Communication Limits in screen time crashes

Every time I try to set up the communication limits on my child’s new iphone the set up screen crashes as soon as I input the correct screen time passcode. I’ve reset the phones multiple times and have confirmed the password is correct.

iPhone XR

Posted on Dec 27, 2023 9:26 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 5, 2024 12:02 PM

Update, I may have been able to fix the problem for myself, and I hope it will help you and others as well. The steps I took I will list here (keep in mind, I also took the steps prior to this in my previous reply, so update iOS on both devices, reboot them, yadda yadda...)


  1. Open Settings on the CHILD's phone (not my Family Owner's phone)
  2. Scroll down and locate "Screen Time" here on this top-level settings page (IE: not in the family settings, but directly on the phone's settings.
  3. Open "Communication Limits".
  4. Enable "Allow Contact Management".
  5. Tap "During Downtime", and you should be able to continue setting the limitations normally.


Note that by doing this, I can now once again edit my child's contact limitations from the family page on my own phone. I'm also unable to say for sure if "Allow Contact Management" was a necessary setting to enable to fix it, but it is what I did, and I can no longer replicate the issue after doing steps 4 and 5.


Hope that helps! Let me know if it doesn't and maybe I can help narrow down the solution more.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 5, 2024 12:02 PM in response to rhar_

Update, I may have been able to fix the problem for myself, and I hope it will help you and others as well. The steps I took I will list here (keep in mind, I also took the steps prior to this in my previous reply, so update iOS on both devices, reboot them, yadda yadda...)


  1. Open Settings on the CHILD's phone (not my Family Owner's phone)
  2. Scroll down and locate "Screen Time" here on this top-level settings page (IE: not in the family settings, but directly on the phone's settings.
  3. Open "Communication Limits".
  4. Enable "Allow Contact Management".
  5. Tap "During Downtime", and you should be able to continue setting the limitations normally.


Note that by doing this, I can now once again edit my child's contact limitations from the family page on my own phone. I'm also unable to say for sure if "Allow Contact Management" was a necessary setting to enable to fix it, but it is what I did, and I can no longer replicate the issue after doing steps 4 and 5.


Hope that helps! Let me know if it doesn't and maybe I can help narrow down the solution more.

Jan 5, 2024 6:29 AM in response to Sen75

This is the exact situation I am in as well. The only difference is that I have three kids, and there is only ONE child this happens with, and it doesn't matter if I try to access communication limits and try to put in the correct screentime passcode. It also happens if my wife, who is a parent/guardian on the family, does it from her iPhone. Also only with that one child. The only difference between this child and the other two children is that the one that isn't working is using an apple ID she has had for over a year now, and on a brand new iPhone, and her apple ID has extra iCloud storage.


My phone, her phone, all updated to latest iOS. Both phones have been restarted.


I am doing this as the Organizer account. To be clear, one moment I see the settings app screen where I'm trying to access the "During Downtime" area of "Communication Limits" section of "Screen Time" for the specific child, and the next moment WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ERROR MESSAGE I am dumped onto the home screen. If I go back to Settings by opening the currently opened tab (the tab for settings IS still open), it brings me to the initial Settings page (Account, Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.). If I try again, and again, same result. I have tried force closing the app after it does this, and resuming the app after it does this, trying again... crash.


I have read online somewhere someone else with our exact same issue, and they went one step further, and created a whole new Apple ID for their kid and added it to the family, and it fixed the issue. I however, hardly call that a fix, as I'm currently paying for extra space on my daughter's iCloud storage, and I want that to carry over. I looked into removing her from the family and re-adding her, but that is a whole ordeal where apparently I have to add her to a different family first, because she must always be a part of some family, then re-add her to the real family. I may be at the point of trying that, but I feel there should be a simple fix somewhere. Maybe it's a glitch with the latest iOS version not playing well with something?


I have been Googling for an answer, and so far, NOTHING aside from that, and every so often another post from someone like you that has not found an answer yet.


Let me know if you find something out, please!

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Communication Limits in screen time crashes

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.