Screen Time App Limits keep disappearing

Why does this screen time and app limits functionality not work? The ones I set are over-written, even tho I have block app turned on, half of the time they disappear and I have to restart the list. What is going on?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone XS, iOS 16

Posted on Nov 30, 2022 10:38 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 23, 2023 9:11 PM

100% same exact problem here! Apple, please fix this glitch! All my kids have to do is push the one more minute option, and boom, 8 hr a day on Instagram just like that. I have reset the app time limits like 20 times now and it is getting very tiresome.


This bug has made parental controls completely useless. Please fix so they work as they are supposed to!

140 replies

Oct 1, 2023 1:03 AM in response to Airfire

I have given up with this unreliable function. I need to protect my teen from being glued to TikTok and other social media so now I just use downtime and have to turn the whole phone/ipad down. Which is a massive pain when she needs to do homework because then I have to allow 4 different website requests. It’s such an unnecessary time consuming job that causes stress and headaches. I had all my hopes pinned on the app limits being fixed with this new update as it’s being going on for so long. This is so bad APPLE!

Oct 22, 2023 10:08 PM in response to Ufzc3mj8

So there was another major IO's update, plus few more minor ones. This thread is here for almost a year and apple just doesn't care AT ALL. All I can see they're doing is deleting comments here... Hey apple, deletion of complaints from your clients is not solving any issues! on a contrary it is forcing me to think about android more and more with each day! it actually really seems that android is the only possible solution for this issue. So if you care about your kids - get an android! That's what apple shows to us.

Nov 26, 2023 5:45 AM in response to NozzaTwit

NozzaTwit wrote:

I have to add my backing to this as well: APPLE! Please get this sorted!!

App limits disappear after a day or so. And of course, our kids don’t come and tell us!

And Apple have locked their iOS down so much that we can’t even rely on a good 3rd party option.

Come on!!!

I read somewhere that one workaround that kids use is to delete apps, and then re-download them from the App Store. This has the side effect of getting rid of app limits.


To keep them from doing this, use Screen Time to lock down their phones further so that they can't delete apps, or install new ones, without your approval.

Nov 29, 2023 9:10 AM in response to swissschokolade

Same issue here. It’s clearly related to the ”one more minute”-feature in my kid’s phone. Even if this feature is disabled (Block at the end of the limit), he can see this option going back and forth between apps. Then, doing that a couple of times, all the restrictions magically disappear. This has been the case for a looooong time. It's so ridiculous they haven’t fixed it and seem not even to care. It makes me wonder what other (security) issues are hidden inside these once-so-secure-and-superior devices.

Jan 6, 2024 6:03 AM in response to swissschokolade

Don’t believe Apple’s lies. There are multiple bugs so that the parental controls have never worked, and Apple has no interest in fixing them. If you try to get help, they will give you a run around of endless settings to check, reboots, updating iOS. I have tried all of it, and it never works for more than five minutes. For a company that prides itself on user friendliness, you have to wonder if this isn’t intentional just to get kids more addicted to their phones. I don’t think that Apple is lacking the talent to make parental controls work. In my experience, both Microsoft and Google parental controls is that they work much better. When it’s time to upgrade my kids’ phones, they will be androids, not iPhones.

Jan 30, 2024 1:03 PM in response to swissschokolade

I had this problem and I think I’ve possibly found the cause.


i had an older iMac with outdated OS X that could not officially be upgraded but it was in daily use and active.


first I upgraded all iPhones in the family to latest iOS but the problem persisted.


but when I found the opencore legacy patcher and was able to upgrade my older iMac - now screen time seems more stable and the app limits have not disappeared in 3 days..

Screen Time App Limits keep disappearing

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