Apple Screen Time app limits not working

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’ve had the same issue when trying to amend remotely from my phone. If I want to increase the time then great it works every time however when I try to reduce again it just doesn’t want to play. The only way I have managed to get around this is to amend the limits on his device directly. Not always possible if I’m not around but at least it’s at the correct limit again

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!!

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 if you read this, please take responsibility and fix this issue! I've 4 kids and > 10 devices (parents incl.) so it's no option for me to reset all this devices one by one. Sreentime was always a great tool to manage screentime of the kids but now it's useless.

The most frustrating, ongoing, unresolved issue.

Four kids, 10 devices, 100% wipe out on all app limits - sometimes three times a day!

Five or six hours of apple telephone time and four hours of reconfig for wll

devices to finally be told that I’ll need to wait for a software update.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Apple this is appalling.

I might have found a solution to this very annoying bug. Once you set the App limit, if you re-open it again, it will show you the "Block at the end" option. I wanted to remove previous app limits and reset them properly. However, it seems that if the "Block at the end" was not marked, the removal would not complete successfully and the app limit would re-appear. So, I went into each of my previous set app limits and mark them as "Block at the end". Then I came out and re-entered each of them, and removed them. Finally I re-added the limit I wanted now for my kids, saved, and then added "Block at the end limit" option. Now, it seems like all my settings have remained as they should.

After looking at the app for hours, I have my own ideas of several bugs: contrasting versions of the settings which override each other (perhaps saved on load balance websites, or partially locally spread on the devices) when cannot reconcile, with older version ending over-riding newer versions.

Next, the Block at the end option is completely un-necessary, obviously if we set a limit is to block at the end. By having this function not showing at first when you set up the limit, it remains unclear what the default is.

And now, it seems to me that when the limit is not marked to block at the end, there is another bug which prevents the admin to remove this limit successfully.

A legacy of irritating factors completely unacceptable from a customer service company like Apple, given the amount of people complaining about this.

I have the same problem. I tried the procedures below (as well as others) to no avail. Screen time limits, app limits, downtime limits are 100% broken. (And I know it's not my kid's devious workarounds....)

What I noticed is that, once I tried the steps I listed above, and returning later, the limits won’t show till I put the code in. So if I open the downtime screen, put the code, wait five seconds, the app brings up the downtime limits I left this morning. If I then go and open the app limits, the right limits will appear.

however if I go straight to the app limits they are not set.

my kids have asked for screen time today hence it felt like they were working.

I hope this helps

Finally looks like this issue is getting some traction. The issue has been acknowledged by Apple and reported in the Wall Street Journal - https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-parental-controls-are-broken-55a2aa52. (If you don't have a WSJ account, several other outlets picked up the WSJ coverage). Good job turning up the heat on Apple folks!

I was about to shell out $100 for Qustodio. They have a ridiculous one year upfront commitment. I'm hopeful Apple will get this resolved within 12 months so I suppose I'll hold off on Qustodio...

app limit does not work for me since more than 1/2 year. Support said, my kid has maybe to code. I shall keep resetting, renaming and upgrading my phones, well none of this has helped. The function is just dead. One things works, I have configured downtime for basically the entire day, my kids know they must request time from me, we have an agreement with the kids, they request only the time we agreed upon. This is now working without app limit for me.