We have been using screen time successfully for several years to manage our kids devices. Recently, I upgraded to the iPhone 14 pro and now all their screen time settings keep resetting and turn off almost daily. Downtime, content restrictions and time limits - all off. 4 kids - two iPhones and two iPads. Each has a different screen time passcode that were all reset. Software has been updated on each device. Still keeps happening. Please advise!
iPhone 14 Pro
This has been driving me crazy since I purchased an iPhone 14 Pro. Earlier today, I did some testing and am wondering if this is what the rest of you are seeing.
TLDR: In my case, Screen Time on the Child iPhone is never off, it just shows a default position of off (on the Parent phone) while the Child phones are syncing with iCloud. If I start making changes (on the Parent phone) before the sync is complete, it causes a ton of problems and everything gets out of sync for hours or days.
Longer version....
3 devices, all running 16.4.
Scenario 1: About 50% of the time on the Parent iPhone, I open Screen Time and select one of the Child accounts. The 'Daily Average' chart is trying to load (ie, no chart is not visible and the 'updated' section is spinning)
Scenario 2: About 50% of the time. On the Parent iPhone, I open Screen Time and select one of the Child accounts. The 'Daily Average' chart is already loaded and visible. The 'updated' section may be spinning, but you can see the bar chart.
Under Scenario 1, if I go into Downtime, Content & Privacy, etc. (on the Parent iPhone) it will show Screen Time settings are OFF. However, if I pick up the same Child's iPhone in my hand and open up Screen Time directly on the child iPhone, the Screen Time show ON. Under this scenario, in the past I was getting anxious and would panic and start turning Screen Time settings back ON via the parent iPhone. However, if I did this, before 'Daily Activity' had fully loaded, it seems as if iCloud gets really confused and the settings get out of sync - sometimes they stay on, other times they stay off. Then later in the night, the settings may flip again (assuming they try to sync with iCloud again) and turn on/off - its a huge mess.
Under Scenario 2, the Parent iPhone will show the Screen Time settings are ON and Child iPhone shows the settings are On.
In the end, I was the source of my own problem as I nervously kept turning things back on when I would see them as off on my phone. If I had been more patient and either checked the Child phone or waited for the sync to complete, it would have shown the settings are still in place and everything is as I want it to be. Once I started waiting for the chart to load before changing things, I never had the issue happen again - it took about 48 hours for everything to sync and 'settle'.
Apple needs to fix this as it never used to be a problem. Parents shouldn't have to blindly trust that the Child phone is secure, the Parent phone should always indicate the right status of the Child's phone.
Maybe I'm the only one with this specific scenario, just wanted to share.
Side note... over the past few months I have been getting a somewhat regular notification on my iPhone in Settings right under my name at the top to re-enter my passcode for some kind of sync to iCloud. Ever since I stopped messing with the Screen Time settings pre-sync, iCloud has stopped asking for this. I'm wondering if this was coincidental or a symptom of iCloud just being super confused by what settings were the correct ones.
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Apple needs to correct this issue. I recently upgraded to a 14 Pro Max and my child’s screen time resets daily, turning off all previous settings that need a passcode to change. There’s a glitch when the downtime starts that allows him to use “one more minute”, which turns off all previous downtime settings. Hopefully, they will see these concerns from parents and fix it on an update.
Since i upgraded to the 14 Pro I have has the same issues! The app limits I have set for my children as well as the downtime continually reset. Some days I have to re enter it 20 times, other days maybe only once or twice but either way I only started with this problem when I upgraded to a new phone. I have called Apple Support and they said they had other calls similar yet they didn’t have a fix. This is so frustrating!
I’m having the same issue. iPhone 14 ProMax for me (didn’t know that could potentially be an issue), 4 kids with iPads and iPhones. ScreenTime is resetting CONSTANTLY. Sometimes it will actively reset WHILE I’m setting it up again. As in, I’ll turn off in-app purchases and watch it switch back on right before my eyes. This is incredibly frustrating. One of my kids will absolutely immediately start using all apps he knows he’s not allowed to use, will go to websites he knows are not allowed, and will stay up all night long on his iPad. We also use the iPads for homeschooling for 2 of the 4 kids. We have 2 Macs, a MacBook, 4 active iPhones and a drawer full of old ones, 4 apple watches, along with 8 iPads. I am so frustrated by ScreenTime resetting that we are considering trading in all apple devices and switching to Android devices and Windows machines.
