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

[Zippy3505]

The workaround worked for me as well. Updated my backup, reset the phone, restored the backup. The watch automatically resynced when the phone came back up. I can now enable unlock with Apple Watch and I verified that it does work.

Did you restore from an Icloud or computer backup?

 

[BrettDS]

Did you restore from an Icloud or computer backup?

iCloud

 

[mmacrumor]

- I did backup (iPhone only) from Mac, but both Mac and iCloud should work.
- No unpair or restore needed on AppleWatch side , issue is iPhone related. Without un-pairing .. and after 'restore iPhone backup', the Watch went through a re-pair/connect processwithin few minutes automatically.
(update ring turn around apple logo, see image).

Thanks Alkmaarder.
This worked.

 

[Boardiesboi]

SOLVED

I have contacted AppleCare Support today ... Basically there are two options:

1. Wait until next update which will solve the issue. And use code / no mask in meanwhile.

2. Workaround:
- Make a NEW Back-up for the iPhone13 (Pro).
- Erase phone and set up as new phone.
- Restore from backup iPhone13 NOT from original backup (iPhone11/12 etc).
- Go to 'settings' > 'Face ID & Passcode' V 'Unlock with Apple Watch' ... now the toggle switch and connection should work!

Please let me know if it works or not!

Edit: Worked fine after lengthly backup-restore process.. (Kept Data-plan settings e-SIM , but had to rebuild the rest .. such as ApplePay , 2 factor logins , and some secure apps)

Alkmaarder
iPhone 13 Pro Max,
iOS 15.0 (19A346) < This new iOS from update , NOT the iOS 15.0 out of the box!

Apple Watch 5, 44mm (no LTE),
WatchOS 8.0 (19R346)

Apple Watch 6, 44mm (no LTE),
WatchOS 8.0 (19R346)

I can confirm that (2) DOES work. Backed up to a Mac, erase all contents, restore from Mac and ”unlock with Apple Watch” is now working for me again.

I’ve updated my original post to show this workaround.

Thanks mate!

 

[anticipate]

Works with mine on 15.1

 

[JuliBee]

Picked up my iPhone 13 Pro Max earlier this morning and I’m having issues with turning on “unlock with Apple Watch” feature under Face ID settings.

It keeps telling me “unable to communicate with Apple Watch”. My watch is paired and shows up in the Watch app.

When I set up the new phone, I chose “restore from iCloud backup” and tapped yes when it asked me if I wanted to pair my watch with the new phone

I’ve already tried the following:
- Update iOS 15 (there’s a small update ~450MB after you first set up the phone)
- Unpair and re-pair my Apple Watch
- Power down both devices and restart
- Reset Face ID
- Toggle “unlock with iPhone“ in Watch app settings on and off

I raised this in the first impressions and Australian preorder thread and it seems a few of us are having the same issue.

I’ve already provided feedback to Apple via https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Please also log similar feedback so Apple can understand the extent of the problem and fix it ASAP. This was sooooo useful when wearing a mask and trying to use the phone.

Edit: @Alkmaarder seems to have found a workaround after talking to Apple support



I can confirm that (2) DOES work. Backed up to a Mac, erase all contents, restore from Mac and ”unlock with Apple Watch” is now working for me again.

Thank goodness this is happening to so many, I thought it was me! I have a new 13 Pro OS15.0 and S5 watch with OS 8.0. I’ll wait for the update 🤞

 

[kazz063]

SOLVED

I have contacted AppleCare Support today ... Basically there are two options:
2. Workaround:

Thank you Alkmaarder this worked a treat. 👍

 

[koolhand79]

Works with mine on 15.1

Was it not working on 15 for you? I was thinking of just upgrading to the beta and seeing if that works

 

[kazz063]

Was it not working on 15 for you? I was thinking of just upgrading to the beta and seeing if that works

I put the beta profile back on and installed 15.1 but that made no difference, the workaround posted on here did though.

 

[Hal~9000]

Unlock via watch works fine for me when having a mask on with the 13 Pro Max + Apple Watch SE.

If it helps I did a complete phone-to-phone transfer when setting up my 13 Pro Max and did a “erase all content and settings” reset on my Watch SE.

