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.
EVERYONE!
Go here and submit feedback. Apple doesn’t look at these comments. But if we all submit feed back stating screen time has a bug. Maybe they will look into it.
Same exact thing is happening to me for the last few weeks. Three different kids, three separate passcodes and I know it’s not them resetting it. I just reset my entire phone thinking it was hacked but it’s still doing it!
This has been happening for me as well for the past weeks. After working fine for years before that. Limits keep turning off and disappearing or resetting to default values. Also when I try to turn everything back the way it should be the settings menu constantly “crashes”. Either it keeps turning the values I change back in front of my eyes, like it’s reading a value from a server and syncing rather than uploading my new value, or it just stops working completely. As in I enter a kids screen time and try to flip the switch for “scheduled” downtime and it just gets stuck, nothing happens. I have to force quit settings and open over and over to try to get all the settings back only to have everything gone again within hours or days.
This is a HUGE oversight by Apple! I stay with the Apple ecosystem because of the ease of use and ability to monitor and restrict my child’s screen time! Samsung and Google have similar features that are free and I might just have to explore all my options at this point. The new Samsung will be out soon, might have to make a big switch. Protect our children, do what’s right apple. There’s a lot of ****** off Parents in the comments.
I don't think it has to do with the new phones. Maybe the server/service. Our main issue is with an iPhone 7 that has worked perfectly for 2 years - until now. All updated and everything, but screentime is completely unstable.
This is not helpful. A LOT of people are having the same issues with parental control screen time disabling on it's own. I also have experienced it happening even right after I turned it back on. There is a bug in iOS 16 and apple needs to address this! Being fully integrated in the apple ecosystem for my family and having control of my kids devices right from my iPhone is critical. It worked great in iOS 15, FIX IT!
I have even had to delete some apps on their devices and they were able to redownload them afterwards even though I have the app store blocked. This is an apple issue, not the users.
Came to add to the bunch.
it’s happened twice now, set downtime on my sons phone and two days later it’s all turned off. Was starting to think he figured out some trick but then also noticed that my usage wasn’t showing up/turning off. Safe to say reading all these comments, it’s Apple.
Its really really annoying and frustrating. I was following this thread to have an update or solution but nothing so far. I dont know how Apple can sleep over it. I too have iPhone 14 Pro Max and recently changed my kid’s iPad from iPad Air to iPad Mini and everyday screentime gets reset. I’ve been using screentime to control my kid’s device since years and it always worked. Its definitely not the issue with iPhone 14 but with iOS/iPadOS 16. I am using Macbook and iPad as well with the same apple id and can see the screentime gets reset even there.
I contacted apple support and with screensharing i showed the exact problem and showed them this thread as well. Hoping to have the fix ASAP.
This has been a problem for many many months - I now have an 14 pro and updated software to 16.3.1 and it is happening constantly. This is very dangerous and give parents a false sense of security that their children are protected and/or limited. One of the main reasons we bought iPads & iPhone for our kids was the ease of being able to set screen-time and other protections. Apple is failing all of us. This is a big problem that Apple needs to fix immediately.
The same has been happening to me, I thought she was hacking my code that I would change it like every other week. I did upgrade to the 14 pro in November but this was happening before I changed out from my iPhone 11. It has to be the software update that allowed this glitch. I do hope they fix it soon because it worked really well for the last few years
The culprit is iOS 16 and after. I try to avoid upgrading precisely to avoid these bugs. Everything was fine until 1 apple device in the family upgraded to 16. I accused the kid of hacking the thing as it wouldn’t even accept my passcode. Turns out it was just Apple fanning the flames of my ongoing battle with my teen.
As every good apple tech support will advise, upgrade all to the latest. Did that, now I have to set and reset all the screen time settings nightly, and once a week I have to steal devices in the middle of the night as system resets the passcode and won’t allow the organizer control remotely without having to set up the passcode on each individually. What a nightmare.
[Edited by Moderator]
A huge loop hole or bug. Changed my apple ID password and screen time passcode. Last night watched on my phone as after I block phone child is able to turn off any and all of screen time schedule settings and all content restrictions. I do not know how he does this but suspect he could be logging out then into his account. He does it quickly so not a phone rebuild. APPLE THIS IS A MASSIVE GAP IN YOUR CHILD PROTECTION. If I need to force an ios upgrade then give me that feature. And yes I will be having words with him today.
@Jerehada, it’s not your kid. ScreenTime just resets on its own. I suspected it was one of mine for a long time, but he forgot his iPad at his grandparents house (and all other devices were in my room overnight) and the settings were reset before we were able to pick up his iPad the next day. This is a huge Apple problem that they refuse to acknowledge or correct.
Guess what. Apple apparently has decided to reset screen time EVERY SINGLE DAY AT MIDNIGHT. It just finally showed up as a comment when you turn on app limits at the top of the screen. I’m beyond angry as no one has told costumers, Apple Support has no freaking clue this is a new “feature” and the entire reason for parental control on devices is for the parents to choose, NOT APPLE. I shouldn’t have to update my kids permissions, every single day!!!!!! Not happy at all.
I went in here looking for answers and all I've found are more questions from frustrated parents that are finding exactly the same issue I have. I've been having this issue over 6 months, when my kids changed their Samsung phones to iPhone. It seems like Apple is simply not listening, so here is my suggestion: switch to Android. I have an iPhone for work and a Samsung (Android) for personal use and I can tell you that Android's parental control work perfectly. I never had any issues like this. Ever since my kids moved to iPhone, the screen time "controls" have been useless. It resets almost daily and it is super annoying to set it up all over again. Some times it resets within seconds of setting it all up! And I've tried several things:
But nothing works.
Screen time keeps turning off
