Unlock With Apple Watch iOS 14.5 Not Working

[Ansath]

Yeah I know pops, I don't need a lecture.

I've been wearing them. Just annoyed by still having to wear it f***ing year into this crap.

Better to wear it and not end up paying for it though. A mate of mine, 21, no pre-existing conditions, was anti-mask. He caught it, and died from it. I've heard of many similar situations over the last year.

It sucks balls, but it's not like we want to wear it. Sooner people do it, then get vaccinated, the sooner we can get away from them. Look at Australia and New Zealand. My cousin lives in Oz, they're basically back to normal. Hugging, and all sorts!

 

[HiVolt]

Better to wear it and not end up paying for it though. A mate of mine, 21, no pre-existing conditions, was anti-mask. He caught it, and died from it. I've heard of many similar situations over the last year.

It sucks balls, but it's not like we want to wear it. Sooner people do it, then get vaccinated, the sooner we can get away from them. Look at Australia and New Zealand. My cousin lives in Oz, they're basically back to normal. Hugging, and all sorts!

Yeah I know, like I said i've been wearing the masks even before our own public officials stated it was necessary or mandatory to do so.

If I was an anti-masker i wouldn't care about this feature now, would I.

 

[incoherent_1]

Just replied to someone else here on it too. I’m having the same problem. It worked like twice. Once it came up and I accidentally hit “lock” on the watch prompt. And it never worked again. It’s enabled. I’ve turned it all off an on again. I get a screen that says “unlocking” and then it asks for the passcode. Never worked again.

Same. Glad I’m not crazy. That’ll teach me for assuming that hitting the “lock” prompt wouldn’t permanently disable the feature. Apple’s QC these days is absolute garbage.

 

[Direk]

I’m sharing my experience , might help.

My wifey IProMax12, has the same issue. All mentioned tricks here plus from Apple website ( reset all settings ) have been done and it’s still, intermittently working opening the phone (no help from Iwatch either) using FaceID.

Here’s what happened, previously, “Last Known Condition’’ she‘s wearing a mask when its FaceID worked opening her phone, and it’s connected to WIFI.

We went out, all operation is functioning normal except that she’s not connected this time to Wifi.

Arriving at home and connected to home router wifi, she removed her mask. Then nextime without mask, her phone won’t open using FaceID!

I’m the beta guy here at home, no matter what, still failure after failure to correct this issue.

Wifey ask me to get a new mask 😷 and viola, it did open. Then, she removed the mask , this time , it works ... continuously up to this writing.

Memory effect from the “Last Known Condition”?

 

[Ansath]

Yeah I know, like I said i've been wearing the masks even before our own public officials stated it was necessary or mandatory to do so.

If I was an anti-masker i wouldn't care about this feature now, would I.

I wasn’t saying you were an anti-masker, apologies if that’s how it seemed.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Anybody know if after a certain amount of time watch unlock needs to be re-activated by entering your passcode again? Let's say I have it working, then I don't use it for an entire day. The next morning when I put my watch on and grab the phone off the charger, FaceID works fine and unlocks my watch but if I put my mask on and try to unlock the phone it asks for the passcode. After the passcode is entered, watch unlock works normally ...

 

[UntitledImage]

I rebooted everything, turned it off an on... all that. The only thing that ended up working was obsessively flicking the slider to on/off/on/off/on.... 🤷‍♀️

Boy I sure wish they'd have come up with that months ago though!

 

[Oohara]

I tried all the tricks above and this is still completely unreliable aka. totally useless for me. It works maybe 1 out of 10 times when I'm out and about wearing a mask. Sometimes after I've waited in vain and then punched in my passcode to unlock the phone, the screen will flicker and my watch will tell me that it just unlocked my phone. Thanks buddy.

Come on with that bug fix Apple.

 

[Bazza1]

I tried all the tricks above and this is still completely unreliable aka. totally useless for me. It works maybe 1 out of 10 times when I'm out and about wearing a mask. Sometimes after I've waited in vain and then punched in my passcode to unlock the phone, the screen will flicker and my watch will tell me that it just unlocked my phone. Thanks buddy.

Come on with that bug fix Apple.

Its about 50 / 50 with me.
Truly my favourite moment is the Passcode screen advising me to unlock the iPhone so that the Watch can unlock it. Instructions about as clear as those for Tracking Transparency (hint: turned off or on, its still on).

And yes, if I do unlock the phone via the Passcode, my wrist then buzzes to advise me the Watch unlocked it. Sigh.
Updates and hard reboots of both have accomplished nothing.

I kinda think Apple needs to get folks back to work at the donut. Clearly this working from the kitchen table at home thing has done things to their coding skills. Mind you, there was the original Apple Maps...

 

[Ramrod82]

So after reading everything I reset my my iPhone 12 Pro Max and Iwatch and again nothing. I then turned WiFi off and it worked! I turned WiFi back on and it worked. What a cluster bleep!

 

[manolomd]

Hello guys, I've just updated my Apple Watch to WatchOS 7.4 RC and my iPhone to 14.5 RC, restarted and removed the beta profiles afterwards. I enabled the "Unlock with AW" feature in the iPhone settings, but my phone is not unlocking even once with a mask. The watch does not give any feedback at all, I just get the regular "fail buzz" on my phone and then I'm prompted to enter my passcode.

I tried several times and it's the same every time. Restarted the phone and watch again, turned off and then re-enabled the feature, but nothing seems to work...
Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!
Be safe.

