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Apple Watch Auto Unlock Questions [MERGED]

J

jsawy3r

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 3, 2014
42
19
Can anybody confirm if Auto Unlock does or does not work on the Mid 2012 rMBP? I've seen that it doesn't work on a Late 2012 Mac mini, but the rMBP was a bit ahead of its time in connectivity and I imagine Apple isn't dotting the i and crossing the t on the beta docs.

Figure if there is one exception to the 2013 limitation it would be this. Holding out hope!
 
Loismustdie1

Loismustdie1

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2015
120
518
It has to be a 2013 computer. However Apple wasn't too specific on exactly where that cutoff is. My mid 2013 13 inch Retina works with the auto unlock. My early 2013 15 inch does not.

Edited for spelling
 
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DribbleCastle

DribbleCastle

macrumors 6502
Apr 17, 2009
429
315
Seattle, WA
Loismustdie1 said:
It has to be a 2013 computer. However Apple wasn't too specific on exactly where that cutoff is. My mid 2013 13 inch Retina works with the auto unlock. My early 2013 15 inch does not.

Edited for spelling
Click to expand...

Can you clarify how auto unlock works please? I know it works when you open the lid of your laptop or wake your Mac from sleep; however if you lock your screen with a password when the screen saver starts, will a move of your mouse summon an Apple Watch unlock method? If not, the feature loses a lot of impact for my day to day use.

For clarification, this is the feature I'm talking about.

lock on screen saver.png
 
Loismustdie1

Loismustdie1

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2015
120
518
Hyuga said:
It seems to be working with laptops what have modern Energy Saver settings. If you have separated Computer sleep and Display sleep sliders it won't work.. So all Macs from Mid 2013 ->

I tried it with multiple Macs on our development stack.
Click to expand...

I suspected as much. I hope the they reverse this and expand. This is not a valid excuse to withhold a feature that would work on capable and perfectly functioning hardware.
 
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B

bluechair1984

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
131
53
Yesterday I attempted to get auto unlock to work with my 2012 rMBP, I was unable to get it to work. Today I installed an updated airport card from a 2013 and it worked. So that is an option for anyone wanting this feature. This was also confirmed by a guy in another thread.
[doublepost=1467925837][/doublepost]
Hyuga said:
It seems to be working with laptops what have modern Energy Saver settings. If you have separated Computer sleep and Display sleep sliders it won't work.. So all Macs from Mid 2013 ->

I tried it with multiple Macs on our development stack.
Click to expand...

I would guess that is more of a coincidence than anything...
 
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H

Hyuga

macrumors regular
May 16, 2006
146
27
Helsinki or Barcelona
bluechair1984 said:
Yesterday I attempted to get auto unlock to work with my 2012 rMBP, I was unable to get it to work. Today I installed an updated airport card from a 2013 and it worked. So that is an option for anyone wanting this feature. This was also confirmed by a guy in another thread.
[doublepost=1467925837][/doublepost]

I would guess that is more of a coincidence than anything...
Click to expand...

Was it Mid 2013 later? Those had AC card.
 
M

mastercheif91

macrumors regular
Oct 7, 2011
203
149
Hyuga said:
Was it Mid 2013 later? Those had AC card.
Click to expand...

This would make a lot of sense. In the post WWDC podcast interview with Gruber, Craig explained how auto unlock uses WiFi in addition to bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with the Mac

Craig Federighi said:
And so, we’re actually able to do time of flight calculations using peer-to-peer Wi-Fi where we literally can measure how long at the speed of light it’s taking for the signal to travel from your Mac to your watch and back.
Click to expand...
 
jozeppy26

jozeppy26

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2008
534
83
St. Louis
Same Mac here. Super annoying and stupid. I'm hoping support expands before the final release or a hack/work-around is discovered.
 
