Using the Screen Time API, I can create multiple ManagedSettingStore objects with different names. Is there a way to retrieve these later by name? For example, if I create them dynamically from a configuration managed by the user of my app, and the app crashes or its data gets corrupted, how can I get rid of "stale" ManagedSettingStore objects that I no longer know? Or, if I somehow lose the name of a ManagedSettingStore I created, how long does the store stay active? Forever? How can I get rid of the "stale" store?

I have recently noticed that ever since I downloaded iOS 18 Public Beta 1, I have been unable to get to the screen time settings, after clicking the tab, the app just freezes. Although after a while I did get to the Screen Time tab, but all of the previous changes to my screen time were voided. App limits, Downtime, you name it, all gone. While my app limits do not work, I noticed that downtime still functioned, but when my parent changed the downtime settings on their phone (running iOS 17 no betas), it did nothing on my end. I am currently submitting feedback to apple and am trying to find workarounds. On an unrelated note to this issue, I noticed that “One More Minute” and “Request More Time” aren‘t there anymore, does anybody have any ideas or workarounds on any of these?

This morning I downloaded iPad/iPhone OS 18 public beta and I went to send a request for youtube and I can’t. the only option that comes up when I press ask for more time is enter screen time passcode. TIA

We are using the Apple ScreenTime API for monitoring the usage of device. As mentioned in the documentation (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/familycontrols), we are getting the family controls authorisation from the user. We also have added the ‘DeviceActivityMonitor’ app extension (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/deviceactivity/deviceactivitymonitor) to receive the schedule and event callbacks. We have a requirement in which we have to notify the user for every 15 minutes usage of the device in the specified interval. He can optionally select individual categories or applications for the 15 minutes notification. For monitoring the usage for individual categories or applications, we obtain the token by presenting the FamilyActivityPicker as discussed in this documentation https://developer.apple.com/documentation/familycontrols/familyactivitypicker. For simplicity in testing during the development phase, we reduced the 15 minutes to 2 minutes. The events callbacks are expected to be delivered as soon as the threshold is reached but there are some inconsistencies with the event threshold callbacks. Sometimes the event callbacks are deferred and delivered together, sometimes the event callbacks are not delivered at all, sometimes a few event callbacks are missed etc.

I am working on a project that uses the FamilyActivityPicker from family controls. When I run it on the xcode simulator I can see the different categories of apps, but no specific apps. However, when I run the project on my phone I can see my apps. Is there a way to get this to work on simulator, as I would prefer to not have to download my project on my phone every time I want to test it. Many thanks!

"Hi everyone! We've encountered an issue with uploading our app to the App Store. We received the Family Controls Distribution permission, updated the certificates and profiles, submitted it for review, but received feedback that the request simply doesn't appear for the moderators. Does anyone know what the problem might be? Our request is: try await center.requestAuthorization(for: .individual). We also confirmed that the device must have TouchID or FaceID installed."

I am using Screen Time with "Block Limited Websites." For the most part it works, but... Despite putting "Frame.io" and "api.apple-cloudkit.com" repeatedly in the "Approved" list, a message still appears showing that it is blocked. Please fix or show a resolution. Thank you!

I'm developing an iOS app that uses ScreenTime API. Locally, everything works as expected - I have two physical devices in one Apple Family, and calling AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .child) on a child device shows standard authorization dialog. Currently the app is in a review by Apple, and they are saying they can't authorize as a child. From logs, and a screenshots provided by them, I see that on AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization(for: .child) call, FamilyControlsError.restricted error is being thrown. I didn't encounter this error once during development and can't simulate this issue now either. Tried everything - authorization on account that is not a child, not in a family, tried restricting everything possible for a child's device from ScreenTime settings. This specific error is never triggered. Does anyone have idea why this error could happen? My last guess is the review team is using an enterprise account and that somehow intercepts with ScreenTime settings. But I don't have an enterprise account to test this theory.

I know it said that the device activity report extension data cannot be extract but what about importing data to the report ?

