Apple has acknowledged an issue where the “unlock with Apple Watch” feature might not work with its new iPhone 13 devices and promised to fix this issue with an upcoming software update.
“You might see ‘Unable to Communicate with Apple Watch’ if you try to unlock your iPhone while wearing a face mask, or you might not be able to set up Unlock with Apple Watch,” the iPhone maker said in the support document.
This issue will be fixed in an upcoming software update. Until the update is available, you can turn off Unlock with Apple Watch and use your passcode to unlock your iPhone 13.
To turn off Unlock with Apple Watch, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode.
Earlier, multiple users found that they cannot unlock their iPhone 13 with the Apple Watch and instead received an error.
User Monzilla88 on Reddit first reported the issue to the subreddit r/AppleWatch.
They stated that both their iPhone 13 Pro and Apple Watch SE are up to date with the newest iOS and watchOS updates.
“Whenever I try to enable unlock with Apple Watch on my phone I get an error saying “Unable to communicate with Apple Watch,” they posted.
Monzilla88 claimed that they had tried unpairing and repairing, hard resetting both devices, turning on and off passcodes, but not no avail, the report said.
More than 20 other users self-reported the same problem, with others noting that the feature works fine on iOS 15 on older models of iPhone, including the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the iPhone X.
