Why are my apps all greyed out?
26/06/26 Filed in: screentime
I have a strange message on my phone that says I have a time limit on all my apps and every time I pull up a new app it says I have a time limit one minute 15 minutes one hour ignore and it keeps coming back and I’m worried that something is seriously wrong I’ve turned the phone off several times and turn it back on and it hasn’t erase it. I sent a screenshot.
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Looks like you have accidentally turned on screentime for yourself. This is usually something that parents implement with their children but sometimes adults accidentally enable it.
Is this network safe to join?
Is it ok to join unsecured network at school orientation?
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If the wifi network didn’t require a password to actually JOIN in the first place then this is just a doorway onto an unencrypted network. If however, this was a prompt you are presented with AFTER the initial wifi password was entered then it’s fine. In other words, if there is a campus wide password for all in ADDITION to creating account then it’s fine. My bet however, is that there was not. So no, this is very likely not secure in my opinion. Safe, probably. Wise, not really.
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If the wifi network didn’t require a password to actually JOIN in the first place then this is just a doorway onto an unencrypted network. If however, this was a prompt you are presented with AFTER the initial wifi password was entered then it’s fine. In other words, if there is a campus wide password for all in ADDITION to creating account then it’s fine. My bet however, is that there was not. So no, this is very likely not secure in my opinion. Safe, probably. Wise, not really.
Bypassing Screentime?
11/06/26 Filed in: screentime | parental controls
My child is bypassing my parental screentime settings.
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Be sure you have changed not only the 4 digit screentime passcode but also your own AppleID password, unlock passcode your your personal phone, and he does not have access to your laptop or iPad. (albeit older). Also be sure that his phone is running the most recent software update. iOS 26.5 and higher. It is very important that he not know your personal appleID password and passcode for your personal phone along with the parental control screentime passcode. There was an exploit about 2 years ago where turning the phone off and back on gave a window of opportunity of about 30 seconds for a child to use an app on the phone before the screentime settings kicked back in. That has been closed in the most recent phone updates.
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Be sure you have changed not only the 4 digit screentime passcode but also your own AppleID password, unlock passcode your your personal phone, and he does not have access to your laptop or iPad. (albeit older). Also be sure that his phone is running the most recent software update. iOS 26.5 and higher. It is very important that he not know your personal appleID password and passcode for your personal phone along with the parental control screentime passcode. There was an exploit about 2 years ago where turning the phone off and back on gave a window of opportunity of about 30 seconds for a child to use an app on the phone before the screentime settings kicked back in. That has been closed in the most recent phone updates.
My children are breaking my screentime.
11/06/26 Filed in: screentime | parental controls
My kids are breaking screen time by FaceTime in their friends and screen sharing then they go in and they can adjust and deactivate the screen time.
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There are two ways this can be accomplished. 1 (as I mention in this newsletter) the child knows the 4 digit code which is by far the most common, 2. They know your appleID and password. Screentime, when set up correctly with “block at end of limit” activated, avoiding the categories settings, cannot be worked around by children.
The main problem with parents and screen time settings is that usually, the child knows the code, the parent forgets to turn on “block at end of limit”, the child knows the parent’s appleID and password, the child has access to the parent’s phone, the child or parent has accidentally added certain apps into “always allowed” therefore remain unaffected by downtime or controls, the child has logged out of their own appleID on their phone (which can be blocked in Content and Privacy settings within ScreenTime).
There is no magic bullet the children know to defeat Apple’s screentime settings. It’s almost always that they’ve discovered the 4 digit code. If your child continues to penetrate the defenses provided by screentime, another strategy is to simply lock the phone down where no apps can be added or removed. If the child is unwilling to live within the rules then the consequences can be increased. This approach is now being considered inside the new iOS27 update which should give the parent the ability to simply turn off the phone whenever they’d like other than phone calls.
