Hey everyone, I have an app using the screen time api, I've had quite a few reports from users saying that our monitoring features stop working until they open our app. What happens is that activities and schedules set with the device activity monitor seem to disappear. This is something we check on app re-opens and so we schedule them again and that is why the monitoring starts working again. Of course our current solution is not optimal since our app is mainly passive. Has anyone experienced these kinds of issue ?

Versions XCode version: 16.2 iOS version: 17.0 Background I am trying to generate a QR code inside the ActivityReportExtention which encoded the FamilyActivitySelection information. The code is roughly: Question Can I create Image inside the ActivityReportExtension? I cannot even render a simple image (not QR code) inside the extension. How can I debug inside the extension? Logs of the extension are not shown in the console. Code A function to generate QR Code import CoreImage import UIKit func generateQRCode(from string: String) -> UIImage? { let data = string.data(using: .ascii) guard let filter = CIFilter(name: "CIQRCodeGenerator") else { return nil } filter.setValue(data, forKey: "inputMessage") filter.setValue("Q", forKey: "inputCorrectionLevel") // Q for medium quality guard let outputImage = filter.outputImage else { return nil } // Scale the QR code image so it looks clear on screen let transform = CGAffineTransform(scaleX: 10, y: 10) let scaledImage = outputImage.transformed(by: transform) // Create a CIContext and generate a CGImage from the CIImage let context = CIContext() if let cgImage = context.createCGImage(scaledImage, from: scaledImage.extent) { return UIImage(cgImage: cgImage) } else { return nil } } Inside ActivityReportExtension sandbox: struct LineChartView: View { var body: some View { VStack { if let qrImage = generateQRCode2(from: "this is a test") { Image(uiImage: qrImage) .resizable() .scaledToFit() .frame(width: 200, height: 200) } else { Text("QR Code generation failed") } } } }

We are trying to create a screentime app using the Family Controls as well as Device activity frameworks. The build succeeds but while pushing to an iphone we are getting an info.plist file for deviceactivity.framework could not be found error. For reference when using the Screentime API a physical device must be used not a simulator. When we remove the device activity framework this error also occurs for the family controls framework. We have added the Family Controls(development) Capability and applied for the distribution capability. We have redownloaded xcode multiple times on the main device, deleted derived data, and redownloaded all of the iphone SDKs and the issue still persists.

Hey guys I have may problem in screen time in ios 18 and ever update make it worse pl fix it in ios 18.4 some of these problems 1.when you restart the device the locking of out time app is disappear 2.it take long time to lock the website after restart the device

I'm currently running into an issue during the App Store review process where my reviewer isn't liking how the Screen Time API is being used to hide apps. For some context, my app uses the Managed Settings and Device Activity frameworks in the Screen Time API to allow users to set restrictions on their personal devices and save those restrictions into a preference object that they can switch between. This was detailed as my app's primary purpose in my Family Controls & Personal Device Usage Entitlement Request, which was approved last year. After around a year of working on this app, it's finally done and ready for submission to the App Store. However, my App Reviewer recently rejected the app with this single complaint: Guideline 2.5.1 - Performance - Software Requirements The app uses public APIs in an unapproved manner, which does not comply with guideline 2.5.1. Specifically, your app uses ScreenTime API to hide apps. Since there is no accurate way of predicting how an API may be modified and what effects those modifications may have, unapproved uses of public APIs in apps is not allowed. Next Steps Please revise the app to ensure that documented APIs are used in the manner prescribed in the documentation. All I'm doing is passing a set of Application objects to ManagedSettings.ApplicationSettings.blockedApplications, I'm not doing anything special. The documentation for this API itself states: The system hides blocked applications and prevents the user from launching them. In my reply, I let the reviewer know Regarding Guideline 2.5.1, I believe my use of the Screen Time API appears to align with Apple's documented intended functionality. The specific API I'm using, ManagedSettings.ApplicationSettings.blockedApplications, is explicitly documented by Apple as: "The system hides blocked applications and prevents the user from launching them." This is why I used the term "hide" in my app's marketing and functionality descriptions - I was directly referencing Apple's own terminology for this feature. The documentation clearly indicates this is an approved capability of this API. The source for this documentation can be found here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/managedsettings/applicationsettings/blockedapplications-swift.property. I've also provided a screenshot of this documentation below. Despite providing a link to the documentation and a screenshot that shows the text from Apple explicitly stating "The system hides blocked applications", the App Reviewer just copy-and-pasted the same text in their reply and rejected the app. I should also note that we don't have control over how the system handles the Application set we pass into ManagedSettings.ApplicationSettings.blockedApplications, the system will always try to "hide" these apps as specified in the documentation. We can't change this behavior. Has anyone else faced this sort of rejection before? Is using ManagedSettings.ApplicationSettings.blockedApplications now considered an illegal use of the API? Or are we not allowed to use the words noted in the documentation of this API? The app rejection suggested I "consult with fellow developers and Apple engineers on the Apple Developer Forums." Any guidance here would be much appreciated as I continue to appeal this. For any Apple staff members reading this post, I can provide the Submission ID of the App Review privately if needed to help resolve this issue.

