How to Turn Off Screen Time on iPhone and Mac

This practical guide walks through how to turn off screen time on iPhone and Mac, explains the main requirements, and highlights common issues that may appear along the way.

How to turn off Screen Time on iPhone

To stop using Screen Time on an iOS device, follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Click on Screen Time from the list below.
3. Scroll to the bottom, find and select Turn Off Screen Time .
4. A message will appear below stating all the settings and limits you have set in this feature will also be disabled. Confirm by pressing Turn Off Screen Time again.

If you still want to use this feature but just want to turn off notifications on your phone, go to Settings> Notifications> Screen Time and turn off the Allow Notifications option . After turning off notifications, you will still be able to check your Screen Time data, the feature still works as usual.

To continue using the feature and turn off all the restrictions you've added, go to Settings> Screen Time . Here, disable Downtime , App Limits , remove Content & Privacy Restriction . Turn off the Screen Time setting that you no longer use. You can only change these settings when you know the PIN used when you initially set up Screen Time.

How to turn off Screen Time on a Mac

Here's how to turn off Screen Time completely on macOS:

1. Open System Preferences .
2. Click on Screen Time .
3. In the lower left corner, select Options> Turn Off .

If you still want to get application usage metrics but disable some Screen Time settings, go to System Preferences> Screen Time and select the settings you want to disable. Here, you can disable Downtime , App Limits, and Content & Privacy Restrictions .

If not, Screen Time is bothering but notifications from it, you can also turn them off like on iPhone. How to turn off Screen Time notifications on a Mac by opening System Preferences> Notifications . From the list of apps, find and select Screen Time, and toggle to turn off the Allow Notifications from Screen Time option . After this, you will no longer receive the Screen Time notifications.

How to delete Screen Time without PIN

The only way to turn off Screen Time restrictions on an iPhone or Mac without a PIN is to use a hard reset for an iPhone or Mac. Perhaps you should not use this method as all the data stored on your phone will be lost when it reboots.

Turn Screen Time back on at any time

Screen Time is a very useful feature that allows you to track device usage time (especially for kids). When you do not want to use this feature anymore, you can easily turn it off like the steps above and you can turn it on again when needed. Just go to Settings> Screen Time on iPhone or System Preferences> Screen Time on a Mac to re-enable the feature.