iOS 26.4 asks for Face ID instead of Screen Time passcode when disabling Screen Time access for an app

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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The system asks for Face ID instead of the Screen Time passcode, and Screen Time access is disabled.

I cannot reproduce this on my device.

Once a screen time passcode is set, it asks for the code instead of FaceID.

Maybe the code lock is a EU-only feature?

Are you outside of the EU?

infovine, It’s better to reply as a reply, rather than in the comments; see Quinn’s Top Ten DevForums Tips for this and other titbits.

I already submitted a report in Feedback Assistant.

Cool. What was the bug number?

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
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+1

AFAIK the ability to put "Apps With Screen Time Access" behind a Screen Time Passcode is a new thing since iOS 26.4 (?). I'm currently on iOS 26.5 Beta 2 and this particular part works fine (it presents Screen Time passcode when trying to disable an apps Screen Time access).

However, the introduction of this introduced a similar bug where if you access the apps settings (not Screen Time settings), you can circumvent the Screen Time Passcode by using the "Screen Time Restrictions" toggle. FB22463959 is feedback number.

The feedback for Apple is actually relatively simple (politics aside): just don't show the "Screen Time Restrictions" toggle in apps settings. This is how it actually was before. This is just a typical engineering/product issue where introducing new features introduces more bugs. Keeping it simple == less bugs (now and in the future).

I cannot reproduce this on my device.

Hey @infovine and @kgaidis!

Big sorry from my side for the misunderstanding, I can now indeed fully reproduce the issue unfortunately!

If I go into the app-specific settings in iOS Settings, e.g. iOS Settings -> Apps -> one sec, I can simply turn off the Screen Time permission, rendering the recently introduced changes useless (no screen time code is required here).

Thanks a lot for bringing this up!

@DTS Engineer I have updated my radar accordingly, hope that helps to get this addressed asap: FB18804632

[1] the ability to put "Apps With Screen Time Access" behind a Screen Time Passcode is a new thing since iOS 26.4

[2] This is just a typical engineering/product issue where introducing new features introduces more bugs. Keeping it simple == less bugs (now and in the future).

[1] Yes, that’s correct!

[2 ] Unfortunately, this is also true…especially with the Screen Time APIs…the framework already has so many bugs and it seems like with every release new ones are added.

Here’s just a small selection of undressed Screen Time API bugs:

• FB18764644
• FB18061981
• FB10393561
• FB14237883
• FB15190710
• FB22279215
• FB22256086
• FB17902237
• FB16121372
• FB17777429
• FB19200003
• FB19118205
• FB12456954
• FB18633581
• FB16409127
• FB13593803
• FB22562796