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.
So many of us have the same issue, and there is not any resolution in this thread. Calling Apple support doesn't work. They just go through all the steps to troubleshoot but the same problem happens. There are so many of us so many! Why???
this makes everything so much harder. The whole point of having an iPad is that you can control the kids usage. And this totally throws it off.
Same problem as everyone else. Screen time and content and safety restrictions turn off automatically at different time. Like others, I have to re-set them several times a day on 2 iphones. Updated to latest software, powered phones on and off, Called Apple Support twice - didn't fix the problem. Also, hoping for a fix soon
Tried getting Apple to help me resolve it the other day, was pointless, they seemed not to believe that I was even having this issue. One of the kids phones was on a slightly older OS (16.2?) so they said that’d be the issue (which is obviously not the issue and would be ridiculous even if it was) so I reluctantly agreed to go off and do the update. No difference obviously. I’ve done my twice-weekly re-putting in of the settings and watching one of the devices turn it all off in front of me. I despair! But at least this forum brings me reassurance that I’m not mad!
Also having this issue, been working fine for years & all of a sudden it starts turning off screen time settings.
Im on a 14 Pro Max, kids have 13 Pro. Infuriating as one child does everything he can to try and bypass restrictions, this gives him a free pass!! and I also have to keep remembering what the app limits were as it resets all those
Been having trouble with ScreenTime resetting and my special needs 13 year old looking at things he shouldn’t. Last night he snuck his iPad out of my room when he was getting ready for bed and spent 5 hours in the night on YouTube and safari. So today I wiped his iPad and I reset it as a new iPad. I made a new Apple ID and did not connect it to family sharing. Worked for a whole 5 minutes before resetting. So we have tried all of the previous suggestions and now have resorted to wiping and starting an iPad fresh. ScreenTime is still not working as it is supposed to. This is infuriating. I have “reported” this to apple several times.
Screen time is sinking to an all time low now, it’s failing to block adult websites even though Limit adult websites is ticked in Web Content & there’s a huge list of blocked sites. Was working, now it’s just decided to stop.
Also keeps turning off app limits
16.4 definitely hasn’t fixed the issue here, all of our devices have been updated. Been a few days where it’s ok then tonight 1 device looks like it’s lost sync with the settings. Checked my phone and everything was still turned on, the phone was in downtime but some things were unlocked - ability to change account settings, App Store, etc
Almost like it had partially synced with the settings but stopped
I am having this same issue on all of my three kids. At first I thought they had found a loop whole and was turning it off. But I had one of my kids phone and it happened all on it’s own. This is becoming so annoying. Has apple done anything to address this issue?
I don't know if apple has done anything, but screen does not work as it should. It turns off on different levels (downtime, app limits, always alloved,...). And than is that one minute, which should be disabled on my opinion.
I hope it will be solved soon.
This issue is so infuriating. Not only am I spending a stupid amount of time resetting all of the restrictions every few days, most importantly the majority of the time it won’t let me set any restrictions at all. Who has the time and patience for this? Why is this not resolved already? Why do you advertise a feature that works like garbage? Seriously, do better
has anyone had this issue sorted? It’s driving me crazy, my son is split between my house and his dads and ST is turning off daily and resetting completely so he has access to everything also. Any help or guidance appreciated. Recently upgraded to 14 Pro and no issues prior to that
Even before the screen time reset issues, I would give permission on my watch and it would not go through to the phone. Now that seems to be the least of my problems when screen time is resetting daily, sometimes every few hours on my daughter’s phone.
I ended up signing up for T-Mobile’s FamilyMode to restrict everything on that end when Apple’s screen time fails. But now that’s an additional cost when previously I could depend on Apple.
I am so glad I googled this!! I thought it was just me but seeing that it has remained a problem for at least 6 months (judging from the date of the first post) makes me less optimistic that it will be resolved. One thing that is happening to me is that I set screen time limits on myself as a test and mine didn’t reset every day but my kids’ did. I tried setting it from their devices and they still reset every day. Now a new glitch is that my self-set screen time won’t accept my passcode *face palm* WTF??
THIS!!! This is what my special needs kiddo has been doing for months. She does this exact step and it wipes it all out like ldluna said. So she can reset everything and has access to it all and resets all the codes then she can reset the entire phone and it took me forever to figure out how to get the Family Sharing figured back out. Because I locked it all back up but didn’t have sharing on so it didn’t matter. I had to unlock it all and google to see how to fix what she had undone. What a nightmare it’s been. Months and months of this. It’s made the iPad useless and her phone is now only for her day program emergencies abs it goes right back to me. So I pay for services she/I can’t even use so I can keep her safe. Really considering Android for her now since she’s due for a phone “upgrade” which I wouldn’t even have to do if Parental Controls just did it’s job! Ughhhhhhh
There is no charge for using parental controls or screen time restrictions.
Screen time keeps turning off
