iOS 15.1 beta 2 fixes 'Unlock with Apple Watch' bug affecting iPhone 13

News
By Joe Wituschek
published

Apple Watch SE using Reflect in watchOS 8
Apple Watch SE using Reflect in watchOS 8 (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz / iMore)

What you need to know

  • The second developer beta of iOS 15.1 fixes the 'Unlock with Apple Watch' bug.
  • iPhone 13 users are currently unable to use the helpful feature.
  • Users must enter a passcode on their iPhone when they are wearing a mask.

When the iPhone 13 launched to customers last week, many noticed an issue with perhaps the most helpful feature Apple released during the pandemic.

iPhone 13 owners who attempted to use the 'Unlock with Apple Watch' feature that would authenticate your iPhone with your Apple Watch when wearing a mask noticed it stopped working. When they went to turn the feature back on, they received an error that the watch was unable to communicate with the iPhone.

This left anyone who enjoyed the feature to go back to typing in their passcode every time they needed to authenticate their iPhone while wearing a mask.

Thankfully, Apple has appeared to address the issue in the latest developer beta of iOS 15.1. As reported by MacRumors, iPhone 14 owners running the second beta of iOS 15.1 don't have the issue anymore.

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.

Since the issue has been fixed in the beta for iOS 15.1, it will hopefully be included as a fix when the public release of iOS 15.1 rolls out to the public. It's currently unclear when that update will be available to everyone, so we'll all have to get used to typing in that passcode in the meantime.

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Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.