At some point in recent weeks my Mac stopped unlocking with my Watch.
I finally had the chance to try to reconfigure it and … it seems like none of the things Apple thinks are in System Settings are actually in System Settings:
Watch is on 10.2.
Am I missing something obvious here? Else, what is going on with System Settings?
The video is a bit too small for me to be able to read the text, but this document may help: Unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch - Apple Support (CA)
Fascinating. That’s a slightly different set of instructions than the other official one that I had found.
Step 3 is where I am stuck somehow:
- In the Apple Watch section on the right, turn on the setting for your Apple Watch.
I don’t have an Apple Watch section. (Anymore?) 
Guess I’ll be calling Apple Support. This feels like the 3rd or 4th time Watch unlocking has just stopped working for me (probably due to software updates).
It depends on my computer. I see this on my iMac (no TouchID):
You won’t get the setting if it has never seen your watch. Make sure all the other requirements are met first.
Thanks. I hear you on meeting the requirements. The strange thing is that this was working a few weeks ago, so I was meeting them then … and then something spooky changed, I guess.
Are you on the latest watch OS? I think it’s a bit buggy. That update would match when you started having problems?
I’ve had a couple of issues with it, my favourite being that Siri has changed voice, just on my watch, and even when I turn it back to the correct voice it reverts a few hours later. So annoying!
I know this does not address the settings focus, however, I thought I would share an Apple Watch unlock troubleshooting story. I noticed some greater inconsistency in unlocking on the Mac Studio. I shut down and restarted devices many times, thinking that was the problem.
TLDR: I wonder if what is plugged into the machine and what port impacts the unlocking between the watch and computer.
However, for some reason, I decided to clean things on my desk. This included unplugging things from the Mac Studio. One of the items unplugged was a Satechi hub purchased for a Mac Mini that I switched over. It stayed unpluggged for a couple of days as I forgot about it. During that time, unlocking occurred every time.
After a couple of days, I wanted to use the ports on the hub and realized I didn’t plug it in. I plugged it in to an open usb-c port on the back. After leaving my desk and returning after the machine locked, unlocking was not occurring as easily or at all. I move the dock to another port and switched some other things around. Unlocking started to occur again as normal. I moved the dock back and unlocking stopped or was spotty depending on which port the dock was plugged into.
I decided to remove the dock altogether and see if I can live without it for a while. So far (1 week), no inconsistencies. I do have a Dell monitor that has a hub feature, so I am not sure if it is a conflict thing, a power drain, a Bluetooth interruption challenge, or just dumb luck. However, I’ll leave the dock out of the equation for a while.
That’s interesting…I have my mbp (2019 Intel) plugged into a Dell monitor via USB-C, and it acts like a hub, and I’m currently unable to unlock with my watch. I’ll look into this later.
Fascinating. I’ll fiddle with what’s plugged in as well. Thanks for the discussion!
I’m not on the latest OS for Mac, but my watch is a series 6 and up to date on iOS. But ever since they gave us the ability to logon with our watch, periodically I get a request to reenter my password to reestablish the feature. There have been other discussions regarding that here, and I’ve never seen a solution to that, but it is different if you are not getting that message.
Mine has been stopping working on and off since the latest .1’s I think.
Keeps telling me my watch needs to be signed into iCloud. I have to reboot everything until it works again.