Questions I am developing a social screen time application that enables users to create “sprints” and set sprint goals—essentially time limits on usage for selected applications. For this functionality, users select the apps they wish to manage using the FamilyActivitySelection interface (from the FamilyControls framework). However, our backend needs to distinguish each application uniquely (for example, via the app’s bundle identifier) in order to correctly map and enforce user-defined sprint goals. Unfortunately, we are encountering an issue where retrieving the bundle identifier directly from the FamilyActivitySelection is returning nil. As a result, we are unable to globally identify the selected apps. Could you please advise if there is an alternative method or property available in the FamilyControls API that would allow us to uniquely identify the apps? Alternatively, is there another approach recommended by Apple for obtaining a global identifier for applications selected via FamilyActivitySelection? Thank you for your time and assistance. I look forward to your guidance on how to resolve this issue. Code The following is the print statement I used to check if bundleIdentifier is nil after I stored user's selections to the variable selection using familyActivityPicker: for app in selection!.applications { let bundleId = app.bundleIdentifier ?? "Unknown Bundle ID" let token = app.token let localizedDisplayName = app.localizedDisplayName ?? "Unknown Localized Display Name" print("Selected app bundle identifier: \(bundleId)") print("localizedDisplayName: \(localizedDisplayName)") } Console log result I received from the print statement above: Selected app bundle identifier: Unknown Bundle ID localizedDisplayName: Unknown Localized Display Name

After reading Apple documentation (FamilyControls, DeviceActivity, ManagedSettings, ManagedSettingsUI, ScreenTime) and testing the API, I do not find a way to get the child's device apps on the parent device in order to block them or disable them for a certain time. Is there a way of doing it? Or can it only be done locally on the child device?

