Apple Screen Time app limits not working

I've found that screen time can be forced to disappear if you continually ask for "one more minute" on a number of apps. After about 2 minutes of doing this on various apps, the settings disappear. Still waiting on a resolution from apple after calling them and spending about 3 hours on the phone in total...

For what it’s worth:

After we reset all devices and basically set up our family from scratch, app limits kept disappearing also.

After reading a few successes on here, we set the limits from the child devices instead of the parent devices and they haven’t disappeared in ~10 days or so. That’s the longest it’s worked since September. Obviously the overall product is still broken but it’s at least been a respite from a broken ‘feature’ in our case.

Talked to Apple Support today and after a lot of hassle they told me to totally reset all the settings on my iPad and iPhone (Settings>General>Transfer or Reset iPhone>Reset>Reset All Settings), and to create a test user on my macbook pro (System Preferences>Users & Groups), and then re-login to my apple id on all of them to see if that fixed it. That didn't work, but I did find a workaround which is really a major pain.

If you create a test user on your computer and log into your apple id from there, you're able to create new/delete old app limits from that screen time interface. Additionally this is the only screen time interface that accurately displays all of the current devices I'm using, without also displaying any of the old devices I no longer own (and that are no longer attached to my Apple ID). I am still unable to create or edit new app limits from my old macbook user profile, from the ipad that I reset all the settings on, or from my iphone that I also reset all the settings on. App limits created or edited on any of these either don't sync across all my devices, or if I shut off screen time on any of them and then turn it back on they disappear, so it's clear the changes aren't being saved to icloud.

I'm not sure what the deal is, but I can't spend any more time on it, so I'm just going to leave that test user profile logged into my apple ID and change it from there if I really need to. Hopefully it'll get fixed at some point in the future, but I'm not holding my breath since I found evidence of this problem popping up online from like at least a decade ago. Maybe it affects too few users for Apple to care. Oh well 🤷🏻‍♂️

I hope for your sake it keeps working, kralon20, but I don't believe it will. Or maybe you'll be lucky. I've read above and elsewhere that multiple people tried resetting, restarting, etc... and in most cases the problems got back.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations on third party apps. I did some reading, comparing, etc... and chose to go with OurPact. We've been using it for a few days now with pleasure. It has a some features Apple doesn't have, like setting multiple phone-free periods during one day. Of course some things are less, like not having the option to set multiple limits for groups of apps. It simply has one daily limit. On the other hand, it's very easy to unblock and block again. My kids had to get used to a few things at start (organizing home screen is done in the junior-app and not the old way, because apps literally disappear during blocks), but they are really happy with it now. We've got a premium subscription of 6.99 euro a month. Although I was skeptical at first to pay for features that should be default on iPhone/iPad, I don't mind paying to prevent us from having arguments with the kids every day.

I have found relatively stable screentime settings, with much trial and error and far too many hours on the phone with apple, by doing the following:

only upload/purchase apps through the kid’s apple account. So basically avoid family sharing of apps

NEVER EVER EVER do “1 more minute”

never grant more time via screentime through a request sent, or adding directly to the time via screentime password.

I always increase or decrease the limit and, if needed, downtime, to allow extra time.

keep it simple a couple app limited that are set to every day, and basic down time.

I do find that when it flips out, the permissions section often gets a wiped out. Sometime it magically reappears.

The problem I've experienced in the past is that over time new iOS updates are released but my childrens devices don't automatically install the new updates despite having ticked the option to automatically install new updates, so that when my phone updates its then on a different iOS version to my childrens devices and thats when the problems with Screentime start.

My kids phones did not automatically update to 16.4. I think it must pop up on their phone asking them if they want to update it and they say no, knowing that it will break Screentime limitations and allow them to stay up all night watching Netflix. Kids are smart and they catch on quickly, if not updating your phones operating system allows them to watch more television, they learn that very quickly.

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.

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)

Hi Everybody. I am not a frequent (ever?) poster but...as an extremely heavy user of screen time, and for a long time, and for 4 children who are about to age out - I know how frustrating screen time can be. This issue has vexed me for a very long time...years and over multiple accounts.

It's frustrating because the "app limits" become useless as you never really know which one is turned on, which one was deleted, etc. (don't even get me started on the new approval system for screen time requests...). I LOVE that Apple installed screen time but it is just falling short of Apple's standards right now. Best example: the fact that screen time stops working when a device needs updating. Ummm, what? Do you know how many times, over the years, my children have resisted an update because they know this? I can only imagine there is a problem with syncing, over multiple devices, over multiple accounts, interconnected with a family account, and with additional restrictions because it is a "child" account.

So, I felt I had to write at 10 pm on a Tuesday so if you are frustrated by this problem and want a solution that worked tonight for a guy who thought he tried everything over the last 3 years - to no avail - I've got one.

I know others have posted they tried this but, since it worked for me, you could still give it a shot. Here is what I did:

1) Signed out of Apple on all devices on my child's account.

2) Went to my child's apple account on alternative device and deleted all devices from my child's account.

3) Reset Network Settings on my child's devices.

3) Disinvited my account from our "family sharing" account (managed by my spouse).

4) Invited my child to my individual account's "family sharing". (If the child is under 13, this is the only way to remove them from the initial account's "family sharing" - by inviting them to another adult's "family sharing". See here for instructions).

5) Signed back in to Apple on my child's device.

All of the suddenly disappearing app limits, or suddenly reappearing app limits, are eliminated. To be clear, I believe the act of removing my child's account from the family account, as well as the reassigning to another adult's account, is the reason for the fix - but I am not 100% sure.

My next step is to invite my child back into the main family account (managed by my spouse) and see if the app limit issue continues to be fixed. Fingers crossed.

Hope this helps. If you have questions about the process, I'll try to answer.

SOLUTION

Apple support provided a solution that seems to be working. All I had to do was change the screen time passcode on my phone. I have no idea why something as illogical as this would be the solution as there was nothing wrong with my old passcode. Anyway, I hope this helps some other parents.

I found this old response and it worked for me. Specifically, turning off "Ask to Buy" and then turning it back on again is what worked. Not all apps locked during downtime in Fa… - Apple Community

Check your child’s calendar. My daughter changed her phones calendar date a day behind which in turned canceled out her screen time limit for the day. She had unlimited time on all her apps.

You need to wait for Apple to push an iOS update after 16.2 as it is a known issue by Apple engineering. The fix will come in a bug fix update. Then you can reconfigure Screen Time with those instructions. Good luck!

If I set up screentime on my kids’ iPads it works pretty well. If I do ANYTHING to modify it from my phone all **** breaks loose. So it seems to be something related to how one device speaks to the other.

Freeing up space in iCloud worked for me, I guess this is because the settings are stored in iCloud.