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IanH3
Contributor
Contributor

Apple Watch Locking when Paired with Airwatch Enrolled iPhone

Hello,

I'm seeing some odd behavior with apple watches when my users pair them to Airwatch Managed phones.  We push a passcode and a device restrictions policy to our iphones.  However, it seems that when you pair an apple watch to a managed iPhone, the watch suddenly adopts behavior requiring the phone to go through an unlock sequence once the watch is on the users wrist.

If the watch is removed from the wrist and then put back on again, or if the watch loses contact with the users wrist, the watch screen locks and requires the phone to be in proximity and the phone to go through an unlock sequence before the watch is able to be used.

Is anyone else seeing this behaviour, and if so is there a way to stop it from happening or is this by design once a watch is paired with a managed device ?

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CGladstone
Contributor
Contributor

I don't know if you have found a solution to this, but I have a user with the same issue.  The only profile on his iPhone is an alphanumeric passcode is required.  He then can only unlock his watch by using his phone.  I have another user that has a managed device, but does not have the passcode required profile and his watch can be unlocked either by opening the phone, or entering the 4 digit PIN directly on the phone.

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gmanjohal
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hey! You can change this behaviour via the restrictions profile, there's any option to 'Enforce Wrist Detection on Apple Watch' which is most likely enabled. When enabled, once the watch is off the wrist, it will require authentication via the phone or the watch to unlock. 

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IanH3
Contributor
Contributor

Actually, i believe i have discovered the issue.

Apple watch does not seem to support alpha numeric or special character passcodes.  As this is a requirement of the passcode policy we have pushed to our phones, the watch is taking that passcode policy requirement and because the watch isn't capable of allowing special characters, it's requiring the phone to be unlocked before it will unlock.

I've done a test passcode policy with just numeric characters as a requirement and the watch is able to be unlocked by entering the passcode on the watch face and no longer needs to be unlocked using the phone.

Perhaps in future versions of watch OS they will support alpha numeric and special character passcodes, but for now this is the only work around.