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  4. My children are able to use their devices longer than the Daily Limit I set.

My children are able to use their devices longer than the Daily Limit I set.

  1. Check to make sure that all of the apps that you want to be limited are included in the Daily Limit list. If there are apps that aren’t included in this list then they won’t be blocked when the limit is exceeded.
  2. Make sure the Android system time, date and time zone on yours and your child’s devices are correct. Click here to find out where those settings are in Android.
  3. On your child’s device, make sure the Android system time matches the time under Screen Time settings -> Advanced. Click here to see where that settings is in the Screen Time Parental Control app.
  4. Open the app on your child’s device to see if there’s any Play time still on there. There will be a yellow bar at the bottom of the screen saying the amount of Play time left if the feature is enabled. The Play feature allows your child to use their device without restriction for the time set.
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  • kAdri pUna - 19/10/2015

    How to prevent the child to change Android system time manually? Without blocking the Android System Setting app? Is it possible at all? Or maybe you can add this system time block separatly? By changing manually the system time (like for the moment let the phone think its 19.okt 2020) it greats grazy minus numbers in screentime “time left” bar. I can remove the minus time left only by reinstalling Screentime. Maybe you can make it an additional feature (delete/refresh all “times left” data)?

  • Ashleigh - 30/07/2015

    I have checked all the times and they are the same. I updated the app. It is still not working, and it has been working beautifully for months. I don’t understand why it isn’t working.

    Oliver Brushfield-Smith - 01/08/2015

    Hey Ashleigh, I think I can see what the problem is but I’ll contact you directly by email to let you know how to fix things.

  • Julian - 21/07/2015

    My child has been able to bypass screentime completely by creating guest accounts on the device and using them without limit. – Even when I have the primary account and the child has a restricted account.

    There does not seem to be any solution to prevent the creation of guest accounts without root access to the device.

    Oliver Brushfield-Smith - 22/07/2015

    It does seem to be based on the type of device that you use and the version of Android, as different manufacturers handle user profiles in different ways. For example on a Nexus 5 with Lollipop you can create a secondary user profile and when you’re logged into that secondary profile you can’t access the guest account or create another user profile. The same can be said for vanilla Android 4.4 for a tablet. What kind of device are you trying it on?

    Sam - 15/08/2015

    Hello, I have two Nexus 7 tablets with the latest 5.1.1 update and I have installed the patch that you just released. The kids have finally learned that if you run out of time or get close to running out you can just log into the guest account and have unlimited time. I have checked to see how to block guest account creation but don’t see any option for this.

    Oliver Brushfield-Smith - 27/08/2015

    Thanks Sam, I’ve followed up with you via email.

  • James - 25/06/2015

    Hi,

    With the daily time limit and the school time blocker, I thought all time limits were disregarded for the selected apps during school time. Some of the required school time apps are selected in the normal daily time limit.

    Currently my kids are doing a project with Minecraft at school (I have checked this as it seemed too good to be true for them to be using Minecraft for a school project, they actually are!). Anyway, the daily limit that I have configured is 25 minutes, this still seems to be in effect during school time 9am to 3pm, therefore he cannot use Minecraft after 25 minutes regardless of when this time is accumulated, i.e. out of school hours or in school hours.

    Minecraft is included in the daily limit, I thought the 25 minute daily time limit would apply only outside of school hours currently set at 9am to 3pm. Therefore he could use Minecraft with unlimited time between 9am to 3pm and outside these times the daily time limit would accumulate.

    Is this correct or do I need to configure things in a different way?

    Thanks for your help.

    James.

    Oliver Brushfield-Smith - 25/06/2015

    Hi James,

    Thanks for getting in touch, I’m afraid that the Daily Limit is still in effect even during the School Time blocker period that you’ve set up. So if you want them to have unlimited access to Minecraft then you will need to either increase the Daily Limit time, which isn’t great because that gives them more time on all apps in the Daily Limit, or you can remove Minecraft from the Daily Limit list. The problem with that last method is if you want Minecraft to be restricted once they get back from school then you’ll need to remember to put it back in the Daily Limit list after school time ends.

    At the moment we don’t have a feature to make this work perfectly for you but it is something that we’re thinking about including in a future release of Screen Time and I’ll keep you posted about that.

    Warm Regards,

    Oli


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