Certain entitlements require special permission from Apple like DriverKit or Screentime API/Family controls. Those entitlements are tied to the bundle IDs of the app. If those entitlements have been granted for an app from developer A (personal account) and we transfer that app to developer B (organization account), including the bundle IDs, will those bundle IDs keep the entitlement? Or will we need to re-request from the developer account B? Any insights or experiences regarding this process would be greatly appreciated.

Brief & History Since iOS 17.4 and up we experience a lot of flakyness when it comes to DeviceActivity event thresholds. After a lot of testing and investigations inside system logs and filing countless bug reports we found a reproducible way why the event thresholds are not getting properly called. Findings Apparently when the device reaches near to max memory something called jetsamkills processes left and right. This means that the UsageTrackingAgent that (we think) is responsible for tracking the usage time of the device gets killed and doesn't recover until significant memory is freeing up on the device. How to test it yourself Use a slightly older device with ~ 3 or 4 GB of RAM Open a game or two that is meomry intensive (like Fishing Clash, yes..) and observe In the console logs you see something that only happens then: Process UsageTrackingAgent [39307] killed by jetsam reason highwater This happens often but recovers itself when the UsageTrackingAgent exceeds their 6MB memory limit. Yet the log looks like this: Process UsageTrackingAgent [39307] killed by jetsam reason per-process limit Once you kick the game, the memory is free and sometimes the event thresholds are calling in again. Defeating the purpose However this defeats the purpose of tracking usage time and shielding perhaps the playing app from being played after a certain amount of time! Feedback Assistant Ticket Here is the ticket with sysdiagnose, step by step and more information: FB13884981 Please fix this ASAP, this is such a pain for production users and their kids EVERY DAY.

What is the proper use case of blockedApplications in the Screen Time API? I seem to be using it exactly as the documentation describes, however it is being rejected from the App Store. I am passing in bundle identifiers to block/hide the applications from the device. What would be the proper way to use blockedApplications? Or is there a way to use it at all in an app being submitted for review? Thanks!

Hi, I'm having an issue where I'm trying to sort the applications related to the FamilyActivityPicker in the FamilyControls library. I'm able to populate a List in SwiftUI and able to see that a token is associated, but in general, there's no comparable to sort the Set which I converted into an array. Any help is appreciated!

Since iOS 18 Seed 2, I've noticed an issue. When calling startMonitoring(_:during:events:) with an already monitored activity, intervalDidStart in the Device Activity Monitor extension isn't triggered as it should be. I have to manually call stopMonitoring(_:) BEFORE restarting the activity for intervalDidStart to be called. This is 100% reproducible. This is different from how it worked before iOS 18 Seed 2 and contradicts the official documentation, which says, “If the app already monitored the activity, this method overwrites the previous schedule and events.” IMO, this suggests we shouldn't have to stop the activity manually; the startMonitoring(_:during:events:) method should handle it automatically. Is this a mistake or intended behavior? If intended: Could you give us the reason? The documentation should be updated to reflect this change. I've already filed a feedback about this issue (FB14110789).

Some of our users encounter an issue after updating their iPhone/iPad to iOS 17.5.1. The tokens passed in the Shield Configuration extension don't match the tokens they selected in my app using the FamilyPicker before updating to iOS 17.5.1. It seems the tokens changed for no reason. My app can't match the token from the ShieldConfigurationDataSource to any tokens stored on my end, causing my shield screens to turn blank. The same applies to tokens in the Device Activity Report extension. The only workaround I've found is to tell affected users to unselect and reselect apps and websites to block in my app. This gets them new tokens from the FamilyActivityPicker, which solves the issue. However, for some users, the bug reoccurs a few days later. Tokens seem to change again, causing the same issue in the Shield Configuration extension. I am not able to reproduce the issue on my test devices so I have no sysdiagnose to attach. However, this issue is affecting other screen time apps: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/732845 https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/756440 FB14082790 FB14111223 A change in iOS 17.5.1 must have triggered this behaviour. Could an Apple engineer give us any updates on this?