I am developing an app that can help users disable selected apps at a specified time, so that users can get away from their phones and enjoy real life. Here is my data structure: extension ActivityModel { @NSManaged public var id: UUID @NSManaged public var name: String @NSManaged public var weeks: Data @NSManaged public var weekDates: Data @NSManaged public var appTokens: Data } Among them, weeks is of [Bool] type, indicating which weeks from Sunday to Saturday are effective; weekDates is of [[Date,Date]] type, indicating the effective time period; appTokens is of Set type, indicating the selected apps。 At the beginning, I will open a main monitor: let deviceActivityCenter = DeviceActivityCenter() do{ try deviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring( DeviceActivityName(activityModel.id), during: DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: DateComponents(hour: 0,minute: 0,second: 0), intervalEnd: DateComponents(hour: 23,minute: 59,second: 59), repeats: true ) ) }catch { return false } Since the time range may be different every day, I will start the sub-monitoring of the day every time the main monitoring starts： override func intervalDidStart(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.intervalDidStart(for: activity) if activity.rawValue.hasPrefix("Sub-") { ActivityModelManager.disableApps( Tools.getUUIDFromString(activity.rawValue) ) return } let weekIndex = Calendar.current.component(.weekday, from: .now) let weeks = ActivityModelManager.getWeeks(activity.rawValue) if weeks[weekIndex] { let weekDates = ActivityModelManager.getWeekDates(activity.rawValue) let deviceActivityCenter = DeviceActivityCenter() do{ try deviceActivityCenter.startMonitoring( DeviceActivityName("Sub-" + activityModel.id), during: DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: getHourAndMinute(weekDates[weekIndex][0]), intervalEnd: getHourAndMinute(weekDates[weekIndex][1]), repeats: false ) ) }catch { return } }esle { return } } I will judge whether it is main monitoring or sub monitoring based on the different activity names. When the sub-monitor starts, I will get the bound application and then disable it: static func disableApps(_ id : UUID){ let appTokens = ActivityModelManager.getLimitAppById(id) let name = ManagedSettingsStore.Name(id.uuidString) let store = ManagedSettingsStore(named: name) store.shield.applications = appTokens return } When the child monitoring is finished, I resume the application: static func enableApps(_ id : UUID){ let name = ManagedSettingsStore.Name(id.uuidString) let store = ManagedSettingsStore(named: name) store.shield.applications = [] } The above is my code logic. When using DeviceActivityMonitorExtension, I found the following problems: intervalDidStart may be called multiple times, resulting in several sub-monitors being started. After a period of time, the monitoring is turned off. The static methods enableApps and disableApps are sometimes not called

I want to monitor again from the bellow function of DeviceActivityMonitorExtension. I have the function of startMonitoring like this. override func eventDidReachThreshold(_ event: DeviceActivityEvent.Name, activity: DeviceActivityName) { super.eventDidReachThreshold(event, activity: activity) startMonitoring() } public func startMonitoring() { let startTime = DateComponents(hour: 0, minute: 0, second: 0) let endTime = DateComponents(hour: 23, minute: 59, second: 59)//DateComponents(hour: 11, minute: 0, second: 0)// let schedule = DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: startTime,//DateComponents(hour: 0, minute: 0, second: 0), intervalEnd: endTime, repeats: true //warningTime: DateComponents(minute:1) ) let selection: FamilyActivitySelection = savedSelection() ?? FamilyActivitySelection() let center = DeviceActivityCenter() let selections = self.savedSelection() ?? FamilyActivitySelection() let applications = selections.applicationTokens let categories = selections.categoryTokens let webCategories = selections.webDomainTokens let store = ManagedSettingsStore() store.shield.applicationCategories = ShieldSettings.ActivityCategoryPolicy.specific(categories, except: Set()) store.shield.applications = applications store.shield.webDomains = webCategories let scheduleHard = DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: startTime,//DateComponents(hour: 0, minute: 0, second: 0), intervalEnd: endTime, repeats: true //warningTime: DateComponents(minute:1) ) let event = DeviceActivityEvent( applications: selection.applicationTokens, categories: selection.categoryTokens, webDomains: selection.webDomainTokens, threshold: DateComponents(minute: 0)//timeLimitToUseApp i.e for 15 mins ) do { try center.startMonitoring( .weekend, during: scheduleHard, events: [ .weekend: event, ] ) print("ScreenTime Monitoring Started") } catch let error { print(error.localizedDescription) } } Please provide us with a solution about starting monitoring from DeviceActivityMonitoringExtension's eventDidReachThreshold function or if there is any other way.

The DeviceActivityReport view does not render immediately when added to the view hierarchy. Instead, it requires repeated navigation to the screen hosting the DeviceActivityReport view for it to appear. Furthermore, there is no programmatic way to determine whether the view is being rendered for the user, leading to an inconsistent and often poor user experience. I've created a sample project that demonstrates the issue.

