ms family account screen time limits not working

Anonymous
2019-11-03T16:29:00+00:00

Hi

Despite trying all the suggestions I can find online to fix it screen time limits have not been working for months. The limit is set correctly but Windows appears to ignore it. Family activity reporting shows that the activity duration is greater than the limit set.

Thanks

Mik

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Family and online safety

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Anonymous
2020-09-26T00:35:11+00:00

I too had struggled to get this feature to stick properly to one of my three kids. Two were working fine, one not. All identical hardware, so it was highly irritating one was out of alignment to the others. 

Reinstalled the OS on his PC, still no joy. Removed him from family group, tried everything on the suggestions and they all were useless. 

What I noted was that the time limit that I setup was being ignored but there was still a time limit. Instead of 1.5 hours, it was 4 hours per day. No matter what I set it to, it remained. However, if I turned off limits on his account, instantly the setting on his PC was aware that the limits were removed. When I imposed them once more, the same 4 hour limit (rather than the 1.5 hour limit) was turned back on. 

I concluded that in my case, the time limits set on the website were being ignored or overruled by something on the PC. The feature was linked though, reporting functions worked, and clearly when I switched the time limits off, they applied so no issue with the account itself. 

I searched around a bit more, and saw this bit of advice:

Delete the Parental Control Settings in the following path:

  • On the Start screen, type C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Parental Controls and press Enter.

Delete the folder and files under this location. When the user logs in again, it will force a check with the settings stored online and redownload the settings. 

The reason this didn't get fixed when I did a reinstall of the OS was that I kept files/settings and it never got wiped in the OS re-install. 

As soon as I did this, the correct time limit and schedule was finally applied to my son on his PC. No idea why it got stuck, or why it would never overwrite, but it cleared it. Hopefully future adjustments to the time limits and schedule will work as normal from now on.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-01T01:53:36+00:00

    This is ridiculous that this is still not fixed. Windows 10 is huge leap forward compared to older version but this is example why there is no ideal operating system for consumer computers (versus commercial area already has many options like linux, dockers on pc etc.). Mac is even worse than windows in this regard. 

    It just shows how Microsoft has focused on share return by putting all resources on Azure with Windows not getting enough attention. In this day and age where everything is done through cloud, web and cookies, why would windows use local files ( I understand this is needed when there is no internet). Apparently windows are still using some old code base which is not easy to rewrite. 

    Maybe they should release separate application like Windows firewall, that is rewritten for new world and let old parental controls be as is.

    Got it working by deleting below folder and rebooting.

    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Parental Contols

    Microsoft should just put this one liner in help instead of worded documents after documents. Just try it out, search for "screen control on windows" and you will got tons of MS help pages with just raw text with not even links.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-10-31T16:07:04+00:00

    This is ridiculous that this is still not fixed. Windows 10 is huge leap forward compared to older version but this is example why there is no ideal operating system for consumer computers (versus commercial area already has many options like linux, dockers on pc etc.). Mac is even worse than windows in this regard. 

    It just shows how Microsoft has focused on share return by putting all resources on Azure with Windows not getting enough attention. In this day and age where everything is done through cloud, web and cookies, why would windows use local files ( I understand this is needed when there is no internet). Apparently windows are still using some old code base which is not easy to rewrite. 

    Maybe they should release separate application like Windows firewall, that is rewritten for new world and let old parental controls be as is.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-10-31T02:15:59+00:00

    HELLO MICROSOFT!!?!?!

    Parental controls don't work.  My son has a 1.5 hour limit per day, and somehow he manages to go over the limit whenever he wants.  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with requesting extra time - there's usually a request when he goes over (I never answer them).

    I know your team has the horsepower to fix this.  Please act like it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-10-13T13:44:02+00:00

    I‘ve spent hours searching and trying different suggestions, and finally find something that worked by chatting with Microsoft Support.  Here's what I've tried.

    1)  Re-booted

    2)  Updated Windows

    3)  Updated all apps

    4)  Verified account

    5)  Removed account from family and added back in

    6)  Clicked the "fix account" button

    7)  Found the Microsoft app to fix account issues, which said it could not run on my Windows 10

    So pretty much everything that has worked for some users did not work.  And from what I see, these didn't solve problems for many users.  Microsoft Support told me to find the "Parental Control" folder at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Parental Contols, and remove the file under that folder as it is corrupted.  After I did that, it still did not work.  However, as I rebooted again, it worked. 

    I have to say that I got very frustrated with this after spending hours and finding no solutions anywhere.  Microsoft should have resolved this bug years ago or at least include this work-around on its official support page.

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