App Store disappears when allowed via Screen Time

The same here it’s so annoying and I hope they find a solution ASAP!

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.

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.

Same- so frustrating

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

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.

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.

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

Ok here's how I was able to do it without turning Content & Privacy Restrictions off:

There are 3 options in the App Store settings:

1. Installing apps
2. Updating apps
3. Deleting apps

I had to turn all 3 of these off and back on again in order for the App Store app to show up again. It seems like by just toggling one of them on/off, it wasn't resetting the App Store settings.

Good luck. I have iOS 17.6

We are stuck the same way. I crazy part I thought maybe resetting the phones would work and it didn’t. Both my kids phones and tablets are experiencing the same thing.

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.

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).

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.

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

I have this issue too. When I toggle off Content & Privacy restrictions the App Store reappears. But after hard restarting my the phone &I pad, then toggling it back on, the App Store disappears again. Really frustrating. They need to be on to prevent him f/getting spam f/random texts- (so only known contacts texts can easily open) & to prevent other inappropriate stuff online & in videos, etc.