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 ?

I was experimenting with the screen time controls to see how it affected an app I am working on and I created a screen time passcode that I later forgot. Any fix? I can't find the "forgot passcode" button anywhere and I am now unable to turn off find my as a result.

I'm working with the Screen Time API (FamilyActivityPicker) in SwiftUI and need help with a specific scenario. I'm using the FamilyActivityPicker to let users select apps and categories to block. I save the previous selection (both applicationTokens and categoryTokens) locally. When the user updates their selection, I compare the new selection with the saved one to determine which apps or categories were removed. However, I’m trying to handle a specific case: when an individual app token is removed from the selection because its entire category was selected instead. In this situation, even though the app is no longer in applicationTokens, it's still blocked due to its category being included in categoryTokens. Since I need to show users which apps were actually removed, I want to avoid listing apps that are still indirectly blocked via a selected category. I’ve created a mapping between ApplicationToken and FamilyActivityCategoryToken to check whether a removed app is still covered by a selected category before displaying it. Is there any way to check this using the current Screen Time APIs, or does the system not give access to the relationship between apps and their categories? Any help or suggestions would mean a lot!

Hello, my app is frequently loosing / forgetting the Screen Time Permission that had been granted previously on iOS 26. I have experienced it myself, sysdiagnose is in this radar: FB18997699 But also also my App Store users who have updated to iOS 26 already have reported this bug. It would be great if Apple could ensure that this bug is addressed before iOS 26 is released to the public.

Hi all, I’m working on a Screen Time app using Managed Settings and ShieldConfiguration, and I’ve run into an issue where screen time is still being counted while the shield is shown — even when the user never interacts with the underlying app content. This happens both when I use the default shield and when I configure a custom ShieldConfiguration with a ShieldAction. As long as the shield is visible, the time appears to count toward the app’s usage. For example, if I leave the shield up for 20 minutes, Screen Time logs it as 20 minutes of app usage — even if no content is accessed behind the shield. Is this expected behavior? Is there a way to prevent Screen Time from counting time while the shield is shown? Any insights or workarounds would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Connor

Hello, I have noticed that the ShieldConfiguration is only requested when opening a target app, and never when the application token is moved to a different shield while the target app remains in foreground. This causes problems because many times the wrong ShieldConfiguration is displayed (recycled) instead of requesting a new ShieldConfiguration. This bug has been around since the introduction of the Screen Time API in 2020 and is has not been addressed. Bug reports: FB14237883 FB17902392 Please fix asap!! Not acceptable to have bugs not being addressed for more than 5 years. Most concerning: This is still reproducing on iOS 26 beta 7!! Thanks a lot for your help.

Hello everyone, I’ve been stuck for weeks on an issue with Family Controls + Device Activity entitlements in my iOS app, and Apple Developer Support has not provided a solution so far. I’m hoping someone here who has successfully implemented Family Controls + Device Activity can point me in the right direction. About the App • The app is a Digital Wellbeing app called Breakloop. • It lets users select apps they want to block, requires them to complete a positive affirmation before opening those apps, and can re-block apps after a set time (e.g., 10 minutes). • This functionality exactly matches the purpose of Family Controls and Device Activity APIs. What Works So Far • Family Controls capability is enabled in the main app target in Xcode. • We have valid Apple Developer certificates (Apple Development) and a team account. • The main app builds and runs fine when using Family Controls alone. • We have App IDs for: • bl.Breakloop (main app) • bl.Breakloop.BreakloopMonitorExtension • bl.Breakloop.BreakloopShieldConfigurationExtension The Problem The provisioning profiles for the extension targets (BreakloopMonitorExtension and BreakloopShieldConfigurationExtension) do not include the com.apple.developer.device-activity entitlement even though: • The App IDs in the Developer Portal have Family Controls (Development) enabled. • The extensions have the correct entitlements file with both: com.apple.developer.family-controls com.apple.developer.device-activity • Xcode Signing & Capabilities points to the correct provisioning profile + certificate. Because the provisioning profiles don’t include the entitlement, the build fails with: Provisioning profile doesn't include the com.apple.developer.device-activity entitlement. What Apple Support Said Apple Support told me: • “Family Controls grants access to Device Activity.” • They cannot enable it manually or guarantee that profiles will include the entitlement. • They sent links to the documentation but no further assistance. What I Need Help With 1. Has anyone successfully built extensions using Family Controls + Device Activity? 2. Do I need to request any additional approval for Device Activity, or should it appear automatically once Family Controls is enabled? 3. Is there a known Xcode or Apple Developer Portal configuration issue that causes the entitlement to be missing in provisioning profiles? 4. Any working example of a project setup that uses Family Controls + Device Activity in extensions would be extremely helpful. Extra Info • We use the latest Xcode + iOS SDK. • Tried recreating certificates, profiles, and App IDs multiple times. • Followed Apple’s docs for Family Controls + Device Activity exactly. I would greatly appreciate any guidance, especially from someone who has this working with iOS app extensions. Thank you!

