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.
Having to reset this daily. It is a joke, please correct ASAP. Ultimately if these controls and limits I’m not guaranteed how far does this but reach? Could it even be an issue in terms of content restriction and safeguarding?
Has anyone found a fix for this yet? Extremely frustrating, mine started with upgrade to the 14, as well. I’m trying to manage my kids Screentime and there’s clearly a glitch. Every single day the settings I just took the time to setup the previous day are cleared and Screentime is turned off. Apple, please address!
Dear Apple;
Please allow me to not allow my teenage daughter to use Snapchat and to not be able to turn off Parental controls. It is effecting her socially and academically as well as not supporting her mental health.
We are strongly considering a Bark phone due to your lack of motivation to correct this issue.
1) Tell your daughter you will check her phone regularly and at regular intervals for Snapchat and if you ever find it installed she will never get it back.
2) Better yet, take away her phone and never give it back anyway. If she wants a cell phone she can buy her own and pay for her own plan with the money she gets from working a job.
No job? No phone.
Thanks. These are certainly options that have been attempted.
If the software worked as it is promoted to then we would not need to explore these options.
Frontal love development does not complete until 25 years old and that’s on average.
A Bark phone may be our only option as they seem to be the only product worried about getting this right.
I’m having the same issue. Once in a while out of no where the downtime schedule is just shut off when I didn’t do anything. I have to reset again and hope it takes. iPhone 14. I tried just now setting it up on my iPad 10 instead hoping if it’s an iPhone 14 issue, I got around it?!
I updated both phones, had apple team call me for support and so I could explain what is happening (I live in Colombia so it’s not easy getting real live support) and at least this week I have not had to turn on my daughters screen time. Crossing my fingers it keeps.
As of today, our screen time still turns off randomly. Both our ipad and iphones are fully updated to 16.5 which was supposed to have a fix for this issue. Has anyone come across an issue where within apps, if you do a search correctly, you can find a back door into safari? My wife has told me that's an issue as well. I wonder if that's because the only way you can get an answer to something is using safari (since in theory it's the only access to the web)...As others stated, this is a big issue for us as we homeschool and we need these tools to work correctly or it's a major issue for us.
Another IPhone user chiming in, I (the parent) have an IPhone 13 Pro max, on iOS 16.5. I have two children using IPhones one using IPhone 8 Plus which uses the latest iOS and works perfectly fine with screen time, never had any issues with this one. However my daughters mobile which is an IPhone 6s which just recently had an update to 15.7.6 which I hoped would fix the screen time reset issue but it did not. The IPhone 6s resets the screen time setting that were set up at random intervals, and have been onto Apple support since April about this issue. I will update when I have any further information, as I am disappointed that Apple has such bugs in their system especially when it comes to protecting our children with parental controls.
This is happening to me too, and as my son is very vulnerable, we restrict his camera and internet access. This issue is making it very difficult to control his usage and when he can be violent, it’s a major issue as for 6 years his screens have been controlled by apple.
It’s so bad, Iv forgotten some days to reset it and then Iv noticed she’s been on her phone for so long😡
they need to sort it out asap I just want to take her phone off her as I have no control when it resets.
man’s if I go to bed before 12am she can potentially be on her phone all night. And I wouldn’t have no parent control on her phone 😡
7 months of complaints from frustrated parents .. parents trying to diligently protect their kids and Apple continues to offer zero help.
very disappointing. I’m just here to find answers too.. looks like I’ll just put my name on the list :(
Screen time not working.
iv always had a limited time for my daughter on her phone.
now this is a problem as it resets everyday at 12am
if I forget to set it all up again she has unlimited use.
NOT ONLY this but when her screen time block comes on all she has to do is ask for one more minute and it just comes off. I don’t get any notifications or text asking my permission for more screen time.
what is napping??????
Nothing works for long. I’m sick of resetting my phone bc it resets all of my settings. Screen Time controls are very important to me and many other parents. I only purchased iPhones for them based on these settings. My husband is insisting we switch to Samsung bc they’re not having these issues and Apple keeps acting like it’s user error rather than their error. Idk what happened to make this keep on but it’s very ridiculous to not address that it’s even an issue they’re willing to fix.
After experiencing this myself and reading this thread, there’s only one conclusion.
Apple doesn’t care. It’s (literally) the largest company in the world and they make 8 of the top 10 selling smartphones in the US. They employ an army of engineers, programmers and user experience experts. And they are clearly aware of this issue.
If they wanted to solve this, they would. (Clearly they don’t consider it a “problem.”)
Makes you wonder why they don’t.
(Rhetorical question. They want our kids addicted to their devices.)
Screen time keeps turning off
