macOS Watch Unlock Mac Bug Fix 🐛

Last updated: 2020-10-07

Mac ➡️ Apple Watch Auto Unlock 🐛

After having to re-pair my Apple Watch to my iPhone, I lost the ability to auto unlock my Macbook Pro with my Apple Watch. After spending a few hours trying all the bullshit solutions in the tech blogs (none of which worked obviously), I stumbled on this post on Apple's discussion board that worked like a charm.

Hardware/Software Specifics

  • Apple Watch Series 5 / watchOS 7.1
  • Macbook Pro (2018) / macOS 10.15.7 (Catalina)

Fix Procedure

  1. Open "Keychain Access"
  2. In "View", enable "Show Invisible Items"
  3. Search for "Auto Unlock"
  4. You should see a whole bunch of application passwords for "Auto Unlock: XXXX's ..."
  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"
  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"
  11. Delete both files
  12. Open "System Preferences" and try enabling auto unlock. You may need to enable it twice, the first attempt will fail.

The first attempt to re-enable the preference did fail, but the second attempt worked immediately.