iOS 15.1 Beta 2 Fixes Bug Preventing iPhone 13 Users From Unlocking With Apple Watch When Masked

Tuesday September 28, 2021 10:54 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 15.1 to developers, and the update includes a fix for an annoying bug that's been affecting iPhone 13 owners who also have an Apple Watch.

FaceID Masked Triad
With beta 2, the Unlock with Apple Watch feature that was broken has been fixed, and an authenticated Apple Watch can once again be used to unlock an iPhone 13 model when wearing a mask.

Prior to the update, attempting to enable the Unlock with Apple Watch feature under Settings > Face ID & Passcode would result in an error that said the iPhone was unable to communicate with the Apple Watch. That error message has now been addressed, and the feature can be successfully toggled on after updating to iOS 15.1 beta 2.

Apple in a support document promised that a fix for the issue would be coming in a future update, and it appears that update may be iOS 15.1. It's not clear if we'll also see an iOS 15.0.1 update that has a fix, as it could still be several weeks before iOS 15.1 sees a public release.

Related Forums: iOS 15, iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

macduke

66 months ago

They really need to push this through ASAP through a smaller update. Not sure why they wouldn't be able to pull that git branch as a patch into 15.0 and push it out there.

Love the timing of this, with my first vacation since before the pandemic starting on Saturday, I'm going to be in and out of a couple airports towing luggage and children and was going to be using this a ton. Probably not gonna travel on beta software.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

applefanboysince93

66 months ago

And those of us who doesn’t have an Apple Watch? When is Apple going to solve the unlocking of the latest iPhones for us?

Would have been grand if they could figure out Touch ID on the power button like the iPads…

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

applefanboysince93

66 months ago

Someone downvoted Touch ID?!?! That's ... wow

Right? Even though the Apple Watch unlock is pretty good it doesn’t work maybe 20% of the time for me… having Touch ID as a backup would be great

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

applefanboysince93

66 months ago

Just when I thought I was done with betas for another year… ah F it here goes…

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

deeddawg

66 months ago

But seriously, I also use a password locker with a password combination that's not that insane, still long enough, and pretty much been ingrained to the point of muscle memory. It's not so hard.

So... gotta ask... :)

How do you unlock your phone to access your password locker so you can access your phone password to then unlock your phone which you'd already unlocked so you could access the password locker? :D

Joking aside - the mask/watch/phone unlock is important functionality for so many people that it's rather surprising that bug got past Apple and into the release version. Apple hopefully realizes they need to push the fix out ASAP for this reason and not lollygag around until a x.1 release.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

justperry

66 months ago

Or keep the mask on, and punch in your code / password. Beats getting attention on the plane, and ending up on a no flight list, even though it's a wee bit overboard.

Yup, convenient when a (my) password is 16 alphanumeric characters long.:rolleyes:

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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iOS 15.1 Beta 2 Fixes Bug Preventing iPhone 13 Users From Unlocking With Apple Watch When Masked

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