jstLockIT
Locks your screen as you leave
Only for Mac
Free · In‑App Purchases
Mac
Locks your screen when your Apple Watch walks away.
jstLockIT has one job: lock the Mac when you walk away from it, and stay out of the way the rest of the time.
It uses your Apple Watch as the key. While the Watch is on your wrist and near the Mac, nothing happens. Walk away and the Mac locks after a short delay. Come back and unlock as normal with Touch ID or your password. With most Watches it also knows whether the Watch is actually on your wrist, so leaving it on the desk or the charger does not count as you being there.
IT WILL NOT LOCK YOU OUT
• No Watch, no lock. Start the Mac without your Watch and the app does nothing at all. It only ever locks after it has seen the Watch on your wrist, nearby, and then watched it go.
• A momentary blip never locks. The signal has to stay weak for the whole delay (8 seconds by default).
• If you are typing or moving the mouse, it will not lock, whatever the signal says.
• If the Watch's signal disappears while it is being watched, that counts as walking away: the same delay, warning and activity guard apply, then it locks. A Watch that was never seen nearby, Bluetooth being off, or a Watch off your wrist, just makes it wait.
• Nothing can lock in the ten seconds after you unlock, and it will not arm again until it sees the Watch on your wrist and nearby.
• It stays quiet during presentations, screen sharing and video.
• Pause and the Auto-lock switch are always one click away in the menu.
SET UP IN A MINUTE
Choose your Watch, press Calibrate, then move around your desk as you normally would for a minute or two. That teaches it what being at the Mac looks like for you. Leave Test mode on for the first day: it does everything except actually lock, and the log shows what it would have done.
YOUR WATCH AND YOUR APPLE ACCOUNT
It works best when your Watch and your Mac use the same Apple Account: the Watch appears by name and everything just works. A Watch on another Apple Account (a personal Watch on a work Mac, say) can be added instead by holding it against the Mac once; the app then follows it by its signal. That works well in quieter surroundings but may not in every environment, so test it for a few days before relying on it. If you keep being asked to find the Watch again, use a Watch on the Mac's own Apple Account.
THE MENU BAR ICON
A small wedge shows how close you are to the point where the Mac would lock, with an optional percentage under it. It blinks and counts down before locking, and a "Not now" notification lets you cancel.
PRIVACY
The app has no network access and never connects to your Watch. It reads the Bluetooth signal your Apple Watch already broadcasts. Nothing leaves your Mac. Signal history is kept in memory and gone when the app quits.
PERSONAL USE AND PRO
jstLockIT is free for personal use, at the built-in settings. If you use it for work, please buy Pro, the commercial licence. Pro also unlocks tuning: the lock delay, the pauses after unlocking and before watching again, the Not now length, and the signal settings. Locking itself is the same either way. For organisations, jstLockIT supports ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 7.7 (clear desk and clear screen).
Pro is an annual auto-renewing subscription: £9.99 a year in the UK (local price shown in the app), charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current year; manage or cancel it in your Apple Account's Subscriptions settings.
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy policy: https://michaelsyree.com/jstLockIT/#privacy
REQUIREMENTS
macOS 14.6 or later. An Apple Watch, on your wrist and unlocked, with Bluetooth on. Auto Unlock is not required. Wrist detection depends on the Watch model: Apple Watch Series 9 and Series 6 report it; Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) does not, so with an SE the app works on signal strength alone.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Fixes a bug where the app could use a lot of CPU and memory after running for a day or two. The Mac no longer locks when it briefly stops hearing the Watch while you are at the desk (after a restart, or when the Mac is busy). A Watch on another Apple Account is picked up again when you unlock, instead of asking you to find it. New: Reset to built-in settings in Settings › General; the chart marks spells when the Watch was not heard.
The developer, MICHAEL ANDREW SYREE, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- MICHAEL ANDREW SYREE
- Size
- 1.1 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires macOS 14.6 or later.
- Mac
Requires macOS 14.6 or later.
- Mac
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Pro $9.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Michael Syree