Unlocking your Mac by simply holding your Apple Watch near it is one of the many cool perks of the Apple ecosystem. But it’s not so cool when it doesn’t work. This article will explain how the unlock feature works, and what to do if your Apple Watch won’t unlock your Mac.
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When this feature, called Auto Unlock, works properly, it’s like magic. Sit down at your Mac wearing your Apple Watch and your Mac unlocks just as if you were typing in your password!
Auto Unlock uses information sharing between Apple devices, plus some standard networking features.
For Auto Unlock to work, you need to be signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on both your Apple Watch and Mac. You also need to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on on both devices. Once you've done that, when an Apple Watch and a Mac detect that they're near each other, they check which Apple ID each is using for iCloud. If they match, your Mac will unlock.