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There are two ways this can be accomplished. 1 (as I mention in this newsletter) the child knows the 4 digit code which is by far the most common, 2. They know your appleID and password. Screentime, when set up correctly with “block at end of limit” activated, avoiding the categories settings, cannot be worked around by children.
The main problem with parents and screen time settings is that usually, the child knows the code, the parent forgets to turn on “block at end of limit”, the child knows the parent’s appleID and password, the child has access to the parent’s phone, the child or parent has accidentally added certain apps into “always allowed” therefore remain unaffected by downtime or controls, the child has logged out of their own appleID on their phone (which can be blocked in Content and Privacy settings within ScreenTime).
There is no magic bullet the children know to defeat Apple’s screentime settings. It’s almost always that they’ve discovered the 4 digit code. If your child continues to penetrate the defenses provided by screentime, another strategy is to simply lock the phone down where no apps can be added or removed. If the child is unwilling to live within the rules then the consequences can be increased. This approach is now being considered inside the new iOS27 update which should give the parent the ability to simply turn off the phone whenever they’d like other than phone calls.
Password managers and Passkeys
11/06/26 Filed in: passwords
I wanted to start setting up some passkeys and wondered if you could help with that? No hurry. Was also thinking about something like a password vault. My friend uses One Password.
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I’m not a big fan of third party password managers like 1Password, LastPass, etc… for several reasons. Apple’s built in password manager is ok but not perfect. Eventually passwords are still so personal and important to us that we need to have our hands on them at least occasionally. In terms of passkeys, you can only implement the use of passkeys if the company you have an account with supports them. For instance, Lowes, Amazon, and Truist bank may support using a passkey but Home Depot, Harris Teeter, or USPS may not. It’s up to the login page.
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I’m not a big fan of third party password managers like 1Password, LastPass, etc… for several reasons. Apple’s built in password manager is ok but not perfect. Eventually passwords are still so personal and important to us that we need to have our hands on them at least occasionally. In terms of passkeys, you can only implement the use of passkeys if the company you have an account with supports them. For instance, Lowes, Amazon, and Truist bank may support using a passkey but Home Depot, Harris Teeter, or USPS may not. It’s up to the login page.
Parental Controls Newsletter iOS27
11/06/26 Filed in: parental controls | screentime
New Parental Control newsletter on changes coming to IOS27.
https://mailchi.mp/81397fbfb113/new-parental-controls-in-ios27
https://mailchi.mp/81397fbfb113/new-parental-controls-in-ios27
Moving a picture between devices
07/06/26 Filed in: iCloud Drive
Hi - This new mac is giving me headaches in the way its original “set up” is changing my options. For example I have an image that I want to share on my iphone, but I googled what the problem is and it’s saying things like disable firewall; allow access to everyone; - it just doesn’t feel safe - are you able to shed light on this? Should I book a zoom call? I’ve been fiddling and toggling and may not remember what I have changed access to - so I’m a little concerned about new privacy settings etc. which of course I want to protect.
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A firewall would not be relevant to the task of sharing a picture from one device to another. There are many methods to do so. Many! Airdrop, moving the file to Files which would show up in iCloud Drive, using a third party cloud service like dropbox, texting, emailing the file, using image capture to pull a pic from a phone, simply placing it into Apple’s photos application and letting it sync. Keep in mind, airdrop only works well wish small file sizes. I know that may be your preferred, but I would lean toward just dropping a copy of it into the iCloud drive folder and it would then show up in the File app on your phone.
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A firewall would not be relevant to the task of sharing a picture from one device to another. There are many methods to do so. Many! Airdrop, moving the file to Files which would show up in iCloud Drive, using a third party cloud service like dropbox, texting, emailing the file, using image capture to pull a pic from a phone, simply placing it into Apple’s photos application and letting it sync. Keep in mind, airdrop only works well wish small file sizes. I know that may be your preferred, but I would lean toward just dropping a copy of it into the iCloud drive folder and it would then show up in the File app on your phone.
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