least in my case)
4. Try again in "Security & Privacy" to let Apple Watch unlock you computer

 

[lo3ck]

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 ..."
   View attachment 954403
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"
   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
    (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.

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 ..."
   View attachment 954403
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"
   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
    (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.

Tks, it works!!!! You are my hero!!!

 

[rollindany]

What worked for me was just signing out of my Apple ID & then signing back in.

Thank you! After trying everything mentioned here, this was the solution for me too (signing out and back in on Apple ID on the Mac).

 

[manwe150]

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

I was getting the "Watch has old LTK for Mac" error also (logged to console for "process:sharingd"), and nothing I attempted (rebooting all, re-logging into iCloud, toggling various settings, erasing various files) seemed to help. Finally, after doing all of those, I unpaired the watch and repaired. Now it works. Let's hope it stays that way.

 

[mysticalos]

This worked for me once, but not today (after restoring both phone and watch due to the infamous activity bugs). What eventually worked for me was changing the passcode on the watch. I was seeing similar errors on the Console, and "Passcode validated" just gave me the idea to give it a go. I guess setting a passcode re-generates some key on the watch or something, but whatever it is, it looks like it fixed it for me.

I was filtering the Console for "AutoUnlock", and as soon as I changed the passcode on the watch I saw a bunch of messages from secd, including a couple of about "fetching account keys". After that, the first attempt at signing failed, but it tried again and it worked, and updated the remote LTK. To be clear, I only clicked on the checkbox once; it's just that in Console it shows it tried to do it twice, and ultimately it worked and updated something somewhere and whatnot (I just lost track of all these bugs at this point, bear with me.)

Anyway, if the Keychain surgery stops working, I'd suggest also changing the passcode. It may not work, but it's worth a try.

ages later but just wanted you to know this was only thing that fixed issue for me. I did all the steps to reset all the keychain keys but it kept failing with "DCRT retrieval failed" immediately after "passcode validated" so I took your advice and reset passcode and DCRT stopped failing.

 

[cornelius1]

I was getting the "Watch has old LTK for Mac" error also (logged to console for "process:sharingd"), and nothing I attempted (rebooting all, re-logging into iCloud, toggling various settings, erasing various files) seemed to help. Finally, after doing all of those, I unpaired the watch and repaired. Now it works. Let's hope it stays that way.

Thank you! I kept getting that error too, and nothing else worked for me either. Unpairing the watch and setting it up from backup finally fixed it.

 

[patrykwloch]

I had the same issue with a new Series 7 Watch. All of those suggested steps didn't do it for me. I looked into the Console logs and found some more error messages thrown by the sharingd process, which is responsible for managing the Auto Unlock functionality. Then I thought about forcing a restart of the process from Terminal which finally fixed everything for me (I had to tick the box in Security&Privacy again). In case this is useful to anyone, the extra steps to try after the method outlined by @LongZheng are:

1. Go to terminal (Spotlight search -> Terminal)
2. Type the command: sudo killall sharingd
3. Enter your password
4. Try ticking the box again!

 

[weStyle]

Also the same here, rebooting / signing out of icloud on either device doesn‘t work.

 

[explosive0]

Also the same here, rebooting / signing out of icloud on either device doesn‘t work.

Reset your watch and setup as new (don't restore from backup). That's what worked for me a couple days ago, when my watch randomly had a mine of its own.

 

[cybercap]

I'd like to try to sign out of iCloud on my iMac to fix that apple watch unlock issue but I fear I may mess with my photos (it asks to delete them or keep a copy).
I'd just to sign out and then quickly sign in again without impacting my photos (from my iphone, stored in the cloud) whatsoever, is that possible ?