Hello everyone, I’m currently developing an app that uses the Family Controls API, specifically the Screen Time API. However, my current entitlement is limited to development mode, which prevents me from publishing my app on TestFlight. I have already contacted Apple Developer Support for production access but wanted to reach out to the community as well and I was referenced to FamilyControls API documentation and I couldn't find anything related to my case. Has anyone successfully upgraded their entitlement from development-only to production? Any insights on the process, tips for communicating with Developer Support, or guidance on ensuring full compliance with the Family Controls guidelines would be extremely helpful.

We developing an app, It's a Parental control app required to block large number of apps. In child mobile installed more than 200 apps parent has to block and disable these apps but parent cant able to block more than 50 apps. Is there any option is there to block all the 200 apps from child mobile.

I am a macOS software developer using Xcode and Objective-C. I have a wallpaper app on the App Store, and recently, a few users have asked if the app can be excluded from the ‘Screen Time’ statistics. Is there a way to allow users to choose whether or not the app should appear in the ‘Screen Time’ tracking? I have already set LSUIElement to YES in the info.plist, but the app is still being tracked in ‘Screen Time.

I am able to block apps using FamilyControl and Shield. Unblocking is also simple—just assign nil to store.shield.applications. However, I want to unblock them even when the app is not open. Use case: Let's say the app allows users to create a session where a particular app is blocked for a specific duration. Once the session starts, the app should remain blocked, and as soon as the session time ends, it should automatically be unblocked. Please help me with this. Thank you!

Hi there, I am planning an app that requires use of the Family Controls Entitlement to access data on the user's screen time. I understand that this has to be requested from Apple before it can be used in production. I have found the following form to request approval, but it requires an App and bundle ID, which suggests that approval can only be requested after the app has been developed. https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/family-controls-distribution I'd like to avoid the situation where I spend a lot of time on developing the app, only to find out that the Family Controls Entitlement will not be granted for my use case. Is there any way that I can request provisional pre-approval for my app? Perhaps based on an app description and some mockups? Or, at least some idea of whether my particular use case is likely to be approved? Thanks.

I have noticed that when I select the app token of the youtube app to be blocked via a ManagedSettingsStore, the youtube website is blocked as well (which is a good and intended behavior IMO). But how do I know in the ShieldConfigurationDataSource’s override func configuration(shielding webDomain: WebDomain, in category: ActivityCategory) -> ShieldConfiguration to which ManagedSettingsStore the WebDomain’s token is related? We use different ManagedSettingsStores for different block purposes, which differentiate in their ShieldConfiguration. Thanks a lot and have a great day!

I'm creating an app which gamifies Screen Time reduction. I'm running into an issue with apples Screen Time setting where the user can disable my apps "Screen Time access" and get around losing the game. Is there a way to detect when this setting is disabled for my app? I've tried using AuthorizationCenter.shared.authorizationStatus but this didn't do the trick. Does anyone have an ideas?

