Apple Screen Time app limits not working

I’ve used screen time for my kids to limit time on certain apps. It worked well for years, but now I will set the limits and then they will suddenly disappear after a day or even less. Other settings also get erased including downtime and content restrictions. I have changed the passcode and the kids swear they have not tried to change any settings. This issue started about two months ago. I have updated iOS on all the devices. I have turned screen time off and set up settings again. I have tried setting the limits from my device as well as the individual devices. My kids will spend too much time on their phones without limitations in place and creates repeated bouts of anger for my wife. Please help!


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iPhone 14

Posted on Dec 19, 2022 6:41 PM

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279 replies

Oct 27, 2023 2:42 AM in response to Drmorin

Our solution was to remove a parent / guardian in family settings so that there’s only the organiser in control of the screen time settings.


Go to Settings / Family (it’s at the top below Apple ID) .. then select the user and turn off parent / guardian.


Not ideal but we were pulling our hair out trying to solve this using all the recommended online solutions but two weeks in and this finally seems to be doing it. No idea why Apple hasn’t addressed this though. It’s such a big big issue for parents these days.

Oct 27, 2023 2:52 AM in response to timbob1000

Our solution was to remove a parent / guardian in family settings so that there’s only the organiser in control of the screen time settings.


Go to Settings / Family (it’s at the top below Apple ID) .. then select the user and turn off parent / guardian.


Not ideal but we were pulling our hair out trying to solve this using all the recommended online solutions but two weeks in and this finally seems to be doing it. No idea why Apple hasn’t addressed this though. It’s such a big big issue for parents these days.


Not sure this is relevant or not but I should also point out that my wife logged off and on to her Apple ID on her laptop (as she had bought a new computer). When she did it suddenly about 40 historic ‘app limit’ settings appeared which we had been adding repeatedly because they kept disappearing. They were back!

Oct 27, 2023 6:42 AM in response to Meissa_u

Mine appears to be working as of the other evening. I changed a few settings and I’m not sure if that made made difference. Initially I had set time limits for individual apps but I think that might have been causing some conflict. Instead I just set a overall time limit for “all apps and categories”, I retoggled all the switches on and off. When I set a time limit, I made sure to select the greyed area above where it shown the time selected rather than just exit the page. I have no idea if any of these changes were what did it for me but so far it appears to be working. Just FYI, you can also set individual time limits on your child’s phone for specific apps. I did that too.

Apple Screen Time app limits not working

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