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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2020-08-27T18:59:09+00:00

    I just did all the updates available and it didnt make a difference .  For most of the summer it kicked my son out of apps.  Now for something like Skype he can stay on past the time notice.  Its only when he closes the apps that the time limit locks him out.

    I suddenly noticed this week that Screen Time limits had stopped working. My 9-year old has far exceeded the 90-minutes daily allowance almost every day this week. They worked fine last week.

    As far as I know, there has not been any significant changes to any of the in house Windows PCs within this time frame. 

    All I know is that the Thinkpad in use is lacking a few updates. I'll get it updated and see if that fixes the issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-27T18:10:52+00:00

    I suddenly noticed this week that Screen Time limits had stopped working. My 9-year old has far exceeded the 90-minutes daily allowance almost every day this week. They worked fine last week.

    As far as I know, there has not been any significant changes to any of the in house Windows PCs within this time frame. 

    All I know is that the Thinkpad in use is lacking a few updates. I'll get it updated and see if that fixes the issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-25T20:00:16+00:00

    Just checking in....has this ever been solved?

    No sir.  I was unable to control my son's limits all summer long

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-25T19:32:45+00:00

    Just checking in....has this ever been solved?

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