My ask to buy is off but it is still needing permission from a parent who is not getting the notification. Even though it is off I can’t buy or download anything. What do I do?

IT WORKED! We’ve been having the same issue. I changed setting to off on parent phone. Powered down both parent and child phones. Restarted, and tada it worked!

Turning our phones off and then on did work for us finally! I had already turned off ask to buy and it was still requiring approval. After restarting both devices it works, no more approval!

Just hit upon this thread while having the same issue. My kid was trying to install an app on their iPad. I was getting the notification but instead of asking me to approve the request it was taking me to my AppStore on my iPhone. I finally figured out that my iPhone was not updated to the latest iOS version. I did that and everything was fine.

This was a bit weird since the new version was release a day before and I did not yet have the notification to update my iPhone.

either way - just wanted to document this here if anyone finds this thread.

The answer to fix this is have the parent account remove you from the family then add you back. It will then not ask anymore.

i just now was able to fix this on our phones—but it took awhile and I don’t know if it’s why it started working—by turning off and turning back on both of our phones. I had no luck with just turning the permissions off

the fix is to make sure under settings>iMessage"You Can Receive iMessage To And Reply From" the phone number and email (which is the Apple ID) is checked and under "Start New Conversations From" only the phone number was checked.

no where on apple's support forums was I able to find the fix, i had to go to macrumors over at ask-to-buy-only-going-to-one-device.2342662 to find an answer so I'm posting it here so we have a fix here too.

After lots of googling…it seems that your phone needs updating and restarted! The updating is the most important thing! Worked for us!

If you miss an Ask to Buy notification, you can find the request in Notification Center on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac.

If Ask to Buy isn't working - Apple Support

Parent here - Requests are not showing up in the notification center. I have continually tried, and nothing is showing up, although I do receive notifications from other sources, just not apple.

"Ask to Buy" is turned off on my (parent) device. My child tried to download an app (which btw is still free), and it still asks for permission. I never get the notification.

Stuck in a neverending loop of no notification, no ability to approve, no ability to download.

Please help.

Same problem here. I (parent) installed a free 4+ app on my own device, purhase sharing is on, ask to buy is off, all other restrictions are off, and still my child is asked to send a request for permission to install (which never arrives on any device). i tried to turn “ask to buy” on or off, but no effect.

I’m having the exact same problem my dad turned it off as I’m getting older and my purchases don’t have to be monitored as much anymore but it’s still acting like it’s on but not relaying the purchase request. If you find out how to fix it can you message me on Reddit u/verytallmidget45

I am facing this same issue, anyone had the answer ?

I expect Apple to be better in these things and provide solution promptly.

Same here! This is ridiculous! With how much these phones cost, apple should have better support!

Hi yes this is happening to me too.