Forgot iPhone Screen Time 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#

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 found that I never set it. I tried 7 tmes and no luck. The update is deceiving. Scroll all the way down and there is an option to set a password for Screen Time and another to turn off Screen Time. It asked if I was sure and then asked me for my fingerprint to verify and it turned it off. I did not need to restore my phone

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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

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”.

I forget my screen passcode too. I followed this ****

Basically I'd to encrypted my Ipad (iphone is the same) backup on itunes (it took some time, so I waited). Then I run the downloaded app (terminal-like app) called pinfinder (freeware kind of app, I think). And the app showed me the passcode. That was all. It works!

[Link Edited by Moderator]

It’s basically there to help you control device “over usage” by giving the user feedback and some control limits to various activities, but it’s not necessary essential.

Turning off or on will not cause any issues, it’s just a “tool” to help under certain situations and depends on your circumstance ie. do you have kids and would like to limit their exposure to certain activities or do you easily loose track of time yourself when on such devices!

I was never asked to set a screentime passcode when updating to iOS12 on my iPad, but I am unable to turn off screentime now, this is very frustrating!

That's certainly possible. But I did have a Restrictions passcode set up on my iPhone X. I had to create a new passcode for ScreenTime when iOS12 loaded.