Forgot iPhone Screen Time Passcode

JaeNjojo wrote:

As far as i have found to be successful is 1) log into “find my iphone” on the same device having issues

2) locate your device

3) erase device

4) download any one of your backups

screen time password does not carry over

That shouldn't work and goes again Apple's advice as per this article.

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

This is the relevant section.

You could try a third party password recovery tool as suggested earlier but you will be putting a lot of trust in someone else's software and giving it access to all your "sensitive" BackUp data, although they do say nothing is actually transmitted!

I also had this problem. Would have sworn that I had never set any kind of previous restriction code. Following advice in other Apple Discussions, I did the following:

(1) opened iTunes on my desktop computer, 

(2) connected my iPad to the computer, 

(3) selected the iPad under ‘device’, and 

(4) under ‘summary’ I performed an encrypted back-up of my iPad on iTunes. 

(5) Then on the computer  I downloaded a freeware program called pinfinder at https://pinfinder.net. 

(6) Ran this program on the computer and it immediately identified a 4-digit code that I did not remember setting, but it was a number I recognized. 

(7) Entered that number as the passcode for Screen Time and IT WORKED!

There isn’t anyway to get around the problem of a forgotten Screen Time passcode, it’s stored in any backup you make so Restoring the device with a backup doesn’t help, unless the backup was done “prior” to enabling Screen Time.

The only way is to Restore the device as New (ie set it up from scratch), which you can do via iTunes or go to Settings>General>Reset and select “Erase All Content and Settings”.

Anything on other devices/computers and which syncs via iCloud will come back on to the iPhone, but remember it has to exist already on one other device before it can do that, and if it was just on the iPhone it will be lost.

I personally would try a little harder to remember the passcode, was it the same as your unlock code, a birthday or code used for something else (banking pin or padlock), we are creatures of habit so just try and think if you could of used a code that’s used for something else that’s important (although we shouldn’t do that, we often do!).

Not sure what else to advise, hope some of this helps.

Read through this discussion from the beginning, you basically have to Restore the device as “New” via iTunes (you need a computer) to wipe out the old forgotten Screen Time passcode, that means you can’t use an old BackUp because it will reintroduce the old passcode.

Some are reporting success using a third party app that you run on a computer to discover the code from within a BackUp, but I’ve never used and it could have security implications.

If you don’t have access to a computer you need to “Erase” the device from Settings and again setup as “New”.

Um3rJalil wrote:

Yes yesterday i update to IOS12 and check screenTime but it need passcode. So i dont know what is the passcode for screentime.

You may not have forgotten ScreenTime code, from what they are saying in the other discussion if you had Restrictions enabled the iOS12 update carries over the same passcode to ScreenTime, so can you remember your old Restrictions code, if so try that.

ps. Sorry rbrylawski if this is what you are implying in the above link, I just saw same in other discussion and thought it might help.

Um3rJalil wrote:

I dont think , ever set the restriction code. If i did, then don’t remember the Passcode. What i explore on the internet only one solution. Take the backup and then reset the phone. :( so sad. Hopefully there is another way to recover the passcode.

I'm going to make your day worse. If you restore from backup, the same issue will present itself as the passcode that you can't remember is included in the backup. Don't restore from backup. You're going to have to restore your phone as new and rebuild things over again.

I had the same issue with screentime requiring a passcode which I didn’t know. I have found a good article on how to find the passcode. It points to a website which will help you find passcode, it is not third party software that you have to down load. It worked for me!

https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/5/tip-day-what-do-if-you-forget-your-restriction s-passcode#

I had the same issue with screentime requiring a passcode which I didn’t know. I have found a good article on how to find the passcode. It points to a website which will help you find passcode, it is not third party software that you have to down load. It worked for me!

https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/5/tip-day-what-do-if-you-forget-your-restriction s-passcode#

No, you do not need to restore.

I found a useful tutorial on YouTube by “in2Rafi” and was able to find my passcode with a simple tool just now. (I had forgotten the passcode for screen time on my daughters iPod touch!)

Go to PinFinder.com and download the tool. It was so quick and so easy to do.

As far as i have found to be successful is 1) log into “find my iphone” on the same device having issues

2) locate your device

3) erase device

4) download any one of your backups

screen time password does not carry over

This discussion will help, basically if forgotten you will need to Restore your device as new because the code is remembered in BackUp’s.

iOS 12 default Screen Time passcode?

Hi. I just went through this. I never remembered setting up a code when screen time came online. I may have said set up later date when I was originally prompted.

What worked for me was to turn off screen time and then back on. When I came back in it went through the set up. And made sure I noted my new code.

I believe this will work only if you never originally went through a set up. If you did and actually forgot the code then I believe you may have to reset the device. That’s the only info I found

Good luck.

Then you had a Restrictions Passcode setup on your iPad. Since you had a Restrictions passcode, when you updated to IOS 12, that is now the passcode for Screentime. If you didn't set up a restrictions passcode on your iPad, you likely set up your iPad when you got it from a backup of your iPhone at the time. The passcode is part of the backup.

I had the same issue with screentime requiring a passcode which I didn’t know. I have found a good article on how to find the passcode. It points to a website which will help you find passcode, it is not third party software that you have to down load. It worked for me! https://www.iphonelife.com/blog/5/tip-day-what-do-if-you-forget-your-restriction s-passcode#

Good luck!

Hi! I got to the “Try Again in 60 Minutes!” screen after 9+ tries at using all the old passwords I could remember... then I read the message about Screen Time taking on the password for restrictions and I didn’t have a password on my restrictions... so what would it have taken??? Also another user messages that his passwords were all 6 characters long and the password had to be four! I finally tried the first four character (numbers) of my iPhone passcode... Voilà! Success! Now I’ve reset it to one of my favourite four digit passwords. Hope this helps!