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.
Same here! The biggest issue is that it no longer restricts safari! My 9 year old was able to get to a video chat website she’d heard about on YouTube and within minutes a grown man exposed himself to her!!! Really pi***d off mom here. All devices have been taken away until this is fixed. How can apple just be sitting on this?!?!
Same for us and it’s quite annoying. I don’t want to use a third party app. Because the last third party app completely hosed my daughters phone and we had to use insurance to get a new one. Cmon apple!
Struggle with this since iPhone 14 pro. Not sure why it takes so long to fix. Are there no Apple employees with kids using it? Don’t understand why is it working for some and doesn’t for other. My brother have 4 devices running new iOS 16 but all are pre 14 generation and have no issues ?
so tired of this now and resetting daily 🤦🏻♂️🤬
I have the exact same problem after upgrading to iPhone 12 Pro 5 months ago. Been in contact with Apple support on several occasions but they just keep telling me to upgrade mine and the kids (3) devices, turning off/on phone, screen time, swapping code for screen time. I have done that and the problem is still there. Why can’t they just fix the problem!? I just don’t want my kids to watch adult content and they really need to have their phones with them to school, practise, to friends etc.
Glad this isn’t just me, but really sad there are so many with this but Apple don’t seem to be prioritising it. Screentime worked fine for years, I think the problem started around iOS 16, but I didn’t notice straight away. I recently got an iPhone 14 Pro, but it definitely happened before this because I was hoping the new phone would fix it. I have three kids and one or more of their Screentime (or parts of it) will turn off randomly. It can stay on a minute, hour, week or even fortnight, but that’s pretty much as long as you can get. I’ve watched it turn off or reset features in front of my eyes. It is next to useless now. I have a reminder to check each one every few days, but it is such a pain!
Same issues! Almost daily or several times a day the phones screen time settings get reset. Also super glitchy when trying to reset things back; they will toggle back after I enable them or disable them. Really frustrating!
I think I’ve tried every solution mentioned and work around. I’m still struggling. And if it doesn’t just randomly turn off - she is able to power the phone off she’s figured out and it’ll just reset that way and the parental controls most of the time won’t be on once the phone powers back on. Then she can just have free range.
In my case my daughter is special needs and just smart enough to get herself in trouble so the whole reason I use apple products has been for the control it has been giving me. But now I’m just frustrated and exhausted dealing with this for months.
I will try turning off share across devices - however I only have it on 2 devices. My daughters iPhone and iPad. So - I’m not sure if that will be the work around for me. I have tried every other suggested - I may as well give this one a go too.
I would just love a permanent fix - like everyone else. Since like I said - she seems to be able to turn the phone/iPad off sometimes and trigger a reset and all the settings go away. 🤦🏻♀️
None of the suggestions for fixes works for me. Apple really needs to sort this. I got Apple devices for this feature and it’s driving me nuts as my kids need their screen time blocked at certain times 😡
Yes it looks like it is a hit or miss. I have two devices and it seems that screen time is working properly on one device but not on the other one. I tried to compare but haven’t found the difference. Very frustrating. I switched to iOS thinking they were more reliable and stable.
I keep trying to keep on top of screen time turning off, now I find it includes the sites I don’t want my 14 year old to visit. Turns out that when screen time turns itself off he has been watching videos of adults engaging in adult activities . The word is not even allowed to be typed here so why is apple not doing anything to protect our children. if it’s that dirty of a word shouldn’t they be paying attention to this?
[Edited by Moderator]
That’s exactly what happened to me. My daughter is 22 with special needs and hers turned off and she was at her day program and apparently they had a good time “googling” things inappropriate. I purposely had internet app removed via parental controls and those things blocked but as I’ve said 100 times - it either kicks off or she’s figured out you can turn it off or reset it and bypass parental controls since this glitch. UGHHHH.
Mine was working for a few days and now it’s all messed up again. I didn’t change anything. My son is diabetic and uses his phone as a medical device. And this screen time issue makes it difficult and or non functional as a diabetic management device. So not only are our children undergoing possible psychological damage but possibly physical damage as well. Apple, do you not care?
@tomfromsewickley - great idea! Everyone, be sure to paste the URL to this thread in your submission. I described the issue and told them to come here to see the multitude of people having the same issues.
Hopefully they do something. If enough of us do it they may consider if they want to put any time into possibly thinking about solving the problem
It’s ridiculous. Keep turning off “limit adult websites”. WTH!
Screen time keeps turning off
