Unable to turn on two-factor authentication for Auto Unlock

I have the same problem. I just had to update my secirity questions though since I had forgotten them.

Just to clarify, resetting your security questions fixed the issue for you?

sorry no, I thought that I could not do the 2FA because I had just updated security settings (just like you cannot set up two step authentication just after you update those settings). I still can't enable 2FA.

If you haven't updated your security settings, then we can discount this as a possibility for why we can't enable 2 Factor Authentication.

I had a similar issue. So Two-factor auth is different than two-step auth. I had to disable two-step auth on my account (i did this at appleid.apple.com) and then I was able to activate two-factor (which is very similar but different).

Hope this helps!

I did not have Two-Step Authentication enabled so that isn't the case here 😟 Thanks for the advice though! I did double check my Apple ID and can confirm that it is indeed disabled.

UPDATE: I was able to turn on Two-Factor Authentication by logging out if iCloud on my iPhone and logging back in. After enabling Two-Factor Authentication, I checked the MacBook and it said Two-Factor Authentication was enabled as well. Great! I went to Security & Privacy settings on the MacBook and tried turning on the auto unlock feature. It said "Turning On" indefinitely. After searching these forums a bit, a possible solution was to log out of iCloud, restart the computer, and log back in. I did that, and now the Auto Unlock checkbox is not appearing at all within Security & Privacy. I still have 2FA enabled, so I have no idea what is going on now.

I have tried this on both my iPhone and MacBook and it still doesn't work for me. I will try again when the 3 day wait period to use Two-Step Authorisation expires (I know this isn't two step authorisation and I know two step has to be off, but I wonder if the wait applies to both)

I never had 2 factor verification switched on, so I just enabled 2 factor authentication on my 2015 MBA running Sierra beta 2. It is working fine on this device, but I haven't been able to enable it on my iPhon 6+ running iOS 10 beta 1. When I update the phone, I'll try it there.

UPDATE: I have 2FA running on both my MBA and iPhone 6+, both running beta 2

I haven't been able to enable 2FA on any of my devices either. What's weird is, it's not working on either of my AppleID's. My troubleshooting steps have been as follows:

1. Disable 2SA (obviously)

2. Reset passwords

3. Reset security questions

4. Re-validate credit card on file

5. Log-out of all devices with iCloud and sign back in

6. Restart devices (repeatedly - because beta)

I'm still receiving the error on macOS saying "Two-factor authentication is not available for your Apple ID at this time." The option for 2FA isn't even present on any iOS device or in a browser.

AppleWatch (watchOS 3b2)

iPhone 6 (iOS 10b2)

iPad Air (iOS 10b2)

rMBP (macOS 10.12b2)

Contacting both AppleCare and Developer Support yeielded no results.

I was able to get mine to work (Apple watchOS3, Macbook2016 and Iphone SE, go to System Preffrences/Security and Priv/ select Unlock with apple watch.....this should promt you to activate 2FA.

GL!

That option isn't even showing for me, but I assume that's because I don't have 2FA enabled. Very frustrating.

djchrisallen,

This is the extact boat I am in also. I've tried everything and can't get it to work. For a second I thought it was family share with iOS 9 family members causing it, but leaving didn't help.

Bruce

I had a smilar issue. What fixed this was going to my apple id account online and turning on the two-step verification, then going into settings setting up two factor authentication then it will ask you to turn off two step verification and after turning that off it seemed to finally work. So in conscice words you need two step verification first, just to turn off to turn on two factor authentication; at least this worked perfectly for me.

Hope it helps,

Good luck,

Austin

FWIW, I still can't get it to work. I've literally tried everything I can think of but it still says my account isn't available.

😟

I'm still having the same problem, 2 beta releases later. Doesn't look like there is much of a resolution in sight. I wonder how something like this gets fixed?

I have exactly the same problem. Any updates on this issue?

I also have a problem setting up 2 factor verification ti use my iwatch for unlocking-

When I go to system preferences, icloud settings, account details, security and pick the option to set up 2 factor authentication. I fill in all the prompts correctly for the security questions and credit card details to verify the account andthen I get a message saying that the card security code is not correct, even though it is as I have logged onto my AppleID account and checked that the card security code on there is the one I am using.

I finally solved this. I turned off icloud on all my devices and then logged on to AppleID on the web and updated all the card details again. Then I logged back into icloud on my macbook using icloud settings and I was then able to setup two factor verification there without getting the card validation error.

I subsequemtly had a lot of problems getting my macbook to unlock with iwatch though as I couldn't see the option in the security & privacy settings on my macbook.Eventually after several iterations of disabling and enabling icloud on all my devices and rebooting all of them the unlock with icloud option finally appeared on my macbook.

Enabling unlocking with iWatch certainly doesn't seem to be a very robust or user friendly process!

I had exactly the same problem, but have just fixed it. After I couldn't enable two-factor authentication, I went to my Apple ID and enabled two-step authentication. This told me that I had to wait three days to turn the setting on, and told me to wait for an email. As soon as the email arrived, I enabled two-step and then immediately disabled it again. As soon as it was done, I got the option to turn on two-factor authentication on my iPhone (Settings->iCloud->my Apple ID->Security&Passwords). I could then enable two-factor on my Mac.

I have a feeling that I had requested two-step authentication a while back, so I'm wondering if there was something logged in the system that prevented two-factor from working, until I enabled and disabled it.