Don't share Screen Time limits across devices?

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Level 1

43 points

Don't share Screen Time limits across devices?

I use OurPact on my daughter's iPhone to limit overall screen time and disable most apps at bedtime. This is a well-established system that we've been using for a few years.

Now I want to set her up with a Mac or online school, and I want to give it different limits -- blocking social media websites at all times, but extending the bedtime and overall time limit. Screen Time should handle this perfectly with its App Limits and Downtime settings. However, whatever limits I apply to the Mac automatically apply to her iPhone, too, creating conflicts between the separate purposes of each device. I turned off the Share Across Devices setting on both devices, but that seems to only affect the usage reports, not the limits.

Am I missing something here, or is this simply not a setup that Apple supports?

For workarounds, it might be enough to log out of iCloud on the Mac, but I might have to set up a separate Apple ID for each device. Either option would eliminate the ability to share notes and contacts, among other things, across the devices. Another option would be to downgrade to a pre-Catalina macOS version, which has parental controls that are not tied to iCloud accounts. Or I could research third-party parental controls apps.

MacBook Air

Posted on Aug 24, 2020 12:46 PM

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Answer 1

Arlo Leach1 Author

Level 1

43 points

Aug 28, 2020 11:02 AM in response to jdo_apple

Thanks. I did restart both devices last night, but that didn't make a difference. I do see the Downtime and App Limits settings visibly syncing across devices. I also noticed the hint text on these pages: "Downtime / App limits apply to all devices that are using iCloud for screen time. A notification will appear five minutes before the limit expires." So this is clearly the intended behavior, but it's a shame there's no way to change it to manage each device separately.

The "using iCloud for screen time" part suggests that there's a way to not use iCloud for Screen Time, but I couldn't find it. Screen Time is not one of the options on the iCloud settings page. Perhaps since I'm using the family setup to manage Screen Time settings for a kid, it necessarily syncs over iCloud. Or maybe this is a case where Apple's language suggests there is an alternative, when there really isn't.

I had the idea of simply logging out of iCloud on the Mac, but the Sign Out button on the Apple ID settings page is disabled. Maybe that's because my daughter's user account on the Mac is not an administrator account? But I don't know why that should be related, or why someone should be prohibited from logging out.

On a side note, I found that the time limits from the pre-Catalina parental controls were still running on this Mac after I updated it to Catalina, and then there was no place in the interface to turn them off. I had to search the ~/Library folder for "parental" to find the pre-Catalina settings file and remove it. I should see if those files are plain text, in which case I could potentially keep using the pre-Catalina parental controls and ignore the Screen Time controls.

Otherwise a third-party product like Intego ContentBarrier is looking like the best option.

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Answer 2

i_rina

Community Specialist

Aug 30, 2020 6:11 AM in response to Arlo Leach1

Arlo Leach1,

Thanks for those additional details.

To look into this Screen Time limit issue further, reach out here: Get Support

Take care!

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Answer 3

jdo_apple

Community Specialist

Aug 25, 2020 9:38 AM in response to Arlo Leach1

Hi there Arlo Leach1,

We understand you're experiencing an issue with your App Limits and Downtime settings syncing between devices, and we'd like to see if we can assist.

Since disabling Share Across Devices, have you restarted both devices?

Also, do you see the settings and changes made on the iPhone syncing to the Mac?

Thanks!

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Don't share Screen Time limits across devices?

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