iPhone 13 rolled out in several markets last week, and while people were expecting to experience new things, they did not know they were in for a small inconvenience. The iPhone 13 comes with the “Unlock with Apple Watch” feature broken, leaving several users high and dry when they try to unlock the new iPhone using their Apple Watches while wearing masks. Apple has acknowledged the issue and assured users that a fix is coming soon.

In a support page named “if Unlock with Apple Watch isn’t working on your iPhone 13”, Apple has mentioned that “this issue will be fixed in an upcoming software update.” It also addressed the error message — “Unable to Communicate with Apple Watch” — the users are getting when they try to use the Apple Watch to unlock the iPhone with a mask on or when they are trying to set up Unlock with Apple Watch feature on their brand-new iPhone 13.

Apple has not said when this fix will arrive. It could be the iOS 15.0.1 update that may bring the fix, along with another one for an issue that Apple has not publicly acknowledged. A lot of users said they are seeing a warning message on their iPhone that says their device’s storage is full even when the users claim they haven’t done anything. This happens particularly after updating to iOS 15. The next update may also address this issue.

For people who cannot use the Unlock with Apple Watch feature on their new iPhones, Apple has suggested turning it off until the fix arrives. The company has urged users to go for the regular passcode method to unlock the iPhones with a mask on. Without the mask, they can always use Face ID. To turn off the Unlock with Apple Watch feature, you can go to Apple Watch settings, followed by a tap on “Face ID & Passcode”.

The Unlock with Apple Watch feature is one of the most useful features to have come out as an adaptation to the pandemic-induced problems. With masks becoming a part of the new routine, people could not use Face ID anymore, so Apple introduced the feature to let users of both an iPhone and an Apple Watch unlock the iPhone without removing the mask or switching to the passcode method — which is the alternate solution for when Face ID cannot be accessed. iPhone users who do not have an Apple Watch still have to use the passcode method but Apple trained the algorithms for Face ID to throw the passcode screen immediately after it detects there is a mask on the face.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 13 series is now available to buy in India at a starting price of Rs 69,900. There are a couple of offers at different retailers to sweeten the deal.