I'm trying to build an app with a DeviceActivityMonitor extension that executes some code after 15 minutes. I can confirm that the extension is set up correctly and that intervalDidStart is executed, but for some reason the intervalDidEnd method never gets called. What I'm doing in both is just registering a local notification. class DeviceActivityMonitorExtension: DeviceActivityMonitor { let store = ManagedSettingsStore() override func intervalDidStart(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { createPushNotification( title: "Session activated!", body: "" ) super.intervalDidStart(for: activity) } override func intervalDidEnd(for activity: DeviceActivityName) { createPushNotification( title: "Session ended", body: "" ) super.intervalDidEnd(for: activity) } private func createPushNotification(title: String, body: String) { let content = UNMutableNotificationContent() content.title = title content.body = body // Configure the recurring date. var dateComponents = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.era, .year, .month, .day, .hour, .minute, .second], from: Date().addingTimeInterval(1.0)) dateComponents.calendar = Calendar.current dateComponents.timeZone = TimeZone.current // Create the trigger as a repeating event. let trigger = UNCalendarNotificationTrigger(dateMatching: dateComponents, repeats: false) let uuidString = UUID().uuidString let request = UNNotificationRequest(identifier: uuidString, content: content, trigger: trigger) // Schedule the request with the system. let notificationCenter = UNUserNotificationCenter.current() notificationCenter.add(request) } } And this is the method that is starting the monitoring session: @objc public static func startSession() -> String? { // Calculate start and end times let center = DeviceActivityCenter() let minutes = 15 let startDate = Date().addingTimeInterval(1) guard let endDate = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .minute, value: minutes, to: startDate) else { return "Failed to create end date?" } // Create date components and explicitly set the calendar and timeZone let startComponents = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.era, .year, .month, .day, .hour, .minute, .second], from: startDate) let endComponents = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.era, .year, .month, .day, .hour, .minute, .second], from: endDate) // Create schedule let schedule = DeviceActivitySchedule( intervalStart: startComponents, intervalEnd: endComponents, repeats: false ) print("Now", Date()) print("Start", startDate, startComponents) print("End", endDate, endComponents) print(schedule.nextInterval) do { // Use a consistent activity name for our simple implementation let activity = DeviceActivityName("SimpleSession") try center.startMonitoring(activity, during: schedule) return nil } catch { return "Failed to start monitoring: \(error)" } } I can confirm my dates & date components make sense with the 4 print statements. Here is the output: Now 2025-02-12 04:21:32 +0000 Start 2025-02-12 04:21:33 +0000 era: 1 year: 2025 month: 2 day: 11 hour: 20 minute: 21 second: 33 isLeapMonth: false End 2025-02-12 04:36:33 +0000 era: 1 year: 2025 month: 2 day: 11 hour: 20 minute: 36 second: 33 isLeapMonth: false Optional(2025-02-12 04:21:33 +0000 to 2025-02-12 04:36:33 +0000) I get the Session activated! notification but never get the Session ended notification. Half an hour later, I've tried debugging the DeviceActivityCenter by printing out the activities property and can see that it is still there. When I try to print out the nextInterval property on the schedule object i get from calling center.schedule(for:), it returns nil. I'm running this on an iPhone 8 testing device with developer mode enabled. It has iOS 16.7.10. I'm totally lost as to how to get this to work.

I want to display device activity reports for particular selected apps. for getting a daily basis app uses time. Now, what is happening? there are 10 apps selected from the family activity picker but some apps are displayed in the list. I need all 10 apps or more that I will choose from the family activity picker. The bellow code is used for fetching reports. var body: some View { VStack { DeviceActivityReport(context, filter: filter) } } bellow code is used for the filter @State public var filter = DeviceActivityFilter() init(selectedApps: Set<ApplicationToken>, selectedCategories: Set<ActivityCategoryToken>, selectedWebDomains: Set<WebDomainToken>) { self.selectedApps = selectedApps self.selectedCategories = selectedCategories self.selectedWebDomains = selectedWebDomains self.filter = DeviceActivityFilter( segment: .daily( during: Calendar.current.dateInterval( of: .weekOfYear, for: .now )! ), users: .all, devices: .init([.iPhone]), applications: selectedApps, categories: selectedCategories, webDomains: selectedWebDomains ) } You can see we selected 3 apps from family activity picker but we getting 2 apps from DeviceActivityReport extension following code is for device activity report extension let context: DeviceActivityReport.Context = .totalActivity // Define the custom configuration and the resulting view for this report. let content: (ActivityReport) -> TotalActivityView func makeConfiguration(representing data: DeviceActivityResults<DeviceActivityData>) async -> ActivityReport { // Reformat the data into a configuration that can be used to create // the report's view. var res = "" var list: [AppDeviceActivity] = [] let totalActivityDuration = await data.flatMap { $0.activitySegments }.reduce(0, { $0 + $1.totalActivityDuration }) for await d in data { res += d.user.appleID!.debugDescription res += d.lastUpdatedDate.description for await a in d.activitySegments{ res += a.totalActivityDuration.formatted() for await c in a.categories { for await ap in c.applications { if let apptoken = ap.application.token { let appName = (ap.application.localizedDisplayName ?? "nil") let bundle = (ap.application.bundleIdentifier ?? "nil") let duration = ap.totalActivityDuration let numberOfPickups = ap.numberOfPickups let app = AppDeviceActivity(appToken: apptoken, id: bundle, displayName: appName, duration: duration, numberOfPickups: numberOfPickups) list.append(app) } } } } } return ActivityReport(totalDuration: totalActivityDuration, apps: list) }

