App Limits
App limits not working?
Start here.
"Not working" almost always means one of a handful of specific, fixable problems. This page helps you diagnose which one you actually have, plus a few App Limits quirks most guides skip.
"App limits not working" is really five different problems wearing one complaint. The limit might be triggering but easy to dismiss, silently failing to enforce, misconfigured against another setting, out of sync between devices, or simply misunderstood because App Limits behave differently than people expect.
The fix depends entirely on which one you have. Diagnosing it first saves you from changing a setting that was never the actual problem.
Quick diagnosis: which problem do you actually have?
| What you're seeing | What's actually happening | Where to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Limit hits, shows "Ignore Limit" | The limit is working as designed, with an override | Turn off Ignore Limit |
| Limit silently stops enforcing | A misconfiguration, like Always Allowed or a sync drop | Diagnose Screen Time bugs |
| Works on one device, not another | iCloud sync between devices failed | Diagnose Screen Time bugs |
| Limit for a category doesn't include Safari | Safari usage isn't counted by category-based App Limits | Add a website limit for the specific site instead |
| Grouped apps share time faster than expected | Multiple apps under one limit share a single time pool | Split apps into separate individual limits |
| Limits duplicate or won't clear | A corrupted or buggy Screen Time state | Use the full reset below |
App Limits quirks most guides don't mention
Grouped apps share one time pool, not separate ones. Selecting several apps for a single limit means their combined usage counts against that one shared allowance. Spend the whole limit on one app in the group, and the rest of the group is blocked too, which reads as "not working" if you expected each app to have its own time.
Safari usage often isn't counted by category-based limits. A category limit for Social or Entertainment doesn't reliably catch time spent in Safari, no matter which category you assign. To actually limit browsing, add a website-specific limit for that domain instead.
App Limits and Downtime are different features with different clocks. App Limits reset every day at midnight and cap total usage. Downtime blocks access during a scheduled window regardless of how much time is left. Setting one and expecting the other's behavior is a common source of "it's not working" reports.
On-device setup applies faster than remote setup. A limit set directly on the device you're limiting tends to apply immediately. A limit set remotely through Family Sharing has to sync through iCloud first, which can lag or occasionally fail.
The full reset, when nothing else works
1. Turn off Screen Time entirely. Go to Settings, then Screen Time, then Turn Off Screen Time, rather than editing around a stuck limit.
2. Restart the device. This clears out cached or duplicated limit data that a simple toggle doesn't touch.
3. Turn Screen Time back on. Set it up again from a clean state rather than restoring a backup, which can bring the same corrupted entries back.
4. Recreate your App Limits. Add each limit fresh instead of relying on whatever synced back automatically.
5. Turn on Block at End of Limit for each one. This resets along with everything else, so it needs setting again per limit, as covered in removing the Ignore Limit button.
Fewer features, fewer of these problems
Most of the quirks above come from how many distinct features App Limits actually is. Grouped apps, category assignment, Safari's separate handling, and a completely different Downtime system all add up to a lot of surface area for one thing to quietly not match another.
Fella replaces that with a single list of blocked apps. There's no grouping behavior to misjudge, no category-vs-Safari gap, and no separate Downtime schedule to confuse with a daily limit. Apps you choose stay blocked by default, with one 5-minute emergency unlock per day.
App Limits FAQ
App Limits set on app categories often don't count Safari's own usage, regardless of which category is selected. To limit specific browsing, add a website limit for that individual site instead of relying on a category limit to catch Safari.
Yes. When you select several apps for one limit, their usage counts together against a single shared time pool, rather than each app getting its own separate allowance.
Yes. App Limits reset automatically at midnight, which is different from Downtime, a separate feature for scheduling blocked hours like overnight or during school.
App Limits cap total daily time for chosen apps or categories and reset at midnight. Downtime blocks access during a scheduled window, like overnight, regardless of how much time has been used. Confusing the two is a common reason people think a limit "isn't working."
Limits set directly on a device tend to apply immediately, while limits set remotely through Family Sharing depend on both devices syncing through iCloud, which can lag or fail to sync at all.
Turn off Screen Time entirely, restart the device, turn Screen Time back on, and recreate your App Limits from scratch rather than restoring them from a backup, which can bring back the same corrupted entries.
Only if the limit is triggering correctly and showing a warning screen with Ignore Limit as an option. If the limit isn't triggering at all, or resets on its own, that's a different, separate issue from Ignore Limit.