What is Screen Time passcode in iOS 12?

The only way Screen Time is turned on immediately after updating to iOS 12 , is if you were using Restrictions before updating and had already set a passcode for it.

In which case, Screen Time uses that passcode. If the 0000 passcode is working for some, its because they themselves set that at some point in restrictions. There's no other way for that to be there, since the passcode needs to be keyed in twice for confirmation, and is only ever stored on the device or a backup made when Restrictions were in place.

People can claim all they want they did not set one, and it magically got set, but in fact it had to be set at some point by a human. There is no other way for it to work.

0000 seems like a passcode most would set to test out restrictions, and then forget all about it. There's also 1111 and other simpler things like that.

After updating around 10 devices to iOS 12, and only getting Screen Time activated on 3 that already had restrictions turned on, I can confidently say, that's the only way Screen Time gets activated after the update.

Which means the passcode was still set by someone for Restrictions or Guided Access (if that is actually a thing that happens) before updating to iOS 12.

Point being, Screen Time does not magically get a passcode if there wasn't one set before.

I have not however seen Screen Time acquire the Guided Access passcode and use it for its general passcode. Its more likely people forget they set restrictions passcodes and then blame Apple.

Joe Sixpack wrote:

So all Apple had to do, was say something like, "The features and setting of the Restrictions app has been rolled into a new App called Screen Time. You will have to reset the passcode."

And also not use the Guided Access passcode for Screen Time, as GA is a completely separate app.

However, Guided Access is also a parental control. So it would be logical to use it if it was set, and use the less restrictive Restrictions passcode if there was no Guided Access passcode. I agree that this should be documented somewhere.

There’s no fixing the issue really. It’s ridic. I neither had restrictions passcode active nor guided access. It’s a bug and I’m surprised at the ignorance displayed here by know it alls. So after an update I’m supposed to go all over the internet to figure out how to unlock a ridiculous feature?

I just changed mine after not remembering it I was up to 15 min waiting time ...I started with turning on “share across devices “ to on after that I got option to set password for screen time ... I changed to something I remember after that password I set was the one I could use to control screen time and that was it. My luck was my “share across devices “ was not on and that aloud me to set a password again ....

First, this is totally unacceptable. Apple should LET the USER choose to activate it or not. Not automatically turned on with no ability to enter or exist.

Second, I've never set up any restrictions and Youtube is now blocked. Again UNACCEPTABLE

Third, this is a showstopping bug that should stopped OS 12 from being released.

Now we have to wait for the ,2 update to fix this.

xavier

There won't be any update to "fix" this, since Apple made the decision to move Restrictions to Screen Time that automatically brought over the passcode for Restrictions. You may not have turned on Restrictions but someone did and it was not through the update. So now you will need to put your iPhone in recovery mode and restore it as a new iPhone to clear that passcode and set it up as a new iPhone. And then don't activate Screen Time or restrictions.

Sorry, but if passcode is set, then you have to enter the passcode to turn off Screen Time. If you don't remember the passcode or if you didn't set it in the first place, then this method will not work.

How can or could restrictions to something that was introduced to my iPhone have been on before it was installed on the phone? No restrictions were active EVER. Screentime to my knowledge was introduced only in iOS 12.

Nopne of your wild guesses apply to my phone.

So: your suggestions 1. and 2. are wrong, I am sorry to say. What gives you the certainty (and to me it sounds like arrogance) that only these two possibilites apply? Look at the shere number of complaints about the same issue.

Utterly useless answer.

How can or could restrictions to something that was introduced to my iPhone have been on before it was installed on the phone? No restrictions were active EVER. Screentime to my knowledge was introduced only in iOS 12.

Screen Time was introduced with iOS 12. However, Restrictions or Parental Controls as they are also known have been around since iOS 5. Settings->General->Restrictions. At some point in the past the passcode was set there for some reason.

Screen Time will use the passcode set for those Restrictions if one was set, or for Guided Access, if one is set, but no restrictions passcode was set.

The passcode cannot set itself magically. Either you or someone with access to your iPhone set the passcode at some point.

Certainty s in the way setting the passcode works. You need to navigate to a certain location in Settings, and enter the same passcode twice to confirm. There is simply no other way this gets set.

And before you start with conspiracy theories, Apple cannot set it remotely.

If its asking for a passcode it was set by a human at some point.

And yes, its very very common for people to forget setting up something. Even if you think you never did, its highly likely you did.