 

[eddiezus]

i’m just gonna wait for the 15.1 update.. don’t really want to set up my phone as new. i already did with the watch (which is fine, just had to go in settings and fix a few.)

 

[BrettDS]

i’m just gonna wait for the 15.1 update.. don’t really want to set up my phone as new. i already did with the watch (which is fine, just had to go in settings and fix a few.)

Just to be clear, you don’t need to set up your phone as new to fix this. Instead you need to backup your phone (I did it to iCloud and someone else above did it to their mac, so apparently both options work), then you wipe the phone and restore the backup. Still a pain, but not nearly as much of a pain as setting up the phone as new, since everything will come back with the restore. it mostly just costs some time to wait for the restore to happen.

 

[eddiezus]

Just to be clear, you don’t need to set up your phone as new to fix this. Instead you need to backup your phone (I did it to iCloud and someone else above did it to their mac, so apparently both options work), then you wipe the phone and restore the backup. Still a pain, but not nearly as much of a pain as setting up the phone as new, since everything will come back with the restore. it mostly just costs some time to wait for the restore to happen.

oh. will try that then

 

[koolhand79]

That worked.

 

[newellj]

Just to be clear, you don’t need to set up your phone as new to fix this. Instead you need to backup your phone (I did it to iCloud and someone else above did it to their mac, so apparently both options work), then you wipe the phone and restore the backup. Still a pain, but not nearly as much of a pain as setting up the phone as new, since everything will come back with the restore. it mostly just costs some time to wait for the restore to happen.

Yes - doing anything to set up the new phone beyond powering it up is basically a waste of time, since the backup is going to overwrite/restore the phone to its status when it was backed up. It’s interesting that there’s something in an iPhone 12 backup that causes a problem with an iPhone 13, and that it’s fixed if that same phone is restored from a backup of the iPhone 13. I’ll give it a try tomorrow, sounds very promising.

 

[mmacrumor]

Got a call back from apple regarding this issue and they were asking me to wait for an update. I told them back up the phone and restoring fixes the issue. Support noted it down. Not sure if they will internally share with other support people.

 

[BrettDS]

Got a call back from apple regarding this issue and they were asking me to wait for an update. I told them back up the phone and restoring fixes the issue. Support noted it down. Not sure if they will internally share with other support people.

Out of curiosity, did they give you any indication about when that update might be coming?

 

[raab]

I reset my phone for other reasons, can confirm setting up as new and restoring from the backup taken just prior works

 

[Dormammu]

Good to know there seems to be a solution that works but holy cow that’s an inconvenience. I’ll wait for the update.

 

[chanerz]

Heck yah that’s a lot of thinkering. Just wait for the update.

 

[DblHelix]

Same issue. Not gonna restore the phone. I added so many movies to my new phone last night I’m not copying them over again. I’ll wait for a fix

Some have said it is a certificate issue. Eventually (couple days) it should expire and then this issue should resolve itself.

 

[Waughy]

Got mine sorted about an hour ago. iCloud backup, unpair watch, reset phone, go through setup and use iCloud backup to restore. When done, pair watch again, restore from backup when it was unpaired. After that unlock phone option worked. Pretty quick to do, no mucking around, and no data loss.

 

[BrettDS]

Got mine sorted about an hour ago. iCloud backup, unpair watch, reset phone, go through setup and use iCloud backup to restore. When done, pair watch again, restore from backup when it was unpaired. After that unlock phone option worked. Pretty quick to do, no mucking around, and no data loss.

I think you did more than you needed to. I just did… iCloud backup, reset phone, restore backup. The watch reconnected to the phone by itself once the phone came back up and the problem was resolved.

 

[mmacrumor]

Out of curiosity, did they give you any indication about when that update might be coming?

No.

 

[Waughy]

I think you did more than you needed to. I just did… iCloud backup, reset phone, restore backup. The watch reconnected to the phone by itself once the phone came back up and the problem was resolved.

Probably, but I only wanted to do it once, so decided to go that way. Should have known doing the transfer method from one phone to another wouldn’t be as easy at it appeared to be.