parental controls settings won't save

I think you are talking about "Apps" tab. Here, people are talking about the issue with "Web" tab. In "Web" tab, no matter which one of the 3 options you select, radio button selection always defaults back to the middle one (see below screenshot).

I can't find any such option to select a type of user (standard/"managed with parental controls"). This is how "create new user" wizard looks like. Also, I couldn't delete my existing/primary account.

I've been facing exactly the same issue. It ***** because it's such a simple functionality and it's not working the way it's supposed to 😟. Apple didn't even bother to test this before the release ? really disappointed 😠.

I have spent the last hour or more performing a number of various steps and found the following to be the most predictable:

• Unlock the Users and Groups pane, then back out of the pane
• Enter and Unlock the Parental Controls pane
• Select the Managed User
• Select the Managed User. Make 1 or 2 Parental Control settings at a time, back out of the pane with the left arrow, then re-enter the Parental Controls pane, select the Managed User, and check to see if my change was saved. Then I would repeat precisely the same steps for 2 more changes. Usually my changes would save, but sometimes they would not (see below for the events that occurred when the changes would not save)
• Finally after all my settings were completed I backed out and locked the Parental Control pane.
• I re-entered the Parental Control pane and selected the Managed User to ensure the settings were saved.
• Finally I entered the Users and Groups pane and locked it.

This is what I discovered during the various steps I took:

• Intermittently, when making 1 or 2 changes, backing out and re-entering Parental Controls, I discovered that Parental Controls would suddenly be turned on for the Guest User with settings that matched the last changes made to the Managed User I was attempting to modify. When this occurred the settings I had just made to the Managed User were not saved. I then had to turn off Parental Controls for the Guest User, and re-enter Parental Controls for the Managed User and repeat the most recent 1 or 2 settings I had made.
• This is peculiar because I have always had Parental Controls turned off for the Guest User. If it had happened only once I would have thought it was me that made the mistake. However, it happened repeatedly during the above steps, which would indicate it is a OS X problem.
• Also, I learned that if I entered the Parental Controls pane via the Users and Groups pane that the settings I made were much less likely to be saved. I had to follow the steps above for the most predictable outcome.
• Interestingly, I found that when I turned on System Preferences for the Managed User in the Parental Controls pane that the results were highly unpredictable. It either wouldn't stay turned on, or the Guest User would suddenly have Parental Controls turned on. But most interesting of all was that when the System Preferences selection did finally save, the dock layout for the Managed User would be highly erratic. Twice, when I had selected Use Simple Finder selected, there appeared multiple copies of the App Shortcuts in the Applications Folder. Finally I unselected System Preferences for the Managed User.

I am hopeful that someone reads this that can assist in finding a patch for this problem with Parental Controls.

Regards

Hi sabinscabin,

I have tried your suggestion, however the parental control setting cannot be saved.

Even I unlock parental control->config the setting->lock the panel, then when I unlock it again to check, all setting are refresh to default.

Both Yosemite and El Capitan are not work for me. I have tested AD user account and local account on the iMac, but no luck.

Is anyone have this experience and solution?

Same here. I am really really surprised that they released a major update without even bothering to check this functionality. I mean, isnt it used at schools, many homes and so forth? Will try the suggestion from the original post. But I doubt it.

Any infos about a patch would be appreciated, because until then my kids cant really use the computer because all settings are simply at default stage, which is pretty much no control at all.

Same problem here. It's not only the parental control that's not working. Guest user settings are not saved either. Even if I disable the parental control, close the system preferences window and re-open it, the parental control (under Guest user tab) is automatically enabled (and indeed all the settings under parental control are lost).

Worse still, when I was in El Capitan before, all settings were saved. But the problem was found soon after I erased my drive and reinstalled my Mac yesterday. 😠😠😠 No Time Machine backup... 😠😠😠

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

sabin,

just tried your solution about 5/6 time, but afraid it didn't work for me either. Still looking for a solution...

I agree with everyone that this is an integral feature of OSX, I don't get why they have yet to properly fix the error. I'm downloading OSX 10.11.2. If it fixes the concern I will post my findings.

Spent 6 hours on an online chat with Apple support on this issue - tried may things - reset a bunch of things in terminal. Set-up different account in root menu administrator accounts, etc. Everything tried didn't resolve the issue. Last recommendation was to transfer all files and create a different admin account and use that as the primary account.

6 hours? Omg. Did you get paid for that?

But thanks for the effort. It makes clear that it's not just wrong usage, it rather confirms that it's broken. Hopefully. The support can escalate the fact and finally opens a Bug/Defect or whatever it's called at Apple. Not sure they even have a word for it. At least regression testing might not be in their vocabulary.

Same here, can't get any alteration to parental controls preferences to stick. That's especially annoying if you want to add or remove authorized sites... Doesn't work either if you try to modify that from a remote computer.

Easy to overlook, but if you don't 1st add the checkmark for "Limit Applications on the Mac" the will not stick. Without that "CHECKMARK", you can change the allowed application in the lower section all day long and they will not stick.

I was having this same issue until I realized there was a different type of user called "Managed With Parental Controls." When I created an account with that type of user selected rather than with "Standard" selected, all my Parental Controls settings stuck. After clicking the "+" icon to add a new user, select "Managed With Parental Controls" from the "New User:" dropdown, and this should fix the problem. Unfortunately, this setting cannot be changed once the user has been created.

That looks like you're already creating that type of user, meaning you clicked the "+" from the Parental Controls screen rather than from the Users & Groups screen. Sorry my fix won't be your fix 😟