Hi - appreciate your help in advance! Building a simple habit tracking app. I got approval for FamilyControls distribution. After creating a new provisioning profile with those capabilities enabled, when I try and build in xcode (16.4) using that Profile I get an error stating: "Provisioning profile "CreateMoreFamilyControlsv2" doesn't include the com.apple.developer.deviceactivity and com.apple.developer.deviceactivity.reporting entitlements" I've confirmed bundle identifier matches, Team etc Similarly when i do automatic signing see 3rd screenshot. Not sure what to do at this point, I've heard deviceActivity is automatically applied when family controls is approved but still running into this issue.

Hi Apple Engineers and fellow developers, I'm a student developer working on an educational focus management app that helps users hide distracting apps during study sessions. The app consists of: macOS app: Simple "Hide apps" button that triggers app hidding sessions iOS app: Uses Screen Time API to temporarily hide selected apps from home screen Communication: Bonjour networking between Mac and iPhone for session coordination The Challenge My app requires two entitlements that aren't available with Personal Developer Teams: com.apple.developer.family-controls (for Screen Time API) com.apple.developer.networking.multicast (for Bonjour device discovery) Current Error Messages text Cannot create a iOS App Development provisioning profile for "focuser.focuser-app". Personal development teams, including "My Name", do not support the Family Controls (Development) capability. Provisioning profile doesn't include the com.apple.developer.family-controls and com.apple.developer.networking.multicast entitlements. My Question for Apple Engineers Is there any legitimate way to test these privacy-sensitive APIs on my own devices for educational/learning purposes without purchasing the $99/year Apple Developer Program membership? I understand the security reasons behind these restrictions, but as a student just learning iOS development, it creates a significant barrier to experimenting with these technologies.

3.5 weeks ago I submitted form https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/family-controls-distribution to get Family Controls entitlement for my app. I still not received any feedback at all...   Contacting Support also doesn't help... Is there any time limits for this request or any average time of waiting for feedback?

Our users report frequent crashes with the FamilyActivityPicker. Since this is a screen controlled by Apple, I'm assuming that there's nothing I can do to prevent these crashes. I'm wondering, though, if there's any way to gracefully handle these crashes? When this happens, the following is printed to the console: [com.apple.FamilyControls.ActivityPickerExtension(1121)] Connection to plugin invalidated while in use. Does anyone know how to handle/catch this error?

Both view and modifier versions of the FamilyActivityPicker crash randomly when selecting some items (usually the other option) throwing these in the console: [com.apple.FamilyControls.ActivityPickerExtension(1150.1)] Connection to plugin invalidated while in use AX Lookup problem - errorCode:1100 error:Permission denied portName:'com.apple.iphone.axserver' PID:22091 ( 0 AXRuntime 0x00000001c603b0fc _AXGetPortFromCache + 800 1 AXRuntime 0x00000001c603cce0 AXUIElementPerformFencedActionWithValue + 700 2 UIKit 0x0000000230de3ec8 DDE6E0C5-2AC3-3C73-8CFE-BC88DE35BB5F + 1453768 3 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103ef0b98 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 32 4 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103ef27bc _dispatch_client_callout + 20 5 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103efa66c _dispatch_lane_serial_drain + 832 6 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103efb408 _dispatch_lane_invoke + 408 7 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103f08404 _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh + 328 8 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000103f07a38 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 444 9 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00000001f0824f20 _pthread_wqthread + 288 10 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00000001f0824fc0 start_wqthread + 8 ) This also happens in production apps like the Opal. The questions are: At least how to detect it to be able to manually reload the sheet (like what Opal does and shows an alert when this happens) How to prevent it in the first place? I really appreciate any help you can provide.

I was granted permissions for family controls distribution for the main target of my app. Do I also need to request permission for the other targets like ShieldConfiguration, ShieldActionExtension, etc.? If no, how can i add the distribution capabilities to those targets?

