Reset forgotten screentime passcode on macOS

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Level 1

4 points

Reset forgotten screentime passcode on macOS

Ahhh..... *** my life as this is the third time I turned on screen time on my apple device after messing up my iphone and ipad earlier.

I forgot my screen time passcode an year ago and was locked out of my iPhone. I factory reset it but enabling screen time again would fetch the password from iCloud. The same happened with my iPad and had to factory reset it.

Now it's with my MacBook Pro!!! I'm in middle of college project and can't risk losing data.

Is there anyway to reset it and erase it from iCloud? I totally hate this feature. Just turned it on and it immediately synced with iCloud and turned on the lock!

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Mar 23, 2020 4:26 AM

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Answer 1

sanadell Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 24, 2020 1:30 PM in response to sanadell

Possibly I'm the luckiest person today. Was able to guess the forgotten password and hence was able to reset it.

For anyone else looking at this post

You can sign out of iCloud and sign back in, to disable "Share Across Devices" feature in Screen Time. This way the Screen Time password is turned off. Do not turn on "Share Across Devices" even after setting the new password again since it will replace it with password from iCloud. Possibly live with it your whole life.
I don't prefer reinstalling the OS, creating new admin accounts,... but these may work as Soren said. Instead, the above method is much easier and safe.

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Answer 2

Mar 23, 2020 3:06 PM in response to sanadell

Hi sanadell,

It looks like you might be able to use your Apple ID to recover your passcode to Screen Time assuming you entered your Apple ID when you created the passcode.

One thing you can try is to reinstall MacOS. This will not touch your files but I recommend that you have a backup just in case.

Hold down option command r at startup until you see the spinning globe and let go. From the MacOS Utilities window, select Reinstall MacOS.

I hope this helps.

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Answer 3

Mar 23, 2020 4:20 PM in response to Soren Pearson

Hi again,

I decided to reach out to Apple to double check and they said that one would have to completely erase the computer and set it up as new. If you try to do a backup or try to reinstall the operating system, it might not remove the passcode to Screen Time.

If you don't do anything and leave it as it what would happen? I have it enabled on my Mac but never check it and it hasn't bothered me. I didn't set a passcode though.

I hope this helps.

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Answer 4

sanadell Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 23, 2020 10:30 PM in response to Soren Pearson

The feature has App Limits turned on so at some point when I exceed the time might lock me out of the apps. I don't know which apps it will lock me out of for now but at some time it does.

My system has several applications installed and environments setup like conda, homebrew based apps, zsh,... I don't want to lose these with an OS reinstall for now.

I came across this article(https://appletoolbox.com/reset-the-screen-time-passcode-on-ios-12/) with says that the feature to reset screen time passcode using Apple ID is on its way in 10.15.4 (currently in beta). Can someone confirm this? I can wait till this comes out or step into developer beta when need arises to reset the passcode. Also, when will 10.15.4 be out?

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Answer 5

Mar 24, 2020 2:13 PM in response to sanadell

Hi sanadell,

I'm glad you were able to resolve it and that you rememebred your passcode.

Also, thanks for providing the steps for anyone else who has this issue in the future.

Don't hesitate to write back if you have other questions.

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Answer 6

Mar 24, 2020 8:16 AM in response to sanadell

I see now about app limits being turned on.

Thanks for sharing the article. Have you tried signing out and back in to your iCloud account and see if that helps?

I also read that if you create a new admin user account, a second one from the account you have now that you can start with Screen Time disabled.

You'll go though the set up and click set up later when the option to enable screen time appears. Login with your iCloud account and it should be gone.

Apple Menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups and click the plus button to add a new admin user. You might have to enter your admin password to gain access.

If this works for you, see article on transferring files to the new account.

Regarding 10.15.4, I haven't been able to find anything about a reset passcode feature for Screen Time. I did find the developer page with release notes but it doesn't say much about screen time. I hope the do add this feature. I'm not sure when it will released to the general public. I believe it went into beta 6 was released on March 18.

I hope this helps.

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Reset forgotten screentime passcode on macOS

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