⬇️ ANYONE ON APPLE'S SCREEN TIME TEAM, PLEASE READ THIS ⬇️ Let's summarize the situation. 3rd-party apps with screen time access can be disabled by going to Settings > Screen Time > Apps with Screen Time Access. That's fine. Now, if I want to make it harder to remove my restrictions, I can ask a friend to enter a Screen Time Passcode for me. Great idea! The problem is my Screen Time Passcode isn't requested when disabling permissions for a third-party app. It's required for modifying any other Screen Time setting EXCEPT permissions for 3rd party apps. This is frustrating. The Screen Time passcode is a great feature. Making it compatible with permissions granted through the Family Controls framework is our NUMBER ONE REQUEST from tens of thousands of users. This feature has been requested for a long time (iOS 16, iOS 17, …): https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/714651 https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/727291 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255421819 FB13548526
 If you're a developer working on Screen Time, share your feedback below or file one using Feedback Assistant. It is very disappointing to see it wasn't implemented for iOS 18. I can't believe this would require tremendous work from the Screen Time team to make it happen, but it would be a significant improvement for the Family Controls Framework and a ray of sunshine for all the developers who have worked really hard to deliver high-quality apps using the Screen Time API. Could an Apple engineer or a Screen Time team member give us any updates? Implementing this before the public release of iOS 18 would make A LOT of developers happy.

The listening callbacks were not triggered for intervalDidStart and intervalDidEnd after successfully starting center.startMonitoring when I attempted to set a schedule with DeviceActivitySchedule at 20-minute intervals Is there anyone who can assist me? Thank you. Below you will find my code. let intervalLengthInSeconds = 20 * 60 let intervalEnd = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: TimeInterval(intervalLengthInSeconds)) let intervalStart = Date() let schedule = DeviceActivitySchedule(intervalStart: Calendar.current.dateComponents([.hour, .minute], from: intervalStart), intervalEnd: Calendar.current.dateComponents([.hour, .minute], from: intervalEnd), repeats: false, warningTime: DateComponents(minute: 1)) let newActivity = DeviceActivityName(rawValue: "20minuteUse") Log("😯 \(String(describing: schedule.nextInterval))") do { try center.startMonitoring(newActivity, during: schedule) } catch { print("failed to start session: \(error.localizedDescription)") } class MyMonitorExtension: DeviceActivityMonitor { let store = ManagedSettingsStore() // You can use the `store` property to shield apps when an interval starts, ends, or meets a threshold. override func intervalDidStart(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.intervalDidStart(for: activity) // Shield selected applications. Log("😓 start-------") } override func intervalDidEnd(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.intervalDidEnd(for: activity) Log("😓 end-------") } override func intervalWillStartWarning(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.intervalWillStartWarning(for: activity) Log("😓 StartWarning-------") } override func intervalWillEndWarning(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.intervalWillEndWarning(for: activity) Log("😓 EndWarning-------") } } schedule.nextInterval ------ print: 😯 Optional(2024-06-21 08:34:00 +0000 to 2024-06-21 08:54:00 +0000)

try center.startMonitoring(.daily, during: schedule) let schedule = DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: DateComponents(calendar: Calendar.current ,hour: 20, minute: 0), intervalEnd: DateComponents(calendar: Calendar.current ,hour: 22, minute: 59), repeats: true, warningTime: nil ) extension DeviceActivityName { static let daily = Self("daily") }

The following is request authorization for familyControls: AuthorizationCenter.shared.requestAuthorization { result in // The request can either result in success or failure switch result { case .success(): break case .failure(let error): print("Error for Family Controls: (error.localizedDescription)") } } But the output is"Error for Family Controls: Family Controls is only available for child and teen iCloud accounts." I have added the "Family Controls" capability, How do I use "Family Controls"

I have experienced a consistent bug with screen time in IOS 18 DB1. It just doesn’t work, but the limits still function. I cannot access screen time settings (it just crashes) nor can I disable screen time from within a blocked app itself. Have not found any workaround. I have logged a feedback report, FB13932765 (Unable to open screen time settings, it just crashes) I Hope this can be looked at and resolved by the next update. Thanks, Felix