App Store disappears when allowed via Screen Time

I had it disappear too, despite allowing app installation under screen time. I was able to get it back (but it then disappeared again).

To get it back, I did this:

Settings>General>Transfer or Reset iPad>Reset All Settings

Didn't lose any personal stuff, but had to spend a half hour resetting all my app and device settings. To test it, I set it to "Do Not Allow Changes" for installing app and it disappeared. Then set it back to "Allow Changes" for installing apps and App Store came back as it should, but then five seconds later it disappeared again before I could open it up. Note, disabling screen time restrictions altogether doesn't bring it back at all. Resetting "all settings" does; if you try this and it works for you too, open the app store right away and just leave it open, see if it sticks around that way. It may crash out and disappear? I'm not spending another half hour resetting everythng again to find out; I'll just wait until Apple patches this up (like other posters, I just did the full OS update four days ago and that's when it disappeared the first time).

I have privacy restrictions set on my children's iPads, and suddenly, the App Store disappeared. No matter how much I searched, it was nowhere to be found. I tried everything: multiple times, I allowed and disallowed access on screen time, restarted the iPad, and so on.

The ONLY way I was able to update my children's apps was to toggle Content & Privacy Restrictions off, wait a few seconds, and then quickly go to the App Store to update the apps. The App Store quickly disappeared again, but thankfully, it did update all the apps. If you do this, you must do it quickly, though.

Unfortunately, I still do NOT have the App Store, even when I have "Allow Installing Apps" toggled on. Hopefully, Apple fixes this soon, as I have the most recent version (17.5.1).

For your iPad with Home button.

1. Finalize your screen time settings when you enable Content and Privacy Restictions. App Store disappears.
2. Then Disable Content and Privacy Restictions and wait for the App Store to appear.
3. When the App Store appears, go back to screen time and enable Content and Privacy Restictions again.
4. This next step should be immediate and before the App Store disappears. Restart the iPad by pressing and holding the top button and the Home button at the same time. Only release the buttons after the apple logo appears.

For iphone

Just make sure to disable Share Across Devices in Screen Time on all your apple devices.

A temporary solution until apple fixes this issue. This will retain your App Store even with Content and Privacy Restrictions enabled.

For your iPad with Home button.

1. First, finalize your screen time settings when you enable Content and Privacy Restictions. App Store disappears.
2. Then Disable Content and Privacy Restictions and wait for the App Store to appear.
3. When the App Store appears, go back to screen time and enable Content and Privacy Restictions again.
4. This next step should be immediate and before the App Store disappears. Force restart the iPad by pressing and holding the top button and the Home button at the same time. Only release the buttons after the apple logo appears.
5. After restarting, the App Store will not disappear anymore.

For iphone

Just make sure to disable Share Across Devices in Screen Time on all your apple devices.

Good evening. Just to update everyone on this. I keep pretty comprehensive security & privacy settings on my device so I’ve had the same issue.

I spoke with a senior member of Apples support team and provided them with a screen capture of the issue in action.

We could see that some aspect of the Screen Time features is conflicting with the App Store and causing it to suppress whenever ANY privacy settings are active.

I also gave the team member this forum to demonstrate others are having this issue. We both feel that the recent iOS update may be the cause.

Apple states they’re forwarding the information and feedback upstream for correction with an update hopefully in the near future.

Finally fixed it! The issue was caused by settings being synced from another device via iCloud. To resolve it, I disabled “Share Across Devices” in Screen Time. Now, the App Store shows up properly even with Content and Privacy Restrictions enabled.

Didn't lose any personal stuff, but had to spend a half hour resetting all my app and device settings. To test it, I set it to "Do Not Allow Changes" for installing app and it disappeared. Then set it back to "Allow Changes" for installing apps and App Store came back as it should, but then five seconds later it disappeared again before I could open it up. Note, disabling screen time restrictions altogether doesn't bring it back at all. Resetting "all settings" does; if you try this and it works for you too, open the app store right away and just leave it open, see if it sticks around that way. It may crash out and disappear? I'm not spending another half hour resetting everything again to find out; I'll just wait until Apple patches this up (like other posters, I just did the full OS update four days ago and that's when it disappeared the first time).

That didn’t work for me, but this worked:

Choose “Stop Managing Screen Time” on my device for the other individual. And then set up Screen Time again, like you’re setting it up for the first time.

I FOUND THE FIX!!

Just go to the person’s device that manages your screen time, and press on “stop managing screen time”, The App Store should pop up again after a few seconds.

Same! After 17.5.1. I go to allow it again to update their apps and it disappears after 3 seconds. It can’t be clicked. It’s not in the App Library. I’ve tried everything. Definitely has to be a bug with the new update.

I have the same problem! 9th gen iPad, and I use that setting to control my kids access to the App Store. When I allow it, it shows up for a few seconds then disappears again. Doing reset all settings brought it back, but as soon as I toggled thx setting, the problem persisted. Hopefully apple will patch this SOON because it impacts my ability to update the apps on this iPad.

That’s not helpful; on the contrary, it sounds dangerous. There’s an obvious reason why we enabled content and privacy restrictions for our kids. Disabling it entirely means they can not only install any apps but also access explicit content on the web, in books, music, and videos, bypassing age restriction settings.

If you disable all content and privacy restrictions, does this mean you have to manually re-type in all the "allowed" websites again once you toggle it back on again? I have dozens of websites that are allowed and manually typed in for my kids to have access to, but I don't want to have to re-type this whole list again.

hideux wrote:

That’s not helpful; on the contrary, it sounds dangerous. There’s an obvious reason why we enabled content and privacy restrictions for our kids. Disabling it entirely means they can not only install any apps but also access explicit content on the web, in books, music, and videos, bypassing age restriction settings.

I believe the suggestion that you replied to that said to shut Content & Privacy Restriction off, forgot to mention to turn it back on after waiting several seconds. Toggling the setting has worked for many people and I think that they were making the point to not just toggle the individual setting, but the entire section controlled by turning off Content & Privacy Restrictions. The other point about waiting between toggling off, then back on has been reported to work for some and others have also turned it off, restarted the device, then turned it back on.

I agree it has been problematic and there have been improvements in each iOS release. I saw that you were on iOS 17.5.1, so just make sure the other devices are updated to the latest iOS release.

Since toggling the restrictions off clears all the parental settings, requiring you to redo them all when you toggle it back on, this is certainly not an acceptable long term solution. iParents everywhere implore Apple to fix this bug ASAP!

FWIW - if you are controlling the screen time content restriction settings from your own device through family share expect it to cause Messages on your own phone to work at a glacial pace if at all. This is also a known / related bug.