Apple Screen Time app limits not working

Wow, can’t believe I just found this thread. I’ve been dealing with this issue for 9+ months, many calls with support, promises of fixes coming, dozens of hours research, and still stuck. This feels like a support group.

the strange thing is that it seems like the issue is mainly happening on one of my 3 kids accounts. He has the strongest screen addiction so it’s almost like he has figured out how to make his app limits glitch. I have no idea, so lost and angry at this point. What kind of company is Apple?!?

not to mention the time that my kids figured out how to turn off Ask To Buy and my ) year old unknowingly spent $7k in the App Store that apple refused to refund and I had to fight w my bank for 3 months to submit chargebacks.

Apple is turning into an evil dystopian corporation.

Not the best solution but you can also control all of these settings using your macbook by going into screen time in settings and selecting the account you want to manage. All settings are saved without the iphone issues (much to the dismay of my kids)

Thanks icetwice for the preliminary feedback. Yes, that is a thing, all devices involved in the parental controls ecosystem would need to be on the same iOS level for a comprehensive test. I too am keeping my fingers crossed for the next iOS release and l believe only through this means can Apple truly fix this issue for us frustrated parents. There is no magic workaround that sticks and I will not be resetting all my family's devices etc. anymore; been down that road already. In the interim, without a 100% reliable technology solution available now, we have focused in my household on old-school conversation and engagement. The absence of leaning solely on tech to manage screen time means my 9 year old has to be more mindful, has become better at telling time, and we have more conversations around how we should be spending our time. We even treat screen time like credit. If he was supposed to spend 1 hour and did 3 instead today, he may not get to use the iPad at all for the next day or two. He is learning swiftly about self control, managing time and tech discipline. As a result, he is also becoming a savvy negotiator, but thats another conversation, LOL. Good luck parents and thanks for all the feedback. My wife and I will continue to be patient until Apple figures out how to fix this known bug in their code.

[Edited by Moderator]

I’m wondering if anyone has had any luck getting this fixed. I have tried all the things posted including resets. And nothing. It seems to be getting worse. Not only do downtime settings disappear overnight but app limits that once worked fine are not. When I log into settings it says there is an app limit, for example YouTube one hour, but my child is on it far longer than that. App limit is not cutting off at said time. This is beyond frustrating.

Update to 16.5 worked somewhat - App limits seem to be ok, albeit a little slow to sync. I still have to force close the settings app when changing the downtime switch or changing times, then re-open Settings and do it again.

Shocking.

So I've got it working for the most part with 16.5. Approving more time will turn off app limits for the whole phone. So my kid asked for more time and I approved and it unlocked everything. Also him hitting one more minute will unlock everything too. If you want to give more time, do so within the app limits setting. So I think I've got it ok for now but still not 100% fixed that's for sure.

Downtime working fine here.

App Limits still shaky. Trying to delete the old ones to create new limits.

Old ones keep popping right back. One of them says not to block.

Basic things are still very hard to get right obviously

Hey all,

I have had this issue for months and finally figured out what triggers the reappearing of deleted (or changed) app limits.

This behaviour is caused by devices associated with any of your family member's iCloud IDs that don't belong to you. My daughter had some friends' AirPods and an old iPhone she hadn't used for years associated with her ID. My wife had a no-longer existing iPad associated.

After removing all non-used devices from Find My, everything returned to normal immediately. I didn't need to reset devices or login/logout from iCloud - everything just worked again.

Please try it and let me know if it works for you.

Cheers

Andreas

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.

we struggled with this for almost 7 months. applying all the recent updates and doing a reset 3 weeks ago everything appears to be holding strong for 3+ weeks. also the latest security update also talks to this fix as well.

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.

Andreas - I did try this but it didn't work for me. But it did work in combination with another step (outlined in another post below) - but basically - removing the child from the initial "family sharing" account by inviting them to another adult's family sharing account worked to clear the child's account of any lingering screen time issues.

But if it works with the above for others - great!

For what it is worth, it has been 3 weeks since I turned off screen time, reset network settings on my iphone and turned screentime back on my kids' MacBook Airs and so far the limits have not changed. Knock on wood

Ok, update - and it's not a great one. Very sorry.

Like I mentioned above, my child's screen time app limits, when separated from the original family sharing account (my spouse's), were behaving correctly with no problems. My next step was to re-invite my child to my spouse's family sharing account. Frustratingly, when I added my child back to the original family sharing account, the mysteriously appearing/disappearing app limits started up again with a vengeance. I think there are now 20 app limits that I cannot delete nor toggle off/on.

So Apple, if you are reading this, the problem is associated with the linking of a child's account to the original family sharing account.

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.