Apple Screen Time app limits not working

I tried the device thing before and it didn't work. I'll double check on his device again just to be sure though.

Also, after the app limits staying on all weekend, I woke up this morning to them being gone again. I never approved more time via the request function so it wasn't that and I don't think my kid did the "one more minute" option cause the app limits were there when he went to bed and not this morning and he hadn't touched his phone. So I have no idea what the issue was this time. Like I said, it seems better but still not there.

Same issue here for months with parental controls. Our family in particular has encountered a significant legal problem as a result of not having adequate control over one kid’s phone. We are invested in apple universe but it appears that I am going to have to sell our iPhones and switch to an android as our children need phones but this is UNACCEPTABLE Apple. Especially when your phones cost the ridiculous amount they do.

Well, same here.

I thought I've set up everything properly but it just doesn't work.

The app limits are there, yes. But they don't work. For example I have YouTube app on my kid's phone limited to 30 min a day. And recently I found out that she spent more than 2 hours a day on it last week!

And if this wasn't strange enough, she uses the app mostly at night, after 8PM when all these apps should be blocked by DownTime which is set from 8pm till 7am!

So what is going on here?

Every day the password gets switched off. The app limits get erased 2/3 times a week. The downtime gets switched off randomly, a couple of times a week. This is on one device (iPhone11), family sharing app has not been used (ever), latest OS vn, makes no difference since installing it 4 weeks ago. I'm glad for those, for whom things are working; but for me (and plenty more I suspect), things are not.

This problem has now actually gotten worse. I was used to the old problem of the limits randomly disappearing every day or two, but at least you could reset that. Now the limits stay in place but don’t actually work.

I have similar issues. Our big one is that I add a few apps to Always Allowed, but they magically disappear, sometimes when I'm still on the screen. I've tried doing it from my phone, my iPad, my computer. Same issue. When I try to changes settings on my computer and go to select the Always Allowed apps, sometimes the whole right pane disappears and I have to select another left menu item and then go back to the Always Allowed section.

Screen time is sooooooo incredibly buggy I don't even understand how this got through any sort of QA/testing process.

OSX example ...

I called in to apple support and actually spoke to a person, and got escalated to a supervisor. First they acted like this was new news to them, I’m sure not everyone that answers the phone knows all the problems, but I advised them to read their own support site, that there are thousands of us with the same problems. Essentially the support team just tried to walk me through how to create screen time and app limits which I assured them at this point I am a pro at, it’s not user error.

Yeah I felt the same months ago when I talked to someone. They seemed surprised and gave me all these things I had already tried. Clearly they haven't been reading not just this message board but multiple. I am calling you because I couldn't find the answer online. I'm not calling to find out how to turn the phone on....

I'm reluctant to respond because it is fairly discouraging...but I have spent hours - ~ 10-15 hours ~ over the last 5 years with the highest level of apple support trying to crack this nut. And nothing seems to work.

Great idea...just not ready for prime time. As my kids are now aging out, it's not as big of a deal for me - but I do feel for everyone else having this same problem. Since we all intuitively know the effect screens are having on our kids, it is a bit surprising Apple is not investing much, much more time/energy into perfecting this tool. If they don't, I honestly think we have to rethink (even more than we have already...trust me, I do feel guilty) what we put in front of our kids.

Same, same, I've wasted too much time and energy speaking with Apple support, being elevated to a case manager and senior supervisor then screen recordings to send to their software engineers. They plead naive to this issue and walk me through the same steps that have I've already tried numerous times. I've also directed them to this chat.

Screen times/downtimes don't work full stop and its false advertising to sell their products with parental controls!!

The fact that this solution requires resetting the device is a complete failure on Apple for a very important feature that families rely on for raising children with phones—pathetic priority for a company we trust with so much. I'm sick of this, screetime has been a buggy garbage since it was introduced many years ago. Hire a real engineer to work on this please.

Sadly resetting the phones doesn’t work. We got new phones (mine brand new iPhone 14, daughter got my 12 after I factory reset it) a few months back. Screen time failed to work from day one. Still buggy as ever.

Talking to support in Czech Republic on this: completely useless. They even in desperation say, we know we know, please upgrade to the newest iOS and than they name iOS that is not even out yet. Apple please Adress this.

There is no way this problem is not a deliberate act by Apple. This issue has been ongoing for ages and if Android can manage to develop a parental control app that is far superior with no issues I struggle to believe apple can't fix this. This is ultimately a failure from apple and a breach of contract regarding parental controls. Perhaps a class action suit is what's needed for changes to be made. ...??

Apple, this is beyond ridiculous. After only using android phones, I finally made the switch because my daughter got a phone, and being able to manage her screen time override my dislike for iphones. Since the end of 2022 screentime has been useless, as everyone on this forum has attested to. Limits either disappear, or have no effect. I see my daughters limit for a particular app at 30 minutes, and on the same page I see that she used it for 2 hours. It is pathetic you haven't fixed this yet. Luckily, my daughter's iphone is paid off, and when my second child gets her first phone in a few weeks, we'll all be buying Androids. Thanks for nothing.