Stop ignoring Screen Time limits

You set a limit in Screen Time, it went off, and you tapped “Ignore Limit”. That button can’t be removed: no iOS setting makes it disappear. Here is what actually locks it, why that only works in one specific case, and what stays open even when locked.

What the button does

Once a limit is hit, the app opens on a grey “Time Limit” screen. At the bottom, “Ignore Limit” unfolds three choices: One More Minute (once a day per app), Remind Me in 15 Minutes, and Ignore Limit for Today. Without a passcode, each applies with a tap. The next day at midnight, the limit comes back — and so does the button.

Locking it: the Screen Time passcode

1. Open Settings, then Screen Time.
2. Tap Lock Screen Time Settings (“Use Screen Time Passcode” on older versions).
3. Enter a four-digit passcode, twice. iOS then offers a recovery Apple ID: accept, it is the only way back if the passcode is lost.

From then on, “Ignore Limit” asks for the passcode, and so does editing or deleting a limit. One more box, in the same menu: Block at End of Limit must be on for each limit, or the grey screen doesn’t even show.

Why it only works in one case

A passcode protects against someone who doesn’t know it. If you created it yourself, you know it, and “Forgot Passcode?” resets it with your Apple ID. So the lock holds in exactly one case: the passcode is typed by someone else, with their Apple ID as recovery. A partner, a flatmate, a friend. It is an arrangement, not a setting, and it has to be asked for again every time a limit needs touching.

Three things stay open even with the passcode:

• The limit is daily. It resets at midnight; what was blocked at 11:50 pm is open at 12:01 am.
• The browser. An app limit doesn’t cover the same app’s website. That is blocked separately, under Content & Privacy Restrictions → Web Content.
• Deleting. Deleting the app and reinstalling it gets around the limit, unless you also forbid deleting apps in the same restrictions — which then applies to all your apps.

The other approach: no button at all

The problem isn’t that the button is easy to tap. It’s that it exists. Tempo doesn’t have one: the blocked app reopens when your screen-minute balance is positive, and that balance only comes from a sensor — a workout, steps — at the exchange rate you chose. There is no code to type, so no code to know, and no Apple ID that resets it.

1. Install Tempo from the App Store.
2. Allow Health and Screen Time: Tempo uses the same API as Apple, and iOS enforces the block, even with Tempo closed.
3. Tick the apps to lock, pick your rate. At ×1, ten minutes of walking buy ten screen minutes.

What Tempo doesn’t claim either: it can be uninstalled, and the block goes with it. Strict mode (Tempo Pro) puts 24 hours between the urge to loosen a setting and its effect, and can remove the “Delete App” button from the home screen — a night between the urge and the gesture, not a prison. In the free version, spending is capped at 60 screen minutes a day. The details are in the complete blocking guide.

Frequently asked questions

Can the “Ignore Limit” button be removed entirely?

No. iOS offers no setting that removes it: with a Screen Time passcode, the button stays and asks for the code. The only way to stop seeing it is a blocker that doesn’t have one.

I forgot my Screen Time passcode, what now?

On the passcode screen, tap “Forgot Passcode?” and sign in with the Apple ID that created it. If you created it yourself, that is also proof the passcode doesn’t protect you: you can reset it at any time.

Why did the limit reset overnight?

That is normal behaviour: an app limit is daily and resets at midnight. “Ignore Limit for Today” lasts until midnight too. No setting makes a limit permanent.

Does Tempo have a button to ignore the block?

No. The blocked app reopens when your screen-minute balance is positive, and that balance only comes from a sensor: a workout, steps. There is no code to type, so no code to know.