Screen time limits not working

The glitch seems to be related to Downtime and App Limit running at the same time. My daughter said that if she didn't use all her app limit when downtime hit, after midnight a screen would pop up that said 5 more mins, 15 more minutes, use for the rest of the day. She could set the apps to use for rest of day (since 12:01am is a new day!) and it was a free for all. I took away downtime and now the app limits are back to requesting a passcode to approve more time. It is disappointing that we cannot use downtime at the same time but at least there is somewhat of an answer. Hopefully apple will fix this on the next update.

I figured it out! Go to settings—>screen time—>always allowed and deselect the apps you want to limit. I was wondering why my daughter was exceeding her Roblox time and it was because it was on the “allowed apps” which supersede downtime and limits. I left educational apps always on, but Roblox and that godawful Tom the Cat are now managed better.

Hope this helps

I fixed this problem with my son's iPad. I had chrome set at a 20min limit however he was spending hours on it every day. I checked the ‘Always Allowed’ section of screen time and chrome was listed in there. Once I removed it from that section the limit started working.

Hey there - my kid figured out this hack. She goes in to settings -> time zones, flips off "set automatically" and then puts herself in an earlier timezone, and VOILA ... more time without having to ask for it. I have submitted an apple feedback request for this. It's a little maddening.

I went to the Apple store because I was having the same problem (I set the limit for Snapchat etc on my daughter’s phone and she was somehow able to bypass the time limit). They said to set up Family Sharing on one of the parent’s phones. Then I was able to go into to each child’s profile and set the time limit on their apps from MY phone. The Apple people also said they have classes all the time to help parents stay current.

I went to the Apple store because I was having the same problem (I set the limit for Snapchat etc on my daughter’s phone and she was somehow able to bypass the time limit). They said to set up Family Sharing on one of the parent’s phones. Then I was able to go into to each child’s profile and set the time limit on their apps from MY phone. The Apple people also said they have classes all the time to help parents stay current.

Hello Andrew,

Sorry if my question is to obvious;

But, did you select/enable the option to:

> Screen Time > App Limits > Block at End of Limit

Also, with in the "App Limits" page you can actually setup multiple App Limits (for example) for multiple Apps.

So make sure that there are only the items you want in there.

For my son, for example, I gave him 2 type of App Limits:

• I limit all his apps at 4 hrs a day (and all apps will block at this point)
• then I also limit all his Social Media Apps at 30 mins a day, when his Social Media limit expires, he can still use the other apps (games, movies, etc) up until his 4hrs. (He doesn't get 4:30 total, it's 30 mins, inside of the 4 hrs)

Hope this works out for you guys.

Also, let me know if you discover any new tricks, or, if your kids found a way to circumvent this lock.

we need to help each other out with this.

I stumbled upon the solution to the issue of screen time not updating a child’s phone and kids being able to just hit ignore time limit.

1) make sure that the kid’s phone is set to automatically update. setting - general - date & time - this will allow the phone’s screen time to update.

2) set a screen time pass code. Screen Time - Family Member - Set Screen Time Passcode

Now, go to downtime and select Block at Downtime. There must be a screen time passcode set in order for this option to show up. This will eliminate the ability for down time to be ignore. Be patient with it. It took a few minutes for the changes made on my phone to sync up with my kids phone.

hope both of these fixes the problem.

My child switches off his iPhone (with latest version). Then switches it on.

During the first seconds when the Phone is up he goes to Screen Limit and switches it off, no password is requested.

He can repeat reboot the iPhone till he succeeded.

so i was able to finally figured out what the problem was, i turned out my daughter's phone had an outdated version ios and even though i was able to report her usage, the limitations where bot there, all i did was update her phone and voilá, she kinda upset now and i get requests from her for extra time if she runs runs out, 2 hrs of snapchat a day should be more than enough not 9

I have had this incredibly frustrating problem twice now -- I've actually had two problems: 1) not all apps are blocked at downtime 2) apps aren't blocked after the time limit is reached. I haven't read all the responses to this post, so my apologies if I'm repeating anything. BUT, last night, after HOURS of wasting time trying to fix the problem, I finally figured out something that worked! In the hopes that this might help others, I wanted to post my solution.

Step 1: from the parent's phone, turn off screen time for the child's account. Settings->Screen Time->Child's name->Turn Off Screen Time (scroll to the very bottom to find this)

Step 2: from the child's phone, sign out of the phone. Settings->Child's name (at the very top)->Sign Out (at the very bottom). This didn't change any of the contents of the phone (at least it didn't for me), it just removes your child's apple ID from the phone.

Step 3: (this one might not be needed, but I did this part too, so just in case) power down the child's phone and keep it off for one or two minutes.

Step 4: power the child's phone back up, and sign back in using the child's apple ID. Settings->Sign in to your iPhone (at the top).

This completely cleared all the Screen Time settings from the phone and reset it back to what it looked like when everything was new. From there, I just went through the normal steps for setting up Screen Time for the first time. When it was set back up, the problem with screen time not blocking apps was gone ... at least for now.

My child only has one Apple device (the phone), so I don't know if it would be more complicated with more devices. Maybe you have to do it for all of them simultaneously?

At any rate, good luck -- I hope this helps!

I ended up getting on a chat with support!

After the usual run around of resetting devices and the 101 questions they have to ask to make sure you have actually tried everything you think you have...

We have family sharing turned on so I was told to go into each childs account under family sharing and turned Ask to Buy off, then back on again. My problem seems (for the moment at least) to be resolved!

Worth giving it a try if you haven't done this before.

So I was having the same issue and came to this finding. If the app in question is removed and re-added then the screen time rules do not apply. You will need to remove the rule, and then re-add it yourself. Obviously the downside is that your child can just remove and re-add again. And you would have to keep watch and do the same thing.

My kids are young enough so that the app in question was accidentally removed and put back on a few weeks later. Also, if you have “ask for permission” to install an app, if you approve, it is approved for life. The scenario came up where an approved app was determined not to be ok, so it was removed. That app can now be put back on at any time without us knowing because of the flaw in Apples rules.

I hope this helps.

IT WORKS! Screen time works. I just updated to IOS 13.3.1. It fixed everything. Set my daughters iPhone limits to 15 minutes and guess what happened at 15 minutes? It shut her texting off. Tried 15 minutes with instagram. It also shut off at 15 minutes. WOW! Better late than never. Hopefully it keeps working.

So I was having all the same issues. A few apps wouldn’t shut off after the 2 hours. I turned “Share Across Divices” off and now it’s working right. Hope it helps some of y’all.