So far I have tried:
-turning off and on all iPads.
-making sure all are devices are up to date.
-signing all devices out of iCloud and signing back in.
-turning off ScreenTime on all devices and turning it back on.
-changing ScreenTime passcodes.
-turning off the time limit so “one more minute” isn’t an option.
I have no idea what else to do to fix the problem. Not interested in calling Apple Support because the last time I did that, the Rep broke my new Mac and it resulted in lost access to my “User” along with all of my files and half of the storage space all because updating to a new iOS got hung up during install. Still angry and still using half of the Mac because I’d had it less than a year and spent way too much money on customizing it to my desired specs.
Anyone been successful in getting ScreenTime to “stick”?
I think it’s screen time itself not so much the limits portion. I noticed it some months ago with 16.0. I don’t have use for limits, I was checking my monthly usage of an app for a post … nothing there. Then I noticed on my devices that the widget would just go blank sporadically and when I checked in settings, all the info was gone. A hard reset of the device kind of fixed it but it started from zero as if I had just bought the device. And next, sporadically going *poof* again.
I agree. There is no way to currently fix this problem, other than a software update by Apple. I have done all of the recommended things to correct the problem, but every single night I have to reset all of the screen time settings. As soon as my child hits one more minute, it removes the screen time controls, the app limits and the content & privacy restrictions. Apple needs to get it together. They are offering a service that is essentially useless.
In my case, maybe upgrading to 16.4.1 does correct the screen time default but I can’t know for certain as kid is able to manually reset not only screen time but also all restrictions simply by clicking Turn Off Screen Time Family Sharing at the bottom. She was honest enough to show me this workaround which allows her to wipe out schedule along with any passcode each and every time. What more, every time she resets this screen time, it also allows full access to any account changes previously restricted: main lock code, location sharing, install permissions and purchases, age limit, etc.
It’s a stupid game now as she allows me to set up the screen time and content restrictions again, but turns it off to reset it when she wants to extend her usage. This really needs a fix ASAP as there may come a time when she decides to change the passcode and lock me out completely.
I've been having issues since September last year as reported earlier. However all has been fixed with ios 16.4.
Not a single reset since installing 16.4, not a day without restrictions, all is saved and correct as supposed to and as it used to be.
Not sure why people still have issues?
Its all fixed for us now.
Check my post above - it is working for me now after following those steps:
Since 16.4.1 was released I have managed to get it to not reset every day.. To achieve this:
seems to be working okay for a couple of days..
One thing that seemed to help us and stabilize things for a week was we had a VPN that was running from another app (an app that is meant to turn off specific apps when needed called Freedom) when we deleted that app and turned off the VPN, screen time seemed to stay connected. This was a suggestion from Apple but that didn't last long. It's back to shutting off randomly. I do think it could be correlated to the downtime part of this. I've been trying to see if there's a pattern as to when it shuts off but every time I think I see one, it goes away. This is a major issue, Apple and needs to be addressed immediately!
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That’s what it’s supposed to mean, but we’ve been testing the glitch for months, and it happens ever singly day. I take the phone at night and lock it up. Sure enough, by morning, the screen time is reset. So maybe Apple isn’t intending to do this, but this has been going on since iOS 16 dropped at least and there’s no fix or known reason, but if the clock resets the limits at midnight, guess what else it can reset. Apple is 100% ignoring parents. There literal answers are, your kid must know the passcode even if it resets when no one has had the device. We have to set app limits 2-3 times a day prior to the this most recent update, as of now, it’s once a day, and it’s always happening overnight. Now, this release is barely out, so it could just be coincidence, but I suspect they’re fully aware the glitch is in there time clock resets of “daily” limits and just ignoring fixing it
I found that if you turn screen time off, it sort of clears cache so the load next time is quicker. 16.5 on all our devices and like every 24 hours at least, it removes any apps limits I setup and/or downtime schedules. So annoying! I’m trying the “sign out of iTunes” trick mentioned by others to see if it works.
I have an iPhone 11 and this also happens. Just started a few weeks ago. It’s a software issue, and must be due to an update. I set up the screen time for my son on my son’s phone, on my phone from my family settings, changed the passcode, etc. Sometimes it works for a few days, sometimes only a day. It is a pain to have to set this up over and over because I set custom times for each day, depending on if it’s a school day or a weekend.
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Screen time keeps turning off
