Screen Time not working on iPhone: every fix, and the one it cannot make

Paths follow Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 26, with older versions noted where they differ. If a label isn't quite where we say, look nearby before concluding it has gone.

Find your symptom

Limits run out and nothing happens

Apple's guide is blunt: “By default, Screen Time limits can be ignored once reached.” Without a passcode, a limit is a reminder you can tap past. That is the default, not a fault, and it is the first thing to rule out.

1. Open Settings → Screen Time and check App & Website Activity is on. Apple notes that turning it off also turns off Downtime, App Limits and Always Allowed.
2. Scroll down, tap Lock Screen Time Settings and set a four-digit passcode. Apple is explicit that it is not the code that unlocks your phone, so make it a different one.
3. Tap Downtime and turn on Block at Downtime. With it on, Apple says restricted apps can't be opened during Downtime and show an hourglass; with it off, you see a reminder and can carry on.

One note on App Limits. Apple's Mac guide documents a “Block at end of limit” option on each limit; its iPhone guide names no equivalent and points to Block at Downtime instead. If your iPhone does show a block option when you open a limit under Settings → Screen Time → App Limits, switch it on. If not, Downtime with Block at Downtime is the documented way to make the phone refuse rather than remind.

The app is on the Always Allowed list

Always Allowed apps, in Apple's words, “stay available during downtime and after you reach time limits.” It is easy to add WhatsApp or YouTube there during setup, just in case, and forget. Check Settings → Screen Time → Always Allowed and keep the list to what you would genuinely need at midnight: Phone, Messages, Maps, your UPI app.

The website still opens

App Limits restrict apps, so a limit on the Instagram app does nothing to instagram.com in Safari. To block the site, go to Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn them on, then App Store, Media, Web, & Games → Web Content. Choose Limit Adult Websites and add the address under Never Allow.

Downtime isn't starting, or isn't stopping anything

Downtime is Screen Time's schedule: while it runs, only calls, messages and the apps you allow are available. When it seems not to apply, check these in order.

• Is the schedule on? Settings → Screen Time → Downtime, then Scheduled. Switching Scheduled off is also how Downtime is turned off, so check nobody did exactly that.
• Does it cover today? Downtime can run every day or only on the days you pick, and a weekday schedule does nothing on a Saturday.
• Is Block at Downtime on? Without it, Apple says, “you see a reminder that it's downtime, but you can choose to continue using the apps.”
• Is the app on Always Allowed? Then Downtime skips it by design.
• Was the reminder all you saw? Apple sends one five minutes before a scheduled Downtime; Downtime itself starts at the time you set.

Turn On Downtime Until Tomorrow, on the same screen, starts it straight away. One version caveat: Block at Downtime is documented in Apple's iOS 26 guide, and Apple ties the choice to having a Screen Time passcode. On an older version, if you cannot find the switch, set a passcode first and look again.

The passcode decides everything

Every fix above rests on a Screen Time passcode the restricted person does not know. Apple describes it as a code that “must be entered before you can change the settings you've chosen”, so whoever knows it can extend a limit, edit a schedule or switch the lot off.

There is a second key to the same lock. After you set a passcode for yourself, iPhone offers Screen Time Passcode Recovery, which lets an Apple Account reset a forgotten passcode: Settings → Screen Time → Change Screen Time Passcode, tapped twice, then, if asked, the email and password of the Apple Account used when the passcode was set up. If that account is yours, a passcode somebody else chose is one you can replace.

• If you set the passcode yourself, it is a speed bump for the person who set it. That is not nothing, but it is not a lock.
• If someone else is to hold it, they should type the passcode and, when Screen Time Passcode Recovery comes up, use their own Apple Account. Apple confirms the recovery account can differ from the one signed in on the phone.
• On a child's iPhone managed through Family Sharing, the passcode is set, and reset, from the parent's device, which is why Screen Time works best exactly there.

Settings not syncing between iPhone, iPad and Mac

Share Across Devices syncs Screen Time settings and reports across an iPhone, iPad and Mac on the same Apple Account. When it is on, Apple says, limits and schedules apply on all of them; when it is off, each device keeps its own. If limits are missing somewhere, check three things.

1. Every device is signed in to the same Apple Account.
2. Settings → Screen Time → Share Across Devices is on for each of them. You may need to scroll down to find it.
3. Every device runs current software. Apple's advice is to update them all before turning on or changing Screen Time settings, so if you changed something first, update and make the change again.

A reset passcode travels the same way: with Share Across Devices on, Apple says the new one updates on the other devices automatically.

A child's iPhone, managed through Family Sharing

Screen Time is at its strongest here, because the passcode lives with the parent rather than on the child's phone. Set it up from your own iPhone: Settings → Screen Time, then your child's name under Family.

• Ask for More Time is the child's route past a limit. You can approve it for 15 minutes, an hour or all day, or decline it, from Settings → Screen Time → your child's name, the notification, or Messages.
• If your child has learned the passcode, change it from your device. Apple's tip is to change it, then turn on Downtime for the rest of the day.
• From iOS 18.5 you are notified when the child's passcode is used on their device, provided their device runs iOS 18.5, iPadOS 18.5, macOS 15.5 or later too.
• The family organiser resets a forgotten child passcode on their own device (Settings → Screen Time → your child's name → Manage Screen Time → Change Screen Time Passcode), not on the child's.
• Keep Messages on Always Allowed. Apple warns that otherwise a child may not be able to send or receive messages, including to emergency numbers and contacts, during Downtime or after a limit runs out.

The “one more minute” problem

On your own iPhone, the screen you see when a limit runs out offers a way to keep going; its buttons have changed between iOS versions, but Apple's position has not. Limits can be ignored once reached, and the documented stop is Block at Downtime, behind a passcode. The extra minute arrives when you are least inclined to refuse it, and the tap is no harder the fortieth time. On a child's phone it becomes Ask for More Time, which works because the decision leaves the phone.

Turning Screen Time off and on again

A reasonable last resort when settings seem stuck, but know what it does. Apple's tip is that the easiest way to turn off Screen Time is to turn off App & Website Activity, which turns off reporting, Downtime, App Limits and Always Allowed.

1. Note your limits, Downtime schedule and Always Allowed list first, so you can check each afterwards.
2. Settings → Screen Time, scroll down, and tap Turn Off App & Website Activity. Changing Screen Time settings needs the Screen Time passcode, so have it to hand.
3. Turn it back on with Settings → Screen Time → App & Website Activity → Turn On App & Website Activity, then check each setting. Apple's older guides, for iOS 13 and 14, word this as Turn On Screen Time, Continue, then This is My iPhone.

When it works as designed and still doesn't work

If Screen Time now does everything it should and you still end up past a limit most evenings, nothing is broken: every route back in is a feature, guarded by a passcode you know or can reset.

There are two honest fixes. Give the passcode, and the recovery account, to somebody you trust, which costs nothing but their time. Or make the everyday unlock depend on something other than a code you know. The Spark app blocker is free and locks with one tap once a key is paired; unlocking means walking to the Spark key and holding your phone against it, or tapping it if it is the NFC one. It uses the same Screen Time permission as any iPhone blocker, which can be revoked in Settings, and deleting the app ends a session, so it is a longer walk rather than a cage.