Apple Screen Time app limits not working

This has been a pain for way too long. Sometimes restarting my phone (parent) and my child’s phone will allow me to make changes that stick but it’s almost to the point of giving up on screen time and using a different solution.

been having this issue for months now. On one child’s phone the downtime schedule does work, but won’t allow

me to add app limits. I go to that setting, fill it all out and then the “add” button just sits there. On my other child’s phone I can not get anything to work. No downtime schedule nothing. I have tried all the suggested things. Even chatted with apple live support who tried taking over the phone remotely and even they couldn’t get it to work.

I've called Apple Support several times, and each time the adviser doesn't know it's a problem...until today. She finally told me that the engineers know about it, and they are working on it. Someone messed up the code in one of the updates and they need to figure this out ASAP.

It’s been over a year now and this issue STILL has not been corrected. Countless updates, yet no fix to this issue. We will be moving to a new carrier soon and it looks like we won’t be getting iPhones since the whole reason was so I could control my kids screen usage. You’re losing customers, Apple.

All 3 phones that I am attempting to add limits too are on 16.6.1. No limits applied stay for more than 5 minutes. I have been an apple user since the beginning and this is very aggravating as Im well aware of how the product works. In my mind this is a case of Occam’s razor. The simplest reason why this is happening is because apple wants it too. Blocking time blocks usage and limits income producing opportunities. Either that or they are completely inadequate at programming software. I dont think that one is believable……

androids up!

Apple at least has finally admitted that it’s broken. It’s broken in sooo many ways though. Almost seems like they need to rewrite the code from ground up.

https://9to5mac.com/2023/07/31/screen-time-is-broken/#:~:text=Many%20parents%20are%20reporting%20that%20Screen%20Time%20limits%20applied%20to,public%20beta%20of%20iOS%2017.

My daughter’s phone just got stuck in downtime for over a week. Turning screen time completely off and confirming it was off from all parent devices too didn’t help. Even resetting all phone settings didn’t help.

Apple is responsible for most arguments between my daughter and I in the last year. I’m not exaggerating.

If this isn’t fixed soon, we’re ditching our iPhones for Samsungs.

Been a while since I have replied - I know this is frustrating for everyone...as a dad with 4 daughters (one of whom is aging out this year) I have been dealing with this since the inception of screen time. Our best hope is IOS 17 which is supposed to come out this Fall. I will say, as someone who has spent way WAY too many hours on the phone with customer support about this issue - the most recent national news (WSJ in particular) - is the first time Apple has responded publicly about fixing the issue. If we can hang until 17 comes out, I think there is a shot. If they don't fix it through that update - they truly do need to start again. Fingers crossed everyone.

Anyone install iOS 17? Any reports of app limits working or not with the new iOS? 16.6.1 did not help and killed our batteries (as will iOS 17, I presume).

I was waiting to take the 17 plunge until I read some positives. Going to start shopping android next week if the new software doesn’t address screen time.

I have posted this already, I try again: what works is that you do not use app limit, which does not work stable as one can read here. Instead you tell the kids phone that it is night all the time. The kid need to request screen time every day, in this way they play only the time we agreed upon and I even know every day which apps they like. Solution is downtime from 12:01 to 11:59.

That’s not a solution, it’s a work-around and it’s a poor one at that. Flat-out avoiding features that don’t work as designed may meet YOUR immediate needs but won’t be a fix for everyone in every situation.

Hi everybody. Ok, so I have some tentative good news and a bit of don't know news. IOS 17 seems to solve the problem. So far. You can look at my previous posts to understand how many devices I have to solve the problem for...but...for the biggest problem device, I have been monitoring to see if the changes have worked --particularly in the app limits section. It appears my app limits are holding BUT, as I have mentioned before, I have tried to delete some of the app limits and they are reappearing just like before. Not every one, mind you (there were probably 15 app limits that i could never delete), but I am down to just two that won't delete. I have no idea why. The good news is that the ones I want to work are actually working. So, I would recommend installing iOS 17 as it does seem to solve the majority of problems I was having with screen time. I'll wait a while and post again if there is an update. Good luck everyone!

If it is fixed that should be pushed to iOS16 too as a lot of devices are not getting iOS17 and this "feature" has been around for years. I expect it to work on an iPhone X or a iPad 5th gen as they were sold with the function advertised! Really shady if they only fix it in iOS17.

IOS17 doesn't fix the problem: I've updated all of our devices and still have the same issues as before.

We keep being told that it'll be fixed in the next version but it never gets resolved. At this rate the easiest fix will be wait for all my children to turn 18.

APPLE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT CHILDREN’S SAFETY.

This screentime issue has been going on for a year with thousands of people describing the same issue.

thwre is a new update almost every month to fix bugs but NOTHING has been done to address the screentime fault issue.

Exact same issue here. I don’t understand why Apple can’t fix this. We pay enough for these phones only to be forced to upgrade when there are limitations to what updates can be downloaded and subsequently affect performance. My thought was that this was an update conflict and that Apple has been negligent in fixing it because, “hey you need another new phone for hundreds of dollars!”. So tired of all these glitches. This is an important feature and when it worked it worked really well. I’m not keen on resetting my phone because I don’t trust that I won’t lose important things.