iPhone Screen time keeps auto resetting

Updating to the latest iOS 18 or macOS Sequoia does not fix this. I reached out to Apple Support on this, and they asked me to rename both parent (2) and child (2) device names and leave them renamed for 24 hrs, then rename them back. I told them that they are talking about over a dozen devices - it's time consuming, and it would break router rules and device pairs. So I asked them to escalate it for real fix than a hack, they told me that they cannot proceed without me trying this. This is like being a test engineer at Apple! Thanks Apple!

This is not helpful as it is a big issue in iOS 16. A search of “parental controls” yields many parents encountering the same issue.

Hello migueldeicaza,

This page can help out with providing a good deal of information and steps pertaining to the Screen Time feature: Use Screen Time on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

This page will help out with providing info and steps with regards to using parental controls: Use parental controls on your child's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

You can allow changes to other settings and features, the same way you can allow changes to privacy settings.

1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.

2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.

3. Under Allow Changes, select the features or settings that you want to allow changes to and choose Allow or Don't Allow. 

Here are some features and settings that you can allow changes for:

•Passcode Changes: Prevent changes to your passcode

•Account Changes: Prevent account changes in Accounts & Passwords

•Cellular Data Changes: Prevent changes to cellular data settings

•Reduce Loud Sounds: Prevent changes to volume settings for safe listening 

•Driving Focus: Prevent changes to the Driving Focus

•TV Provider: Prevent changes to TV provider settings

•Background App Activities: Prevent changes to whether or not apps run in the background

•If you're the parent or guardian of your device and want to prevent another family member from changing your settings, tap Use Screen Time Passcode to create a passcode, then re-enter the passcode to confirm. After you confirm your passcode you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. This can be used to reset your Screen Time passcode if you forget it. 

•If you're setting up Screen Time on your child's device, follow the prompts until you get to Screen Time Passcode and enter a passcode. Re-enter the passcode to confirm. After you confirm your passcode you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. This can be used to reset your Screen Time passcode if you forget it. 

If you continue to experience issues you may also wish to reach out to Apple Support for a further investigation: Get Support

Cheers.

Same issue with both our kids' devices. No way they know the password and both devices always reset at the same time.

Please help, most worrisome is "Web Content" also gets resets to Unrestricted along with losing app limits etc.

Apparently the hack is kids just have to turn off their devices and turn back on to reset the screen time. This is what one of my four kids told me. One snitching on the other 😂

I originally thought (and maybe it might actually be true) that the screen time resets at midnight. I guess I thought this because the screen time on my kids devices is resetting daily. Either way, I seriously hope Apple fixes asap!

Agreed. but the thing I’ve learnt- with 4 kids under 13 - and all of them have devices which I am maniacal about re screen time - there are MANY hacks. My 9 yr old knows a different one to my 11 yr old who knows a different one to my 13 yrs old. There are so many hacks that they all know. Apple is amazing- but screen time is a massive fail for them unfortunately. It just doesn’t work. It’s exhausting for me I find one hack - extinguish it then another one pops up that all these kids know about. My only screen time is literally being the bad guy and ripping the phone or iPad for their hands

@trackpoint

I have tried removing everyone from the family group and then adding back. Same issue still happens, but not removing the family group entirely as I still have one child under 13 and he has to be added to another family group or account deleted before doing so.

The other issue I want to avoid is once you use another Apple ID to use for family sharing, you have to wait 90 days before being able to switch back and share purchases. I have everything under my main Apple ID (subscriptions, photos). So doing it this way just seems more of a pain to me.

In one of my previous post, I mentioned I thought screen time was resetting at midnight. So, I went into all my kids screen time around 9 am and set downtime on my device. I checked their screen time (downtime and restrictions) again on the same day around 8 pm. Then I checked their devices to see if they were actually in downtime mode when they were scheduled to be. All devices were in downtime mode and accurate with my downtime settings. I checked downtime and restrictions next morning around 930, everything was reset. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’ve done this for a few days now. 😒

Thanks for the info. Is it 90 days until you can switch back? I thought it was once a year.

> I am guessing some iCloud sync fail safe mode is clearing the settings

I think this is correct. I always set the downtime from 22:00 - 21:59 and let kids request to use.

However this setting keeps resetting almost every day. After setting this, I sometimes re-check the setting,

and see it gets reset and shows the default value for few seconds and then the setting sets back. (You can see that on the short movie I link, menu is in Japanese tho...)

I think the setting is on iCloud, and iPhone syncs with it but the server times out sometime (maybe overloaded or so), and the setting on iOS will be reset to default. And it syncs the default setting to the server after it gains the connection back. Just my thoughts.

https://youtube.com/shorts/XTgp8I3gmo0

Okay thanks for the picture.As it looks like some sync failure, recreating a family group won't help much...

I am on very stable fiber connection with Wi-Fi. I think it's server side sometimes it takes very long time to retreive the screentime data.

I will open a ticket at apple support so they know there is some issue on the system itself. I doubt they are reading this forum.

Sorry I mean the iTunes Store. It’s one of the apps that comes preinstalled on your phone when you get get it. Did you remove it? If so, add it back and sign in.

Wait a couple of days and see if the issue is still happening. If so, sign out and back in.

Click on (Apple ID) at the bottom to sign in and out.

I honestly don’t know if that is what helped fixed the issue or not, or maybe it was me doing both iTunes sign out/back in and the name change. 🤷🏻‍♀️

As it seemed to fixed the issue, I've changed downtime setting to "daily" and made one change on two kids on saturday ending time... and it started to reset the whole setting again. (It was the same thing I did last time too, and same problem happened again.) So it seems that when I change something inside the downtime, it starts to reset again....so far.

Well I've set it again to "daily" on all three kids as it's setting were cleared, and changed my name again.

This time I don't logout on iTunes Store.

Apple should really fix it but they don't say any words on this weird.

I noticed it resets when I give them an extra hour of screen time. Please apple fix this glitch, it’s annoying to set the screen time and downtime settings just cause you allow them an extra 15min or hour.

This was changed with an iOS update resetting App limits every night at 12am. It’s awful that they have done this. Making it a full time job attempting to keep our children safe. Class action lawsuit material. Shame on you Apple.

I too have been dealing with screen time/ App times resetting daily,hourly or by the minute for over one year. Had it escalated to the highest levels with literally about 20-30 hours on this issue. It’s been over a year and the problem still persists for 1000’s if not millions of Apple users that are sold on the software working to protect our children. At this point, there is strong research and evidence of the negative impacts screen time has on children and adults.

All Apple users are in this same boat waiting for a fix that’s way past due. I bothers me to see countless families struggling with this issue and having to go through the time waste with support for zero resolution. I’m frustrated!

I think that just means if they use up whatever time you give them in a day the time sets over at midnight. The glitch is that screen time itself… all content restrictions and schedules reset randomly all the time. I have it where My kids shouldn’t be able to change their passcode, turn off their location or delete apps and that resets. It makes everything pointless.