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Other “Unlock with Apple Watch” not working on iPhone 13 Pro Max

Is “Unlock with Apple Watch” working on your new iPhone 13 Mini/Pro/Max?

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 10.1%

  • No

    Votes: 210 84.7%

  • No when I first got the phone, but working after restoring from an iPhone 13 backup

    Votes: 13 5.2%
  • Total voters
    248
  • Poll closed .
Adding my name to the list of people it is not working for...

My Watch did not pair successfully with my new iPhone 13 Pro, so I had to reset the watch and repair it. The option to unlock with Apple Watch was toggled off. Trying to toggle it back on gives me the "Unable to communication with Apple Watch" error.

:/
 
carbphrek said:
I’m one of the very few who has it working. Picked up 13 PM at 10:30 and by 11:00 am I started back up from icloud; 20ish minutes later pop up about watch - Yes - my watch buzzed and did it’s circle of life. No issues…yet.
Click to expand...

But can you unlock your phone with your watch if you are wearing a mask? That’s the issue we are discussing here. The watch pairs successfully and everything else works fine.
 
I've been on to Apple support here in the UK. same issue, was fine on my iPhone X and Series 6 this week, soon as I data transferred to 13Pro, unable to enable watch unlock. tried two un pairs and at one point I couldn't unpair and had to wipe manually. onto phone support at the mo. and they guy I'm talking to doesn't appear to know this is an issue..yet.
 
Another question for those who have this issue: are you able to unlock your Apple Watch from your iPhone? I have a work profile that requires me to use my iPhone to unlock the watch - using a passcode on the watch itself is not an option. Trying to figure out if that is broken too.
 
MacDevil7334 said:
Another question for those who have this issue: are you able to unlock your Apple Watch from your iPhone? I have a work profile that requires me to use my iPhone to unlock the watch - using a passcode on the watch itself is not an option. Trying to figure out if that is broken too.
Click to expand...

That’s not a problem. It’s just unlocking the phone from the watch. I just verified that unlocking the watch from the phone works fine.
 
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MacDevil7334 said:
Another question for those who have this issue: are you able to unlock your Apple Watch from your iPhone? I have a work profile that requires me to use my iPhone to unlock the watch - using a passcode on the watch itself is not an option. Trying to figure out if that is broken too.
Click to expand...
I can unlock the apple watch with iPhone but now the "unlocking apple watch" notification banner is gone and after the apple watch unlock it won't have haptic feedback to tell you it's unlocked too...
 
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Same exact issue. "Unable to communicate with Apple Watch." I have this happen on my M1 MacBook Air (unlock with Apple Watch). The workaround to get it working is to power down iPhone, MacBook Air, and Apple Watch, power them back up, go into settings on MacBook Air, and check "Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac." It works for a couple of days but eventually comes back and has to do the power down process all over.

Not sure if that could possibly work around this issue as my iPhone 13 Pro Max keeps overheating and pausing during iCloud restore.
 

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i have yet to receive my 13 pro max but this sounds like a very annoying bug as my work requires me to wear my mask on the clock and that feature was amazing
 
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Was running into this as well. Did an Erase All Contents & Settings and then restored my iPhone 13 Pro from backup. That solved it!! I’m now able to turn on the feature
 
firey_warriors said:
Was running into this as well. Did an Erase All Contents & Settings and then restored my iPhone 13 Pro from backup. That solved it!! I’m now able to turn on the feature
Click to expand...
That was the last step I would try but it’s such a PITA.

Did you restore your phone from an iCloud backup? Or backup on the Mac? Also was the backup from an old phone, or the 13 Pro you just got?
 
Strangely, everything’s works fine for me.

went from iPhone 11 Pro Max to iPhone 13 pro max through an iCloud restore (not a device to device one).

i can unlock my phone from my watch. no issue

looking at the poll I’m feeling very lucky
 
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Ditto. I tried everything I could think of, except restoring the phone itself which I'd really rather avoid. Hopeful for a fix from Apple soon.
 
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