Hello guys, I've just updated my Apple Watch to WatchOS 7.4 RC and my iPhone to 14.5 RC, restarted and removed the beta profiles afterwards. I enabled the "Unlock with AW" feature in the iPhone settings, but my phone is not unlocking even once with a mask. The watch does not give any feedback at all, I just get the regular "fail buzz" on my phone and then I'm prompted to enter my passcode.
I tried several times and it's the same every time. Restarted the phone and watch again, turned off and then re-enabled the feature, but nothing seems to work...
Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!
Be safe.

There are 2 settings 1 on the watch & 1 on the phone. On the phone go to the passcode settings and select your watch.

 

[minimo3]

Anybody know if after a certain amount of time watch unlock needs to be re-activated by entering your passcode again? Let's say I have it working, then I don't use it for an entire day. The next morning when I put my watch on and grab the phone off the charger, FaceID works fine and unlocks my watch but if I put my mask on and try to unlock the phone it asks for the passcode. After the passcode is entered, watch unlock works normally ...

Same here, it seems to “time out” after an unspecified period of time. In terms of reliability for me:

FaceID:99%
TouchID: 95%
Watch unlock: 50%

 

[Shirasaki]

That "stupid" mask might be saving your life. Just a thought....

“I don’t see the danger, so it does not exist”.

 

[minimo3]

The only way to guarantee watch unlock will work is to perform the following steps:

1. at home (while on WiFi) put on a mask
2. Put on watch and unlock with Pin
3. Swipe up to unlock the phone

Now you can be sure the phone will unlock when you’re out without the dreaded “enter your passcode or unlock with Face ID to enable watch unlock”

 

[bransoj]

I did the unlock with passcode once the first time i tried to do it after updating the software on my iPhone and Watch and its worked with no issues every time since.

 

[Bazza1]

So...updated iOS and WatchOS yesterday. Ensured everything that is supposed to be 'on ' is on on both devices and the watch is unlocked on my wrist. And...exactly where I was before. 50/50 as to whether the unlock works as advertised. Maybe closer to 70/30 against - with that nonsensical unlock screen (unlock to use Watch unlock) most often.
Read some of the workarounds above, but really, we shouldn't be the ones putzing about in the OSs to get this to work. And the fact it works for some and not for others suggests its not us 'holding it wrong'.

 

[SegNerd]

It is not “nonsense.” It is exactly how it is supposed to work, and it has already been explained both in this thread and by Apple.

Every time you put on a mask, you will see that screen the first time. You have to type in your iPhone passcode once. Then all subsequent unlocks will go through your AppleWatch.

 

[Bazza1]

Every time you put on a mask, you will see that screen the first time. You have to type in your iPhone passcode once. Then all subsequent unlocks will go through your AppleWatch.

An automated unlock that requires a manual unlock to activate is nonsense. If both devices are are set up and linked correctly to start with, there should be no reason for manual activation.

Meanwhile 'subsequent unlocks' aren't always working here. Sometimes yes, most often no. So, not subsequent at all.

 

[teeshot44]

Works for me every time just like it’s designed to. (Rare issue in bright sun glare) Sorry that some just don’t like how it’s designed to work. A design or intended action is not a bug.

 

[SegNerd]

It works fine for me as soon as I do the initial unlock. It would be a security risk to allow the iPhone to auto-unlock without entering the password once. If you really want your iPhone to be unlocked without any security at all, just turn off your iPhone passcode.

 

[minimo3]

Thankfully by this weekend this half baked implementation will no longer be required as the restrictions are lifted

 

[ecatomb]

It's working fine there too, but I have to think about having wifi ON on both

 

[Bazza1]

It works fine for me as soon as I do the initial unlock. It would be a security risk to allow the iPhone to auto-unlock without entering the password once. If you really want your iPhone to be unlocked without any security at all, just turn off your iPhone passcode.

...but if you are wearing the Watch and you unlocked it using your security code, then it should follow - in this implementation - that replaces having to do the same on the iPhone. Its not a case of operating the phone with no security on it. Not at all. To argue that suggests the Watch unlock is bad security then, and you should use the phone passcode each time anyway. To unlock the phone to enable the watch (which you have to unlock) unlock is loopy.

 

[teeshot44]

Some people never lock their front door. Other people add an extra lock or two. Some have protected s*x and some don’t. Some people wear a mask and some don’t. It’s an individual choice as to how much risk is acceptable to you. Turn off all or just some locks on your watch and/or phone. It’s your choice, but don’t try to force your choice on everyone.

 

[Bazza1]

... but don’t try to force your choice on everyone.

No forcing involved. That's usually Apple's bailiwick, anyway.

Nope, I'm simply saying that the unlock sequence makes little sense - especially when an unlocked Watch can access - and the user view and use - information (including Wallet) on a sync'd iPhone whether or not the user is wearing a mask, and while the iPhone sits on a nearby table or in a pocket. Yet that same access doesn't automatically unlock the phone when the user goes to use it. I'm not saying anyone should leave their iPhone's access open and flapping n the breeze otherwise.

Essentially - to use one of your metaphors - none of the locks, alarms or threats of shooting anyone who enters your home through the front door means much if you always leave the key in the lock, the passcode to the alarms and a map of the layout of your home on the back door.

Plus, of course, it would be helpful if - having used the current process - the unlock was, y'know, actually consistent. Which it hasn't been here.