On macOS, pwSafe users can unlock their safes using an Apple Watch, even though the option is labeled as "Touch ID" in the application. This feature requires the following setup:
- Your Apple Watch must be linked to an iPhone that is logged in with the same iCloud account and connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
- In macOS Settings - Touch ID & Password, enable your Apple Watch to unlock applications as shown in this screenshot:
- In pwSafe, unlock your safe by entering the password.
- Select the menu option Safe - Enable Touch ID. A popup will confirm that Touch ID (or Watch) has been enabled.
Troubleshooting
- In case unlocking with your Apple Watch is not working, you might be "double pressing" the watch button too fast. Try to double press a bit slower to resolve this.
- In case unlocking with your Apple Watch suddenly stops working reliably, try restarting both your Apple Watch and your Mac.
If you encounter any issues, such as error messages, please contact support for further assistance.
Comments
9 comments
Further my last comment on ticket #24993, it turns out I was ‘double pressing’ the watch button too fast. If I double pressed a bit slower then it works perfectly.
Thanks for the info and the great product.
Thanks for adding that info Jon, I've added it to the article.
After updating to Tahoe 26.2 my pwSafe is having issues unlocking with my watch.
The settings for login pw is toggled on.
I see the symbol for the watch in the login dialog box (attached screenshot), and below the password field is a greyed out text “watch unlock”. It used to tap my wrist when I pressed the watch icon but no longer. I am confirming that my watch unlocks my Mac, so the communication is working.
I can click all around in the pwSafe UI and nothing happens. BUT, if I click on the Mac desktop background, pwSafe UI disappears (as designed) and then I click to make it reappear, the dialog box does not show the watch icon but if I mouse into the field the icon reappears and I can then open it with my watch. Very odd behavior. In other words, it takes me something like 5 mouse clicks in a specific sequence to make this work. Now that I have taken the time to figure this out I wanted to pass it on in case this annoying sequence of mouse clicking can be fixed.
My safe is in iCloud.
That definitely sounds like something that needs to be fixed..
The “Watch unlock or enter password to unlock” text is always greyed out btw, it is just a status message.
Did you upgrade from 26.1 (and if so, did that work ok), or from a lower macOS version?
Does this only happen when launching pwSafe (the first unlock) or also on other occasions?
After the 1st unlock. I know that I have to manually enter the first time. Yesterday I restarted my system and entered the PW. I don't often need to access pwSafe but I needed to yesterday and it didn't unlock. I assumed it may be 26.2 so I went through this site and rechecked the docs to verify my settings.
During my above post I spent more time playing with the unlock before I discovered that I had to make all these extra mouse clicks to make it work. It is possible that it is my hardware but it's all fairly new. I have checked that the watch (Ultra 3) and mac (mini4) are on same wifi and that is really not necessary because the watch confirms this simply by unlocking the mac.
After I upgraded to 26.1 I had so many things to change or learn that I can't recall if it worked there or not. It certainly did work correctly before 26.1. Also, I updated my pwSafe in mid-October to the current version (11.4.0). Even tho that was some time ago I cannot be certain if this problem was happening that far back which would be before 26.1 release.
Right. Let's get some logging from your device first. Please follow these steps:
That will create a support ticket with some basic logging from your Mac that hopefully contains a clue. We can followup this issue in that ticket.
Adding to my (2) support tickets of earlier today, I want you to know that I tried restarting my Mac, it did not change the way things work. However, I want to mention that Apple has a password app, as I'm sure you know. I have a few pw's in that app and I just tried to access a website that has it's login credentials stored in Apples pw app.
It fails in exactly the same way, and allows watch authentication if I perform the same steps as I do in pwSafe.
The purpose of this note is to point the finger at Apple and I poke around some sites to see if there is any comments on this and if not I'll file a bug report w/ Apple. I also need to do a restart of my watch to verify this observation. Apparently pwSafe does not have the bug, Apple does.
OK, apology time. Restarted my watch and it is working correctly!
The old adage, if it doesn't work, try rebooting. I failed in that.
Sorry for all the extra bs.
Thanks, hope this solved it!!
Hi Jon,
No need to apologize at all, you have just provided very valuable input for anybody experiencing the same issue in the future.
I will add this info to the article. Yes, once you know the solution it sounds obvious, yet neither of us thought of it, so just maybe it isn't that obvious…
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts,
Richard.
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