Downtime in Watch OS 6

How to get rid of Downtime in apple watch

Apple Watch

Posted on Sep 25, 2019 12:05 PM

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Posted on Nov 17, 2019 11:59 PM

This has been driving me nuts too!


I found that the "App Limits" on my Mac was turned "on" and despite no apps being listed in the limits section, it cause my watch to behave this way. Resolved problem by turning "App Limits" off.


Hope this helps someone. Make sure you check your Mac settings as well as your phone.

28 replies

Oct 8, 2019 4:42 PM in response to Bioteach1012

I did solve my problem. I had to find workouts on the always allowed list. My screen time is being used. You might also have your iPhone set to DND for a certain time during the day/night. If that’s the case then you still need to add workout to “always allow” I found mine at the bottom of the list. But not in any semblance of order that I saw. I believe they included the Apple Watch apps on this version of watchOS.

Sep 25, 2019 12:21 PM in response to Randy-12

that doesn't work (for me at least). There are zero settings for screentime/downtime for apple watch as far as I can tell. Not on the watch, not in the watch app on the phone, and not in the settings app on the phone. I keep having this problem. Even after my downtime ends, I am still locked out of apps on my watch, and (unlike on the phone) there is no way to enter a PIN to get around it. This seems like a bug to me. I spoke to Apple Support the other day, who seemed unaware of the issue. She had me unpair/re-pair the watch. That did not do anything. She could not find anything about screen time settings on the watch. I have to force restart my watch to get downtime to turn off. I had a follow up call scheduled for last night, and I got an email saying I missed the call, even though there was no missed call on my phone....

Oct 11, 2019 9:03 AM in response to Alexroet

My phone and watch are on the latest versions. I restarted my phone and watch to see if it would fix things and even though downtime had turned off before it was then back on. I then turned on “Share across devices” and that got the fitness app to show in always allowed. However even once I enabled it there, my watch still wouldn’t allow me to use the app. Additionally when I turned on “Share across devices” all my previous downtime settings and allowed apps were cleared :( sometime around 8:30 am downtime turned off, but I’m not sure if that was due to time or the settings syncing.

Oct 11, 2019 7:11 AM in response to gnidder

I still don’t have Apple Watch apps in my downtime to always allow them. Is there anything you did to get this enabled? I also have share across devices disabled. Are others having an issue where the apps are locked even though it’s outside of your downtime range? My downtime ends at 5 am, but I was at the gym at 6:30 this morning and was locked out of the workout app until 7 am.

Mar 10, 2020 10:12 AM in response to s.tarunsai

I don't seem to be able to find a way around this. I have 3 devices in my account. An iPad, Apple watch series 2, and an iPhone 11.

I only want downtime and app limit turned on on my iPad because it's for my daughter. One day I tried to turn the "share across device" switch to on and immediately to off. That seemed to have created this problem. Now no matter what I do, the downtime on my watch is on even after i turned off downtime and app limit. The only way to turn it off is to turn off SCREEN TIME completely.

I don't understand why Apple needs to make this so complicated. I'm not even allowed to remove my daughter from my devices.

I want screen time on for all my devices but downtime and app limit on my iPad ONLY!!! Why so difficult?

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Downtime in Watch OS 6

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