Hello, I think it is quite a common use-case to open the parent app that owns the ShieldActionDelegate when the user selects an action in the Shield. There are only three options available that we can do in response to an action: ShieldActionResponse.none ShieldActionResponse.close ShieldActionResponse.defer It would be great if this new one would be added as well: ShieldActionResponse.openParentApp While finding a workaround for now, the problem is that the ShieldActionDelegate is not a normal app extension. That means, normal tricks do not work to open the parent app from here. For example, UIApplication.shared.open(url) does not work because we can’t access UIApplication from the ShieldActionDelegate unfortunately. NSExtensionContext is also not available in the ShieldActionDelegate unfortunately, so that’s also not possible. There are apps however, that managed to find a workaround, in my research I stumbled across these two: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/applocker-passcode-lock-apps/id1132845904?l=en-GB https://apps.apple.com/us/app/app-lock/id6448239603 Please find a screen recording (gif) attached. Their workaround is 100% what I’m looking for, so there MUST be a way to do so that is compliant with the App Store guidelines (after all, the apps are available on the App Store!). I had documented my feature request more than 2 years ago in this radar as well: FB10393561

As discussed and acknowledged here, there is a known bug with the FamilyActivityPicker. When a user expands a category that contains enough tokens to exceed the 50mb memory limit, the FamilyActivityPicker crashes. This happens quite frequently for heavy Safari users. An apple engineer mentioned on this thread that WebDomains shown in the picker are present based on the last 30 days of usage data as surfaced by WebKit. Is there any way a user can clear these WebDomains? Either programatically through our app or any other process we can guide them to as a workaround while this issue is getting fixed?

.fullScreenCover(isPresented: $isShow) { Button(action : { isPresented.toggle() }){ Text("Choose") } .familyActivityPicker( isPresented: $isPresented, selection: $selection) .onChange(of: selection){ value in } } In the official version of iOS 18, when I click the Done button of familyActivityPicker, the fullScreenCover pop-up box will disappear.

I have developed three apps using the Screen Time API. The following are common problems I encountered in the three apps: DeviceActivityMonitorExtension is automatically killed after running for a few days (frequently) The same DeviceActivityEvent in DeviceActivityMonitorExtension is triggered twice during eventDidReachThreshold (especially obvious in iOS18.5) Screen Time authorization is automatically canceled for no reason (occasionally) I hope to get help

How to programmatically check if ApplicationToken or ActivityCategoryToken is expired in FamilyActivityPicker? I'm building a Screen Time-based parental control app using FamilyControls and ManagedSettings. We use FamilyActivityPicker to allow the user to select apps and categories to restrict, and we apply the shield using: store.shield.applications = .specific(selection.applicationTokens) store.shield.applicationCategories = .specific(selection.categoryTokens) Sometimes, we observe that the shield silently fails to apply — no error is thrown, but the restrictions aren't enforced. I suspect this may be due to expired or invalid tokens, possibly if the app was removed or the selection became stale. My Questions: Can ApplicationToken or ActivityCategoryToken expire or become invalid over time? If yes, is there a supported or recommended way to detect whether a token is still valid before applying it to the shield? Is comparing the current shield values (store.shield.applications and store.shield.applicationCategories) after applying them a reliable validation method? What's the best practice to handle expired tokens (e.g. re-prompt the FamilyActivityPicker, or show a fallback)? What Is the Expiration Duration of Tokens from FamilyActivityPicker? Any guidance or insight from the Screen Time/FamilyControls team would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I want to add a widget to my app that will display the # of pickups the user has for the day. I have the DeviceActivityReport working in the main app but can't get it to display in the widget since it is not a supported view for widgets. Is there any workaround for getting this view to the widget? I tried converting the DeviceActivityReport view to a UI image thinking maybe that would be a way to use a widget approved view type but ImageRenderer seems to fail to render an image for the view (which is just a Text view). To summarize my questions: Is it possible to display a DeviceActivityReport in a widget? If so, what is the best practice? Is converting the DeviceActivityReport view into an image and displaying that in a widget an option? Here's my attempt to convert the DeviceActivityReport view into a UIImage: import SwiftUI import _DeviceActivity_SwiftUI struct PickupsDeviceActivityReport: View {     @State private var context: DeviceActivityReport.Context = .totalActivity     @State private var renderedImage = Image(systemName: "exclamationmark.triangle")     @Environment(\.displayScale) var displayScale     var body: some View {         renderedImage             .onAppear { render() }             .onChange(of: context) {                 _ in render()             }     }     @MainActor func render() {         let renderer = ImageRenderer(content: DeviceActivityReport(context))         renderer.scale = displayScale         if let uiImage = renderer.uiImage {             renderedImage = Image(uiImage: uiImage)         }     } } Help is appreciated. Thank you.

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.