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Screen time and iOS 16? Havoc anyone? Always allowed list keeps resetting to defaults

O

OSXphoto

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
283
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Hi all,
It used to be that screen time would "just work", even across different iOS versions, i.e. when one device (iPad) was on 15.4 and another (iPhone) was on 15.3, it would just work or at least all settings would be preserved.
Since iOS 16, my life as a father has become burdened by numerous occasions where my daughter's screen time settings get lost spontaneously. Many times when this happens I notice that at least one of her devices is not on the latest iOS version *). She has iPhone 11, iPad mini 5, watch SE and MacBook Air M1 2020.

*) Yes I am aware that I can turn on automatic updates on her devices, but I intentionally don't because dot releases (e.g. 16.4) frequently break things and I spend even more time troubleshooting. I only install dot-dot releases (e.g. 16.4.1). I have three children so I have a dozen devices to update every time. Ugh.

Mostly, after making sure all devices run the same (the latest) OS version, I can re-enter the settings and they will stick.

Anyone notice the same screen time behaviour?

Thanks a lot.
 
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Screen time has almost never worked for me in that it hasn’t shown the correct time since iOS 14 as some devices just never showed up. iOS 16 made it worse it that I can’t enable more than 2 devices without it completely breaking on all devices.
 
Oh, okay. That sounds like a whole lot worse than my experience. I spent an hour on the phone with apple support and obviously being on the same ios version is a prerequisite. But even then things didn't work so the operative recommended a network reset on the iOS devices with issues. This actually improved things a lot, so you might want to try that.
 
Welcome to the new Apple. Where they don't give a **** that their headline features are a complete and utter failure. They bring new meaning to the word incompetent.
 
I don’t want to jinx it but I had been having problems ever since I got my iPhone 14 pro in October with my kids screen time limits and restrictions resetting at random. But ever since I updated to 16.4.1 yesterday it has been working properly again!! I can’t believe it but after months it seems to be working again for now. Still in shock. 2 of the kids devices are still stuck on the latest iOS 15 and one is on the latest iOS 16. I’m not sure if it’s the latest updates that fixed it or if it was a server side issue but all is ok for now! *knocks on wood*
 
I’ll also mention ScreenTime actually did work great for me in iOS 15 until Apple Support had me do a restore of my device to solve a different issue. It’s never worked properly since.

Any time I call in, they want me to wipe and set up all my devices as new (including a Mac). I’ve actually tracked the problem down to bad cloud data using the Mac console app, but I can’t get Apple to fix it.
 
Screen time used to be patchy for me, sometimes it worked for months but now it's just awful. I set my sons phone to downtime after 8pm until 8am and that works fine, all the time. But any restrictions I put on apps I'm lucky it works for a full day and doesn't reset to default.

I've tried setting it up on my MAC, my phone, my iPad and his phone and it always resets after a day or two. Pathetically bad parental controls.
 
I kept having problems too. Then I completely turned screen time off for both child accounts, waited to make sure all devices involved showed that it was off, restated all devices and turned it back on. After that it has worked flawlessly for two days now. Fingers crossed.
 
Keeps happening to me as well, on top of every other issue. When I close a screen time window and then come back, it’s not cached and stored and has to dig the stats up from the server (but can’t).

I seriously hate screen time
 
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I upgraded to iOS 16.5 and turned Screen Time back on and now nothing syncs, not time or settings. Basically toggling “share across devices” on does nothing and it still behaves as if it is off.
 
Morac said:
I upgraded to iOS 16.5 and turned Screen Time back on and now nothing syncs, not time or settings. Basically toggling “share across devices” on does nothing and it still behaves as if it is off.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing. I noticed the 16.5 update and specifically instructed my kids to wait for the dot.dot updates.
You might try to install 16.5 on all screen time participating devices. I noticed that screen time anxiously wants to use the same iOS version across all units.
Our screen time is still going strong after total switch OFF and back ON. So much so that I stand in awe...
 
OSXphoto said:
Thank you for sharing. I noticed the 16.5 update and specifically instructed my kids to wait for the dot.dot updates.
You might try to install 16.5 on all screen time participating devices. I noticed that screen time anxiously wants to use the same iOS version across all units.
Our screen time is still going strong after total switch OFF and back ON. So much so that I stand in awe...
Click to expand...

I did install 16.5 (and 13.4) on all devices. I had explicitly turned off Screen Time months ago hoping that when Apple fixed things I could turn it on and it would work.

Imaging my shock when when I turned it back on under 16.5 it actually was worse than it was previously. Before things would sometimes not sync. Now nothing syncs.

On a side note, when I turned on downtime my Mac said it wouldn’t sync until all my devices were updated even though all of them already were.
 
This is from the 16.5 “features” article here on MacRumors


1684511711098.png
 
This is so damn frustrating. It happens to me all the time and my kids settings are all wiped away and I have to keep re-doing them.
 
That sucks for you guys. Mine randomly out of the blue started working fine back with 16.4.1 after months of frustration with all my kids devices time limits/restrictions randomly resetting. They had to have been tinkering with things server side. Hopefully it will start working for you guys!
 
Mines still broken. As far as I can tell, the problem is that the device list isn’t being sent over so each device on my iCloud account thinks it’s the only device with Screen Time enabled.

I contacted Apple support and had all my logs sent to engineering and was told I would get a call back in about a week. That was over a month ago.
 
Still broken in iOS 17. All of my devices behave as if they are the only device with Screen Time enabled, so screen time doesn’t sync and neither do the settings.
 
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Thank you for sharing. I usually hold off new iOS releases until the first couple of dot-dot updates.
Your case appears to be extremely deplorable. Disappointing also that Apple doesn’t keep its promise to get back to you.
Have you tried a ubiquitous “log out - log back in” to icloud across all family devices?
 
OSXphoto said:
Have you tried a ubiquitous “log out - log back in” to icloud across all family devices?
Click to expand...

I did on one device, but not all of them after I was told to do so by one “senior” Apple support agent. I then spoke to another that said you should almost never sign out of iCloud so Apple’s own “senior” support agents can’t even get their stories straight.

I decided to turn off Screentime again as I’m getting a new iPhone 15 PM and I don’t want it infected by whatever cloud problem I’m having.

I’m pretty sure the issue isn’t that ScreenTime isn’t syncing, but that the device names are somehow corrupted so they aren’t showing up, as such I can’t pick them.

I tried toggling a setting after upgrading to iOS 17 and got this message about needing to update my other devices. Except the Mac (since Sonoma isn’t out yet), they are all updated to iOS 17 and iCloud contacts are already enabled. Settings don’t sync.
326724b93c01c90df96eed9e1cb3c9a3.jpg
 
Hmmm…I remember at some point having one child left with screen time sync issues, the others went okay. I logged out all of that child’s devices (MBA M1, iPad mini and iPhone 11) along with my iPhone (6s at the time). This got it all working again. Your case sounds like a different issue as mine though.
Generally, when I get these “update other devices to latest version” alerts (I got plenty of those) updating all devices to the same version solved it.
And for devices that run previous OS’s, updating to that latest version (of same release date) also counts as “same version”.
Congrats on your 15 pro max 😀
 
Morac said:
Still broken in iOS 17. All of my devices behave as if they are the only device with Screen Time enabled, so screen time doesn’t sync and neither do the settings.
Click to expand...

Yup still a load of bollocks. The whole team responsible for this abortion should be sacked. It has never worked since they first introduced it to all that ridiculous over the top nauseating self congratulating fanfare!
 
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