What is Screen Time passcode in iOS 12?

Mine did the same thing. During the initial welcome pages of iOS 12 it just spontaneously displayed a message saying “Screen Time Passcode Set.” After 5 tries on the “Change Screen Time Passcode” screen in Settings, I got it to accept an older passcode I’d used to put restrictions on my phone back when my kid didn’t have one. Somehow it resurrected that code and supplied it for the new feature. Clearly a hiccup in iOS 12 that will break that feature for some people until Apple pushes out a fix (or until you set up your new XS!). Cuz personally, that feature (by itself) would never be worth the pain of a full restore on my 256GB phone. But I can confirm that, for me, it was indeed an old restrictions passcode that got put in there during setup without my having anything to do with it.

I experienced the same issue. The Screen Time Passcode was enabled after iOS 12 upgrade without being asked.

I recalled that have setup a separate 4 characters Restriction Passcode in the past.

The Screen Time Passcode is the same as the previously setup separate 4 characters Restriction Passcode. It works in my case.

Seriously, Apple should have explained it in a better manner.

Hello Joe,

I'm not sure if you've solved the problem. I also had the same issue.. but after some research online, the Screen Time Passcode is often set as a default to the Restrictions Passcode. I had a friend set up a Restrictions Passcode on my iPhone, asked him for the code and this happens to be the Screen Time Passcode also!

I relieved I figured that one out! So maybe try that.. before a hard reset of your phone.

It does appear to be a bug by Apple.. or at least they should tell us that the passcodes are the same.

Luke

The Screen Time passcode is the Restriction Pass code from previous version of iOS per this article: https://appletoolbox.com/2018/08/reset-the-screen-time-passcode-on-ios-12/

For those who are still struggling with this, and who don't want to restart their phone from new, I've figured out a method identify what your restrictions passcode is.

You can use https://pinfinder.net/ to look at your phone backup to identify the restrictions password. Unfortunately, it only works on iOS11 backups, so if you don't have that on your system, you will first need to downgrade your device (back to iOS 11), then make a backup, and run pinfinder on that backup.

To locate your backups, follow the instructions at Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support.

In order to downgrade your device back to the previous iOS, follow the instructions at https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-downgrade-from-ios-12/.

It's a bit of a workaround but it will do the trick.

Restrictions passcode and now screen time pass codes, are stored in backups and will return on a restore.

Setting up as new is the only resolution.

See >>> Use Screen Time to prevent purchasing on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

This happened to me. I set up a Screen Time passcode for my daughter's iPad through my iPhone, and when I went to change my own Screen Time passcode it was already set (and it wasn't the one I had just entered). I had to dig deep in my memory banks to find the 4-digit code from Restrictions. And yes, that worked.

Thanks, Joe. You saved me from a lot of grief!

Pinfinder worked perfectly. Thanks a lot. Sure enough it was a random pin I would have never used or guessed. I needed to restore an old backup (iOS 11) from time machine but it worked in a few minutes. I think there must be a bug in IOS12.

The cracking program only works on iOS 11 backups. I had to restore an iOS 11 backup, then run pinfinder on that backup to get he pin. I can say without any doubt that I never set the pin it recovered. I can also say that no one else had access to my phone. I cannot say with complete certainty that I never played with restrictions in the past but the pin it recovered (that worked) wasn’t one I would ever use.

In addition to the Solved link at the top of this page, there is an app that can tell you the Restrictions passcode. Search for iphonebackupextractor. It will be the first hit. It is not cheap, however, if you want to used it to find your passcode.

cherylfromaiea wrote:

This is insane of Apple to do! I hope they’re reading all of our posts.

No, they are not reading any of our posts. This is a user to user forum. If you want to express an opinion to Apple use https://apple.com/feedback.

The Restrictions passcode exists for managing parental controls. If there was an easy way to get around it then it would be useless for that purpose.

Yes, great idea to go to another platform than Apple. However, no matter what platform you go to you will find features that you don't like. Such as Google spying on virtually everything that you do if you go to Android.

Backing up won't help, as the restrictions code is saved in the backup, so you will have to set up the phone as new, as your sons do.

Upon advice of our local apple store technician all i did was to reset to factory settings and activate as a new phone. I did not synch to my timeline files. Also I saved my important files to my icloud drive..

The only way around this, as far as I know, is to erase the device and set it up as new.

It’s quicker to reply than check the answers. I tried first four digits of my pass code of the phone as I presumed I did it automatically thinking it was asking for that. It worked!

Pinfinder worked totally well: the PIN was the old iPhone S4 4-digit unlock-code. How it made it onto my brand spanking new iPhone 8Plus only the ghost of Steve knows…

Thanks, Pinfinder!!!