Apple Screen Time app limits not working

FWIW, I’ve been struggling with screentime settings not-staying on the kids iPads for months as well. I was always having issues trying to manage their screentime settings from my iOS devices, I even had issues trying to update the settings using their devices. But yesterday I did it from a MacOS and it seemed much more responsive and so far settings have remained as I put them. So, until apple fixes on their end, maybe try to update from a MacOS device.

Yep, I’ve also wasted many hours on phone to Apple Support, they have taken screen recordings of both our devices and have engaged the software engineers…..haven’t heard anything back for over 2 weeks despite my follow up. Not holding out for any fix unfortunately. Very disappointed with Apple & doesn’t seem a priority.

My child's iphone 11, same screen time problems. App limit changes ever othrt day, sreen time no where near accurate, and resets itself. New phone, updated OS, reset settings. Deleted settings, and put in again. Nothing works.

My experience is that sometimes if the device is just left on and doesn't power or log out, then it still looks like it's been running. Also the time could be for something you've allowed all the time.. if for example, music is running in the background. A lot of the time looks like "Entertainment" which includes music. Have her quit all of her apps and try again on a new day.

I thought that might be it but she only has some school apps selected for "always allowed". In the breakdown, YouTube was on for 13hrs and that is definately not on alway allowed.

Also, the stats say she had 52 mins on Facebook but she doesn't have Facebook. I'm really confused

We’ve reset things multiple times now. This is an important issue in our household with 5 kids. I love Apple, but we may move on if this isn’t resolved. It is very annoying having to reset all the controls several times a week. More frustrating that it’s a known issue and they haven’t resolved it.

Same to us. Our son would able to bypass screen time and content and privacy restrictions like nothing no matter what I did. I’ve changed my passcode so many times but nothing works. Still not sure how he would able to bypass those restrictions. Very frustrating. Please help.

I have 4 kids on devices, will be 5 at some point and I am BEYOND frustrated reading how long people have been telling Apple that there’s an issue with screen time and nothing has been done. It’s been years at this point. I’m having one kids just absolutely not work at all anymore and another just disappears all the time. It’s insane that such a huge safety feature is so unreliable with Apple. Extremely disappointing.

I’ve tried. They do a fantastic job of burying the tweets. 😑

If this was a known issue to the public they would do more about it. it is shameful and against everything they sold us regarding screen time.

I've talked to someone and then seemed to be getting somewhere and then they set up a link for me to send stuff to if the problem continued. It did, I sent information and not reply and no follow up. This is awful customer service. The only way around this for me is downtime on ALL DAY. But the way I have it set up, then my kid can't text friends on the weekend or after school. Yes I can then change the contact restrictions but then remember to change those back. For me this worked before iOS 16 and Apple seems to not care. When I did talk to the advisor they were surprised. They hadn't heard about it. There are multiple threads about it and no one there has heard of it? I don't want to switch myself and child over to Android but maybe their parental controls actually stay on.

Yep, I'm beyond frustrated too. Spoke to multiple Apple "senior technicians" and all re-assured that they would escalate and fix with software engineers, then crickets.....no contact for weeks! Also, my 13yo has now taken himself off family sharing....how can this happen if he is linked to my parental controls??

Does anyone in this community have the time, inclination and connections to start talking to a publication (CNET, local media, Wired, Mashable, etc....) about this issue? If an article about this starts appearing in peoples' news feeds, I feel like Apple might actually do something about it. Until then we're collectively yelling into the void.

Just found this thread. I thought I was going crazy. I limited my daughters snap app to 1 hour and she has used it for 4 today!! This is ridiculous. Screen time never works either. Everyday it’s erased.

I had this problem recently only with the App Limits portion of screen time. For some reason I would make a change, it would stay changed for some period of time (varied) and then magically change back to originally setting. I know it wasn't my child doing it because often it was adding back a restriction that I had removed.

Apple told me to turn off screen time, reset network settings and then turn back on screen time. They fail to tell you that the settings you had in Content & Privacy Restrictions will be lost and you need to set up again (or they don't know that themselves). I had a lot of specific websites for Always Allow and Never Allow that I had to re setup from memory. The rest of my settings are still there when I turn back on screen time.

Too soon to tell if their proposed fix will stop App Limits from changing but posting here in case it helps someone.

It won't work. They told me that too and nothing. I mean it worked for a bit and then goes back to not working. The other day, I couldn't get the app limits to work at all. I mean the settings said they were on but on my kid's phone all apps were unlocked. Maybe one day..