Why are my iPhone 'Privacy Restrictions' not working?

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Why are my iPhone 'Privacy Restrictions' not working?

On my iphone13 with lots of free space:

In Screen Time > Content and Privacy Restrictions > Privacy, I cannot set privacy selections (Allow/Don'tAllow) for Photos or Calendars (other items work fine). The setting selection within those two items always reverts to "Don't Allow", while the status remains at "Allow" on the privacy restrictions main list (functionally changes are being allowed). The Photos and Calendars items seem to be stuck in "Allow" mode despite a "Don't Allow" selection appearing within each. This occurs whether or not a restrictions password is set. When a restrictions password is active, attempting to change the Allow / Don't Allow selection for calendars or photos also does not invoke the restrictions password prompt (it should).

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

To resolve, I have tried the following without success:

Hard reset.
Signing out / in to iCloud.
Turning on/off "Share Across Devices", and trying to re-sync correct settings for these items between my iphone and ipad.
Turning on/off screen time web reporting.
Applied the most recent ios update.
Deleting all apps with registered permission (no change with no apps attached), and reinstalling apps + reregistering for access (no change).
Deleted and reinstalled the Calendar App - no change.
Purchased a new iPhone16 (not due to this issue - just time to upgrade), and still this issue persists despite new iphone restored from my iphone 13 backup.

Seems like a software bug of some sort.

iPhone 16

Posted on Apr 17, 2025 4:54 PM

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Answer 1

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sprint290 Author

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May 8, 2025 11:35 AM in response to sprint290

Update on this issue: In a further attempt to resolve this I erased all content and settings and re-setup the phone manually (without a restore). Even with the simplest setup possible (no restore from bkp, no AppleID sign-in, no Wifi signin, no Siri setup, passcodes or faceid setup), this issue still persists.

Looks to me like it’s a bug in the OS itself (carried over from the restore of the backup of my previous iphone) - Last resort would be to do another erase, then, in recovery mode attached to Mac, reinstall the current IOS, then re-setup manually again without restore.

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Answer 2

sprint290 Author

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Apr 18, 2025 5:07 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

The problem started a couple of weeks ago. I suspect it has something to do with "Share Across Devices" in Screen Time which I had tried out around the same time on iPhone/iPad (tho from what I can see, "Share Across Devices" does not seem to apply to the "Privacy" section of the "Content and Privacy Restrictions" page).

Since the issue reappeared on a new phone, I'm guessing the issue was transferred from my previous phone's backup which I restored to my new phone. A last ditch effort to solve this might be to erase the phone. re-enable iCloud options, but reinstall all apps manually rather than restore from backup (not ideal since i'd lose the app data).

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Answer 3

Apr 17, 2025 5:46 PM in response to sprint290

Is your phone managed by MDM, or do you have a work or school email account on the iPhone? If you do the administrator can override privacy and security settings.

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Answer 4

sprint290 Author

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Apr 18, 2025 4:41 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

No MDM - currently or in the past.

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Answer 5

May 20, 2025 3:18 AM in response to sprint290

I’m facing the same issue and haven’t found a solution yet. I’ve already turned off Content & Privacy Restrictions to ensure all permissions, including Calendar, are set to ‘Allow’. 😭

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Answer 6

Jun 11, 2025 8:35 PM in response to sprint290

I have the same problem on iphone 13 running ios 18.5 ... always defaults to Don't Allow even after selecting Allow with Calendar and Photos. Very frustrating!

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Why are my iPhone 'Privacy Restrictions' not working?

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