I’m developing a self-management app using Family Controls, but I’ve encountered a FamilyActivityPciker's crash due to an XPC(or UIRemoteView) issue when there are too many tokens(maybe 200+ items) in a category. This makes bad UX, so I’m looking for a workaround. (I guess that the crash reason is cross process memory limitations, such as App Extension 50MB memory limitation.) A lot of web domains contribute to increase the number of tokens, However, even after clearing Safari’s browsing history, the tokens displayed in the FamilyActivityPicker remains unchanged. Is there any workaround that a 3rd party developer can implement to address this issue? prevent FamilyActivityPicker crashes or reduce the number of web domain tokens? For example, if there’s a way to reset the web domain tokens shown in FamilyActivityPicker from the Settings app, I could offer a help to users. Does anybody have ideas? Expanding SNS Category (29 items) It succeeded. Expanding Productivity & Finance (214 items) It failed. The screen froze, then appears blank. When the number of items is around 100, the crash rate is 50%, but when the items are over 200, the crash rate is 100%. Search Bar Problem The search bar also has same problem. If the number of search results are small, it works good without any blank, but if there are a lot of search results (200+), the XCP crashes and the screen appears blank. Code to Reproduce import SwiftUI import FamilyControls struct ContentView: View { @State private var selection = FamilyActivitySelection() @State private var isPickerPresented: Bool = false var body: some View { VStack { Button("Open Picker") { isPickerPresented = true } } .familyActivityPicker(isPresented: $isPickerPresented, selection: $selection) } } Steps to Reproduce Prepare a category that has 200+ items Try to open the category in the picker The screen will freeze, then appears blank. Errors in Console [u EDD60B83-5D2A-5446-B2C7-57D47C937916:m (null)] [com.apple.FamilyControls.ActivityPickerExtension(1204)] Connection to plugin interrupted while in use. AX Lookup problem - errorCode:1100 error:Permission denied portName:'com.apple.iphone.axserver' PID:2164 ( 0 AXRuntime 0x00000001d46c5f08 _AXGetPortFromCache + 796 1 AXRuntime 0x00000001d46ca23c AXUIElementPerformFencedActionWithValue + 700 2 UIKit 0x0000000256b75cec C01ACC79-A5BA-3017-91BD-A03759576BBF + 1527020 3 libdispatch.dylib 0x000000010546ca30 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 32 4 libdispatch.dylib 0x000000010546e71c _dispatch_client_callout + 20 5 libdispatch.dylib 0x00000001054765e8 _dispatch_lane_serial_drain + 828 6 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000105477360 _dispatch_lane_invoke + 408 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x00000001054845f0 _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh + 328 8 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000105483c00 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 580 9 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x0000000224f77c7c _pthread_wqthread + 288 10 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x0000000224f74488 start_wqthread + 8 ) Error acquiring assertion: <Error Domain=RBSAssertionErrorDomain Code=2 "Specified target process does not exist" UserInfo={NSLocalizedFailureReason=Specified target process does not exist}>