Unlock Your Mac with Apple Watch

The other day my MacBook Pro prompted me with a notification that I could unlock the computer with my Apple Watch. I’ve had both the MacBook Pro and Apple Watch for more than a year, and while I normally leave my Bluetooth off, I had turned it on that morning to connect a wireless mouse, so my Mac made a discovery and a timely recommendation.

To enable unlocking your Mac with your Apple Watch, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and check the “Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac” checkbox.

In order for this checkbox to appear, you must have both watchOS 3 or later and macOS Sierra or later, see these system specifications for more info. Also make sure your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are enabled. Finally, make sure your Mac and Apple Watch are both logged in to iCloud with the same Apple ID. This will enable your watch to talk to your Mac.

The next time you wake your Mac from sleep, your Mac will say, “Unlocking with Apple Watch…”

Moments later… viola! Your Watch should vibrate and prompt you with a confirmation:

For more information, visit the official Apple support page. Keep in mind that your Apple Watch must first be unlocked in order for it to unlock your Mac. This makes perfect sense for obvious security reasons, but unfortunately it greatly diminishes the convenience of this feature for me because I remove my watch from my wrist several times a day (e.g., for charging, showering, dishwashing), and I usually don’t re-enter the password after donning the watch. Therefore, the auto-unlocking is hit or miss for me. But if you normally re-enter your password after putting on your watch, or if you rarely remove your watch, you might have a better experience with this feature.

Update Confusion - macOS Sierra 10.12.6

On 7/28/2017, I updated my 15-inch 2016 MacBook Pro from macOS Sierra 10.12.5 to 10.12.6. Upon rebooting to complete installation, the App Store app told me that I still had 1 update available. Upon launching the App Store app, that 1 update was for macOS Sierra 10.12.6, despite me having just installed 10.12.6. Here's proof:



So instead of re-installing the 10.12.6 update, I rebooted my machine, thinking that it was mistakenly prompting me to re-install the operating system. Upon reboot, it told me again that I still had 1 update for 10.12.6, so I re-installed the 10.12.6 update. After the 2nd installation and rebooting, it STILL told me that I had a 10.12.6 update available. So at that time, I just ignored the prompting. A few days and a couple of restarts later, my MacBook Pro is no longer prompting me to update to 10.12.6. Couldn't it have gotten things right the first time?

Living Life on the Edge with macOS Sierra

With the introduction of macOS Sierra, I wondered if my wife's 24-inch Mid-2007 iMac with 4 GB RAM would have enough horsepower to support all the new features. She is currently using Mac OS X El Capitan version 10.11.6, and while the machine runs a little bit slowly, it supports all the basic functions that my wife demands of the machine: web browsing, photo management, and synchronizing with our iPhone and iPad mobile devices.

I found the macOS Sierra hardware requirements on this page. In summary, the following Mac models are supported:

• MacBook (Late 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)
• Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer)
• iMac (Late 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Mid 2010 or newer)

Therefore, the 2007 iMac should not qualify for the upgrade. However, upon visiting the App Store, I was presented with the option to upgrade to macOS Sierra:

I am thinking of living life on the edge and see what will happen if I attempt to install the upgrade. What do you think--should I do it?

UPDATE: Since my original post on 9/24/2016, I had installed macOS 10.12 Sierra on a couple of other machines, and I found it to be similar in "bulkiness" and performance as compared with 10.11 El Capitan. Therefore, I decided to try upgrading to 10.12 Sierra on my old 24-inch Mid-2007 iMac. However, upon clicking "Download" from the App Store, I received the following message:

So I guess the system requirements are checked after being given the option to download. I am a proponent of not giving users the opportunity to make mistakes, but at least there was a safety net downstream of me deciding to install an operating system that was supposedly incompatible with my machine.