Screen time communication limits and downtime contacts

I tried everything else, and this worked! All of the options in iCloud were off. Toggling iMessage and texting in helped. Thank you!

In order to make it work properly you must have family sharing set up and go into the screen time setting from your personal (parent) device click screen time -> scroll to family and then click on the desired child’s name and edit everything from your (parent) device.

I ended up saying screw it. I upgraded and gave her my old phone. Now it works fine. A factory reset and her logging in pre much worked, I guess.

upside; I got a new phone.

Her phone/downtime now works.

downside; I wasn’t ready for an upgrade so I spent more money Than I should have. I wouldn’t of had too if apple just fixed this, been over 2 months since it stopped working.

i finally figured out that I can make calls to my daughter using FaceTime audio or video but not regular phone or text during downtime. Apple has definitely screwed up the Screen time app but give that a try as a temporary workaround.

The downtime-identified contacts is not working in my set up as well. In addition, even when I designate the same contacts (parent names) as emergency contacts, the text, phone and face time feature still doesn't let my child to call out to these designates in downtime or after screen time has expired before the downtime period ends. These issues are both serious bugs and should be addressed with highest priority.

Make sure “Messages” are turned on in “always allowed” then when screen time kicks in- you can still get into messages but only text those that are designated after screen time kicks in.

You can actually turn off downtime in Settings -> Screen Time.

New to screen time and this is very frustrating. I am an allowed contact and neither after downtime or after her daily time limit she cannot text me and I cannot text her. Very frustrating. An allowed contact should be allowed for phone and text all the time.

I’m having this issue as well. Contacts will not sync to my son’s iPhone when I add them. In addition, despite his mother and I being listed as approved contacts during Downtime, it will not allow him to call us. Last night he attempted to call for a ride home from a friend’s house, but couldn’t.

Not only could this bug have ended up causing a very serious incident (he was safe, and we coincidentally came for him at about the same time he called), but it defeats the purpose of having the feature or a phone at all if you can use it this way. I agree with the others, this fix deserves very high priority.

You are late to the party my friend. Many people in this chat did go through their own devices including myself and still had issues. Surely if there are 3 pages of conversation your simple suggestion would have come up by now. This is an Apple software problem and it’s related to how the contacts are connected through different devices and iCloud and different Apple IDs. Apple has not mastered this yet.

This did not fix the issue with my child’s phone. Anyone else get it to work?

The screen time for my girl, is right on her phone, so I did that.

Still not working!

Thinking about taking it to the carrier after work and maybe they can help me.

In frustrated trying to make it work, I give up.

Adding the contacts directly on her phone helped but didn’t solve. Group texts with family members who are also on her allowed list still don’t come through. I’m glad she can get and send to her Dad and I. That is essential for emergency purposes if nothing else. But the feature needs to work. It is powerful and good IF it works. Apple DEFINITELY needs to FIX this!

This is driving me crazy. I have tried everything for months. My daughter is traveling alone and can not contact me unless I remove all restrictions. I have checked everything at least 20 times. I have deleted my contact from her phone and re added it. Help!

I’m also having this issue! With it not even letting me ask for more time in my messages. I've set up time limits for myself bc I want time away from other ppl and such, but I still want to be able to contact family members and my partner. It's so frustrating. Having them in my allowed contacts worked for a while, but it's started blocking ALL my contacts the past few weeks and it's driving me nuts. If you're going to block ALL my contacts, at least give me the same feature to request more time??? Plus Messages etc are on my always allowed list. Baffles my mind. What the heck. I'm glad I'm not alone in these problems