Screen Time shows "Ignore Limit" on child's iPhone

I think I’ve figured it out. I got a new phone and had to redo some settings and all of a sudden my kids were able to just start ignoring their limits when their time ran out. When you go to set an app limit, there’s a button that says BLOCK AT END OF LIMIT. That needs to be toggled on for each app you’re setting a time limit for.

I’m also experiencing this problem. When my daughter’s friends began getting iPhones three years ago, I held out, waiting for Apple to provide strong, reliable parental controls. After the release of IOS 12, with all its touted parental controls, I finally gave in and bought her an iPhone. I spent hours watching tutorials and testing all the screen time features. I set it up a time limits applied to all apps and categories, toggled on block at end of limit, and created a screen time password.

Initially I was impressed, and the screen time limits worked properly for several weeks. But then last week something changed. Now when my daughter’s screen time limit is reached, she is asked if she wants to ignore the limit. (Well of course she wants to ignore the limit, she’s a child. If children could limit themselves, then we wouldn’t need parental controls in the first place!)

At first I thought she had somehow found a way to circumvent the controls. But I’ve now tested the phone for several days myself. Repeatedly I’ve powered down and restarted the phone, updated the IOS, removed and then reinstated all the screen time settings, uninstalled and reinstalled the apps — nothing works. Or, to be more specific, theblimits work for a day or two, but then for no apparent reason it starts prompting her to ignore the limit.

Between the time when the screen time block worked and when it stoped working, the phone has been in my possession the whole time, no new apps were installed, no changes were made in the settings, and the phone didn’t leave my strong password protected home WIFI. Nothing on my end changed and yet the parental controls went from working to not working. Anf the only way to know the limits have stopped working is to manually check her phone after the time limit has been ignored and exceeded.

So I now have to constantly monitor my daughter’s phone and physically remove it when her time limit is met — which is precisely the reason I didn’t want her to have a phone without parental controls in the first place. I would much rather she have no phone at all than to have an expensive iPhone that provides the illusion of parental controls that fail to function.

I also have this issue. I have turned off and back on the "block at downtime" button a few times. I've rebooted phones, I've turned off the downtime feature and reconfigured it a few times. The problem always seems to come back.

APPLE- This is a much needed and KEY feature for your products. PLEASE take the time to fix this issue and make the feature work properly.

I have the same issue described above. I have set the limits, set to block at the end of the limit. Yet it shows she is using the apps I have blocked for extended periods of time. It’s very frustrating. There doesn’t seem to be any fix for this. If anyone out there has a solution or if Apple could resolve this, it would be wonderful.

I think I know what the solution is. If you you use the option “Downtime” and “Block at downtime” is not selected then your kid will be able to ignore the restrictions during this downtime without asking for a parent’s approval. If your kid already selected “ignore for the rest of the day” then you’ll have to wait u til the next day for it to work.

Hi everyone I think I’ve figured it out. On the screen time menu you will an option for use screen time passcode. Click on that type in a 4 digit code. It then removes ignore limit and replaces it with ask for more time. Hope this helps

I have reset screen time, reset phone, changed screen time passwords, selected each place to select “block at downtime” limit downtime, and everything else we are supposed to do probably 30 times.

DEVICES with issues

Iphone X

Ipad air 2

PROBLEMS

• screentime passcode randomly turns off
• block at downtime randomly turns off
• Ignore limit is a choice... WTF Apple?! That is the selling point for IOS12! Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the screen time feature when my children can just select a button to continue to do what they want.
• I have every limit that can be set selected... Supposed to be 1hr 30min overall limit per day. This past week was a holiday and they AVERAGED 4hr 44min... (I knew it wasn’t working, allowed a lot of it due to seeing what it would allow. Long story, it will not block and will allow anything the kids wants)

APPLE NEEDS TO FIX OR GET RID OF THIS FEATURE! Parents (including this one) believe our children are protected. As parents figure out how bad this feature is there will be an uproar.

I also have this problem. I've tried all of the tips that are suggested, but the problem persists. The limits are fully functional on one daughter's phone, but not the other. My daughter with the iphone 8 can ignore all of my limits.

iphone 6s = working

iphone 7 = working

iphone 8 = not working

I think I know what the solution is. If you you use the option “Downtime” and “Block at downtime” is not selected then your kid will be able to ignore the restrictions during this downtime without asking for a parent’s approval. If your kid already selected “ignore for the rest of the day” then you’ll have to wait u til the next day for it to work. The solution is to select “block at downtime”

Doesn’t work at all

no matter how often I go and set up

• downtime
• app linits
• content restrictions

i go and check later to find they have either been wiped or altered on the child’s device

in addition even when the apple limit is not removed the device does not respect the limit

e.g. Set a limit of 30 mins on a given app then see it’s been used for over an hour and a half!

this is not acceptable from apple

this has obviously not gone through rigorous testing

I have the same issue. This feature worked great until today on my son’s iPad that he received for his birthday on December 27th. Now the apps have the option to ignore limit during downtime. The screen time for the iPad is not displaying on my phone for today. It’s almost as if the two are no longer connected to each other. I have tried everything suggested here. I really hope Apple fix this.

I have made all these adjustments and the problem persists. I called Apple anf the tech escalated to a senior. Am waiting for a follow up call back. They seemed unsure as to what to do. To be continued I guess.

I'm experiencing the exact same issue you've described above. Also , all seems to work just fine with my 12 year old ( no ignore issue, blocks when its supposed to), but with the same settings, i experience the "ignore " issue on my 15 year old's phone. 12 year old has a iPhone 6 and 15 year old has an iPhone SE. Following closely for a solution. Both are up to date

I have been having the toggle issue as described in addition to limits not being enforced with the toggles set correctly. This is just one of many issues in this disaster called screen time. The usage reports do not report accurate time in all cases. One example is Fortnite that is classified as a game however the total time shows over an hour and the details show Fortnite maybe 20 minutes when my child was playing Fortnite the whole time. Detailed example below where Fortnite usage was way higher than the report reflects.

I really think Apple needs to go back to the drawing board to squash the bugs and allow more functionality. My suggestions would include:

• Lockout mode toggle for the parent to lock out the device on demand
• Do a better job at eliminating work arounds that kids know about
• Ability to limit time for specific apps better than today
• Have an option to split up the usage time such as an hour and then a set downtime break until another approved time period instead of a one or two hour binge fest

Like someone else mentioned it gets really annoying to keep checking all the devices once or twice per day to ensure that the settings haven’t changed IF they already haven’t granted themselves access for the rest of the day. Totally ridiculous!

There is no such setting on an iPad. Also, if you go under Content Restrictions > Allowed Websites Only; you are no longer able to edit a website address. Only the title is displayed. Hopefully Apple gets these issues resolved soon.