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
    2021-01-12T08:57:34+00:00

    Very importantly, do not give children administrator rights!

    I have a 13 year old son at home. I have had the same problem for a while now as everyone else. Now  I figured out what he did. He disabled servicesParental Control (WPCMonSvc) https://youtu.be/x0bJ67VpC8w

    The solution:

    1. Log in to your child's account as an administrator
    2. Open Services
    3. Change Parental Control (WPCMonSvc) - Startup Type to Automatic and Run
    4. Restart computer
    5. Log in in Parental acount - Change children acount - to Standard user

    (How to change Acount Type - tinyurl.com/y2lve6h9)

    Reverse procedure from this:

    Open task manager, then head over to services tab, look for this service 'WPCMONSVC'; right click, then click on stop to temporarily stop the service. Open services menu by clicking on the link labeled 'open services' at the bottom of task manager screen. Once the services screen pops up, search for 'parental controls'; once you've seen it, Right click and go to properties.. Then change the start-up type to disabled

    I **t works now, but I’m afraid not for long :).****I also disabled children administrative rights!**For children, this service is a nightmare. They have a lot of time they will do anything to disable the service.Play cat and mouse to be continued...

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  2. 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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  3. Anonymous
    2020-03-22T10:55:37+00:00

    I've had a ticket open with Microsoft for months now but they seem unable to fix it and are now ignoring me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-05-22T02:16:10+00:00

    I have been trying to get this to work for well over 2 years. Started with MS support who stopped reply after we tried numerous fixes that didn’t work.... 

    For me its just my oldest child’s profile that causes issues, with the younger two children it works just fine 95% of the time on PC (Win10) or xbox.

    I believe the issue lies in the profile as it has carried across from our home desktop to his school laptop. Lately the new app control feature works so i can limit time on specific apps but he can still log in whenever he wants (other than me physically locking the device in my home office.... which becomes tedious).

    I have tried several third party software solutions which worked well for time restrictions but they all caused other issues, especially with the school wifi access. Mostly it was the ports that the parental software was using were blocked by the school. The school IT dept would not open the specific ports In their filter software to allow the app to work.

    While I highly respect Bill Gate’s philanthropy and solving world health issues, he needs to focus back on this software business and fix this long running systemic issue in the family app given he is such a big advocate of family cyber safety and use of tech, especially with his own family. It all started when the controls became online based, it worked fine when it was a local PC control.

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