App Store disappears when allowed via Screen Time

I have Screen Time controls set up on my daughter’s 9th generation iPad. She is running the latest iPadOS 17.5.1. The App Store is hidden on her iPad because I have the installation of apps “Not Allowed”. I “Allowed” the installation of apps so that the App Store app would appear and after 1-2 seconds it disappeared again, so we can’t access the App Store. Has anyone else encountered this bug? Is there a fix or proposed fix?

iPad (9th generation)

Posted on May 27, 2024 6:09 AM

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Posted on Jun 6, 2024 6:13 PM

I found the solution on reddit: Disable content & privacy restrictions entirely. Not the install/delete options.


Go to Setting > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Then set the Content & Privacy Restrictions toggle to off. Wait several seconds.

46 replies

Jun 17, 2024 12:10 PM in response to josh0034

We've also been seeing this issue. Having to disable Screen Time restrictions completely and reenable afterwards is a pain and definitely shows something is broken. Considering my family has had a specific issue since iPadOS 14.1 that has gone unresolved despite hours of time spent with Apple Support, I think it's safe to say that the entire Screen Time/Content Restrictions system isn't working nor maintained.

May 28, 2024 3:45 PM in response to m—77

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).

Jun 15, 2024 11:22 AM in response to mattthew

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.

Jun 17, 2024 10:52 AM in response to josh0034

LITERALLY!!!! I have had screentime for years and now, all of a sudden, boom. App Store gone. I did the reset settings trick, and it came back long enough to update two apps, but when I went to go find it again, it was gone. Everything has been allowed under my restrictions. Downloading, deleting, in app purchases, all of it. Apple please fix this it’s rly annoying

Jun 23, 2024 1:02 PM in response to josh0034

Found a solution!! Choose “Stop Managing Screen Time” on my device for the individual. And then set up Screen Time again, like you’re setting it up for the first time. This was the only thing that worked for me and will hopefully work for others!


I had the same problem as others stated: I had stopped allowing App Store purchases, but after allowing again, the App Store wouldn’t show up on my child’s phone. Or, it would show up for a second and then disappear. I tried turning off Content and Privacy Restrictions, and toggling it back on again, but this didn’t help. We backed up her phone, reset it and erased all settings, then set up up again from the backup, and the problem persisted. We even erased/reset it again, this time not using her backup, and once I connected her to iCloud and had my screen time controls connected to her phone, the App Store disappeared again. Finically I chose “Stop Managing ___ Screen Time” and set up the screen time controls fresh and it worked! So it must have been some glitch that was embedded in the way the controls were set up and those controls needed to be reset by stopping management of them and then starting again.

Jun 25, 2024 5:31 AM in response to mattzee

mattzee wrote:

Apple, a lot of people use and need Screentime. Please put some more effort into the features and, obviously QA testing.

Sorry, but this is just a user to user forum and Apple will not get your message when posted here. If you want to send feedback to Apple where they will read your message, then follow this link:

Product Feedback - Apple

Jun 11, 2024 2:56 PM in response to hideux

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.

App Store disappears when allowed via Screen Time

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