MacOS Sierra Apple Watch Unlock – persistant iCloud Sign in required dialog

apple-idapple-watchicloudmacosunlock

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) that I just reinstalled macOS Sierra 10.12.3 and now I am trying to use my Watch to unlock.

I had this working before in the past before the reinstallation. Also, I have it working on another older MacBook Pro. (Post 2013)

I get the following dialog:

Your Apple Watch must be signed into iCloud to allow it to unlock your Mac.
You can sign in using the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

After trying the following steps, I still get the dialog.

  • Verified that the Apple Watch is indeed signed in on the proper Apple ID
  • Verified that macOS is signed in on the same Apple ID
  • Rebooted the Apple Watch and unlocked it (See this answer)
  • Verified that all components are on the same WiFi network and Bluetooth is enabled

I have not unpaired the watch then paired again. Hoping not to have to go to that extreme.

Question: How can I get past the dialog? What am I missing here?

Hardware:

  • MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) running macOS Sierra 10.12.3
  • iPhone 7 iOS 10.2.1
  • Apple Watch 1st generation watchOS 3.1.3

System Preferences Dialog
Watch AppleID Settings

Best Answer

I had the same problem: In settings I was definitely logged into iCloud, but the Apple Watch unlock setting still claimed I wasn't.

I stumbled on the following weird solution:

I happened to start FaceTime on Mac, and noticed that I wasn't logged into it. I logged in.

When I then opened the Security settings again, the Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac was checked!

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