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bryanus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 19, 2005
111
10
I recently set up a 2011 Mini so my kids could use it for home schooling. I got it running Catalina with the help of DosDude1's patcher and it runs great.

The problem is that I set it up with Screen Time so I could try and administer my kids' usage, and I've forgotten the passcode for their accounts. My intention is to limit their access to some apps (Chrome) and websites (youtube). Let's just say my 10-yr old has found some questionable material on Chrome, whereas Safari is actually pretty good at content filtering when used in conjunction with OpenDNS's filtering.

Each kid has their own login (also Child Accounts under my Apple ID) for the mini as Standard accounts, and I have a login as the Administrator.

I am able to log into my account, access Screen Time, and was able to reset my Passcode using the Forgot Passcode feature by entering my Apple ID.

But if I then choose one of their accounts from my Screen Time panel and try to change their Screen Time options, it asks me to enter the "OLD screen time passcode". At that point, no matter if I enter my own, new passcode or any other combination I can think of, it doesn't accept the code and eventually locks me out after X number of attempts. And that's where I'm stuck.

I have also tried logging into their individual accounts and I get the same issue. It seems the Child accounts do not have an option to choose "Forgot Passcode", so there is no way to enter an associated AppleID to reset it. Trying to change any options continually asks me for the passcode, which then locks me out after X number of incorrect entries.

I've also logged into their Apple ID accounts, but there is no option to reset Screen Time passcodes that I have seen.

At this point, all I can think of doing is deleting their accounts entirely, and creating them again, with the assumption that the newly created accounts won't have a Screen Time passcode associated with them.

Does anyone know how I can reset the Screen Time passcodes for my Child accounts? TIA.
 

bryanus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 19, 2005
111
10
OK, so I deleted one of the accounts and set it up again as new. Before logging in with their Apple ID, Screen Time was not enabled and no passcode was required. But once I logged in with their AppleID, Screen Time enabled itself and I am unable to reset the passcode. It just keeps asking me for the "old Screen Time passcode(!)". Is this a feature or a bug! lol.
 

bryanus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 19, 2005
111
10
Ha, I figured it out.

Turns out, you can't do this on MacOS! You can only reset a Child account's Screen Time passcode from an iOS device! I guess that's a feature!

You need to open Screen Time on an iOS device where you are the owner (logged in with the admin's Apple ID). Then you will see your Child accounts listed at the bottom. You can then tap Options > Change Screen Time passcode, then verify with your Touch ID/Face ID, and finally it will let you change the passcode without asking you for the "old" one.
 
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