jozeppy26

jozeppy26

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2008
534
83
St. Louis
Apparently some people with older Macs that use the third party "Continuity Activation Tool" have the Apple Watch auto unlock option (CAT seems to activate it). This doesn't help us however bc our 2012 rMBP already has continuity features so even if you try to install CAT, it just gives an error and doesn't do anything. Sucks
 
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Seagyi

Seagyi

macrumors newbie
Jul 8, 2016
5
0
bluechair1984 said:
Yesterday I attempted to get auto unlock to work with my 2012 rMBP, I was unable to get it to work. Today I installed an updated airport card from a 2013 and it worked. So that is an option for anyone wanting this feature. This was also confirmed by a guy in another thread.
[doublepost=1467925837][/doublepost]

I would guess that is more of a coincidence than anything...
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1467995416][/doublepost]I have the same MacBook and gonna try buying the newer card
 
B

bluechair1984

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
131
53
Loismustdie1 said:
I'm interested in how you were able to get it to work. I installed an updated card on my early 2013 this morning and I still don't have that option and two factor identification is properly set up.
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure you wouldn't need the card... sounds like something else is wrong... what card did you buy?
 
Loismustdie1

Loismustdie1

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2015
120
518
bluechair1984 said:
Im pretty sure you wouldn't need the card... sounds like something else is wrong... what card did you buy?
Click to expand...

I replaced the card with a late 2015 card (they're basically the same). Everything works fine and macOS recognizes it as a wireless ac card, but I still never get the auto unlock feature.
 
Seagyi

Seagyi

macrumors newbie
Jul 8, 2016
5
0
Loismustdie1 said:
I replaced the card with a late 2015 card (they're basically the same). Everything works fine and macOS recognizes it as a wireless ac card, but I still never get the auto unlock feature.
Click to expand...

i think you might have to reinstall sierra so it recognizes the hardware properly and enables it for you
 
Loismustdie1

Loismustdie1

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2015
120
518
Seagyi said:
i think you might have to reinstall sierra so it recognizes the hardware properly and enables it for you
Click to expand...
I thought the same. I erased and installed from a bootable USB:clean install. Still no dice. Oh well. That's beta testing for ya
 
Loismustdie1

Loismustdie1

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2015
120
518
bluechair1984 said:
That's not necessary either. It picked up the new card on mine as soon as I booted back into macOS...
Click to expand...

Interesting. When I looked into the system profile, it correctly identifies it as a wireless ac card. No problems with Bluetooth or Wifi either. Weird.
 
TeToslaw

TeToslaw

macrumors regular
Jun 17, 2013
114
11
What about MacBook pro retina late 2012? It has bluetooth 4.0 but the option hasn't appeared so far. Does it really need wifi ac card?
 
Loismustdie1

Loismustdie1

macrumors regular
Jun 6, 2015
120
518
TeToslaw said:
What about MacBook pro retina late 2012? It has bluetooth 4.0 but the option hasn't appeared so far. Does it really need wifi ac card?
Click to expand...
So far it appears to be that way. I have an early 2013 and I don't even have the option. I even changed my wifi card to a wireless ac and it still didn't work.
 
B

bluechair1984

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
131
53
TeToslaw said:
What about MacBook pro retina late 2012? It has bluetooth 4.0 but the option hasn't appeared so far. Does it really need wifi ac card?
Click to expand...

Yes, it appears that you need the ac card. Sounds like they are doing some kind of distance calculation with wifi instead of bluetooth.
[doublepost=1468246200][/doublepost]
Loismustdie1 said:
So far it appears to be that way. I have an early 2013 and I don't even have the option. I even changed my wifi card to a wireless ac and it still didn't work.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking this is just a beta bug. It should be showing up for you.
 
G

Gjwilly

macrumors 68040
May 1, 2011
3,216
701
SF Bay Area
Even on "supported" hardware it doesn't work reliably. I think it's way too early to be considering hardware changes in order to try to make it work.
Who knows what the next beta will bring? Maybe what's not supported now will be supported in the next beta.
 
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