Deleting and reinstalling an app can reset your child's iPhone time limit. Here's the fix

If your child’s iPhone or iPad time limit on an app like TikTok seems to stop working, the most common reason is a simple trick: when the time is up, they delete the app and download it again from the App Store, and the timer starts over. The fix is to block your child from installing apps in Screen Time, so a deleted app can’t come back without you. You can still let new apps in whenever you choose.

This trick has been around since Apple first launched Screen Time. Tech sites reported kids deleting locked-out games and re-downloading them back in 2018 (TidBITS, PhoneArena), and parents still run into it. Apple’s help pages don’t say whether it works on every version, so think of the steps below as closing a gap, not as proof your child has been using it.

And if it has happened in your house, that’s not a parenting failure. Kids talk to each other, and they’re often a step ahead on this stuff. Most of us were the same with our own parents.

Why a time limit on its own isn’t enough

Apple now calls app limits Time Allowances. You set them for your child from your own iPhone, in Settings > Family > [your child’s name] > Time Allowances, then tap Add (Apple). You can give a category, such as social media, a daily amount of time.

A limit like that controls how long an app can be used. It doesn’t, by itself, stop your child removing the app and getting it straight back. Older reports describe exactly that: once a game locked, kids deleted it and tapped the cloud icon in the App Store to download it again (PhoneArena).

So the real control isn’t the timer. It’s who decides what goes on the phone.

The fix: block installing apps

The answer suggested at the time was to turn off installing apps in Screen Time’s restrictions (PhoneArena). In the current version of Apple’s parental controls, this lives under Apps & Websites. Apple’s help page describes these steps, done on your iPhone or iPad if you’ve set up Family Sharing with a Child Account for your son or daughter (Apple):

1. Open Settings and tap Family.
2. Tap your child’s name.
3. Tap Apps & Websites. Enter your Screen Time passcode if you’re asked.
4. Tap App Store.
5. Choose Installing Apps and set it to Blocked.

Now, if your child deletes an app, they can’t put it back themselves. If they want it again, they have to come to you.

Menus move between iOS versions, so if your screens look different, check Apple’s current guide. Apple’s wording changes, but the idea is the same: turn off your child’s ability to install apps.

Two more settings that make it stick

Ask to Buy. In the same Apps & Websites area, Apple has Restrictions > Ask to Buy, where you turn on Require Purchase Approval. Your child then sends you a request before buying or downloading, and you approve it from your own phone. Apple says it’s on by default for children under 13 (Apple). It’s a useful extra layer, but blocking installs is the setting that closes this particular gap, so do both.

A Screen Time passcode your child doesn’t know. All of this only holds if your child can’t change the settings back. Apple says the parent or family organiser must set the child’s Screen Time passcode on their own device, not the child’s (Apple). Pick one that’s different from your phone’s unlock code, because children are very good at watching thumbs.

The catch, and how to live with it

Blocking installs has a small cost. Older reports note it also stops app updates, because an update counts as an install (PhoneArena). That may have changed in newer versions, but plan for it anyway:

• Once a week or so, switch Installing Apps back to Allowed for a few minutes, let the updates run, then block it again.
• When your child asks for a new app, do the same while you’re sitting together. It’s a natural moment to look at the app’s age rating and settings.

Many parents find this actually improves the conversation. “Ask me first” becomes the normal way apps arrive, rather than something you discover later.

Talking about it without a row

If you’ve found the trick in action, it’s tempting to come down hard. A calmer approach often works better, especially with tweens and teens:

• Say what you noticed, without a trap: “I saw TikTok was reinstalled after the limit. Can we talk about that?”
• Ask whether the limit feels fair. If two hours always runs out by 5pm, maybe the day needs a different shape, such as no social media until homework’s done, rather than a bigger fight.
• Explain that the new setting isn’t a punishment. It’s the same rule as before, now working the way it was meant to.

Every family’s limits are different. The point isn’t to win; it’s for the rules you’ve agreed to actually hold.

What to do next

1. Tonight, check Installing Apps. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Family > your child > Apps & Websites > App Store, and set Installing Apps to Blocked.
2. Make sure the Screen Time passcode is yours alone. If your child might know it, change it from your own device.
3. Pick an “update time”. Choose a moment each week, such as Sunday evening, to unblock installs, let apps update, and block them again.
4. Have the two-minute chat. Tell your child about the change before they find it themselves. It goes down far better that way.