XBox One Screen Time restricitions no long work

Jon O Bristol · Sep 2, 2019

When Screen Time limits for Xbox One were first introduced, they worked fine.

Some months back, they stopped working. I searched for related articles many times, and have even raised web chat sessions and never got anywhere near resolving this issue. So let me start by saying what I've tried to date...

* On the Microsoft Family portal, for my son, I've tried all of the following:

- Removing all available time windows for every weekday

- Setting every day to Blocked

- Setting brief periods (say 30 mins) to see if Xbox reflects this when I log in as my son

- All of the above, plus, after await of minutes and days, where I go back and set up reasonable limits once again

* On the Xbox One itself, as many articles suggest, removing my son's account and the rebooting the device by holding down on the off button on the front until it shutdown, waiting minutes/hours/next day until restarting. Once up and running, I might even
reboot again. Later on I re-add my son's account. After testing this, it briefly seems to follow the Screen Time period settings. However, when my son uses the Xbox for a real session, it just keeps on going and going with no lock out ever occurring.

My son does not know my Microsoft account password, let alone the URL where I manage such settings so is not changing anything on the family portal behind my back. He cannot access my Xbox account either to change anything in the Xbox settings.

So, I think I've done all that I can from a end-user perspective.

Being in IT as a designer, developer for 30+ years, I get the impression that the issue relates to his profile that's managed outside of my reach. Something in there much be inconsistent with the data model the Xbox is expecting. How it's got into such
a state, Microsoft can only ever guess as we only have access to a couple of tools that influence it as mentioned above.

Can this issue be taken more seriously, and get somewhere closer to 3rd line support where those people involved in writing and supporting the Screen Time capability for Xbox look at it in more detail. Am happy to support them, but my experience so far
is that I, and other Microsoft front line support, have exhausted viable options.

:)

Jon O Bristol

Good question, but my account is not set to auto login, so he can't be using it to bypass the screen time limits.

Ricardo Cintra

Hi, Your Account is configured on Xbox One? Maybe if your account is auto login in Xbox, so then your son can access for unblock for then he use the Xbox? Try deactivate the auto login of your account in Xbox

TheJedio

no not even the games they show can change the fact that microsoft have abandoned gamers completely with all these restricitions, the tv , music , movies , and apps dont have any restricitions , you can do all that stuff OFFLINE. All the restricitons are
towards gaming. The only way microsoft can redeem themselves is if they get rid rid of all the restricitions to gamers and show good games.

XBF Crystal P

Hi there UTZS,

Thanks for reaching out! I'm sorry to hear about the issue with screen time limits for your child. Have you taken a moment to review the family settings under the parent profile?

Here are some troubleshooting resources:

Set up screen time limits for your child
Change your sign-in preferences on your Xbox One console for the Adult Profile
- (Recommendation: create a passkey or lock down the adult profile)
How to change your Microsoft account password
- (Recommendation : to help ensure only the adult has the password for account)

Hope this helps. Let us know.

UTZS

No. I'm using different screen for PC and Xbox.

XBox One Screen Time restricitions no long work