Apple’s Screen Time feature can be used to limit activities, duration, and times of day that children in a Family Sharing group can use their devices. However, you can also use Screen Time to remind yourself to get off your phone or computer after a while or at certain times of the day.
Difficulties? You can set a Screen Time passcode for yourself and set an extra bar to cross when you hit a limit. (If you’re too tired to remember your passcode, it’s probably time to hang up the phone.)
When you set Screen Time passcode for yourself Ideas > screen timewhere you type Use Screen Time passcode, iOS and iPadOS will prompt you to select and enter a four-digit screen passcode. Then enter it a second time to confirm you remember it accurately. So far, so good. (In macOS, you can only set a Screen Time passcode for accounts that don’t have admin status.)
Apple will now prompt you to enter your Apple ID account password in a screen labeled Screen Time Passcode Recovery. This provides a backup: if you forget your Screen Time passcode, you can use your Apple ID to unlock your device or turn off Screen Time. You can type Cancel to avoid entering your Apple ID. If so, iOS or iPadOS will prompt you with “Are you sure?” It offers two buttons: Skip or Provide the Apple ID. Beat Skipand the passcode is set without the recovery option.
That’s all well and good, unless you forget your Screen Time passcode. Although you may find this unlikely, this passcode is different from other codes that we routinely enter on our devices. So you may not have a reason to use it for a long time. If you haven’t saved your choices in a password manager, you might forget them.
If you don’t remember your code And If you’ve set up Apple ID backup, you can follow Apple’s reset instructions on this support page.
A reader wrote looking for advice on how to recover his code since he had bypassed the Apple ID step. Initially I thought they were wrong as Apple’s page documenting how to enable a Screen Time passcode says “Enter the Apple ID and password* you used to set up Screen Time.” -Passcodes used.” There is no “if you want” or “you can tap skip”.
But it’s optional – and there’s no way to detach yourself from it. Our reader ended up having to reset their device.
This Mac 911 article answers a question from Macworld reader Henry.
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