I can’t use Apple’s new Screen Time on my daughter’s iPhone because my son won’t update his MacBook

Technically, this is since my 18-year-old son hasn’t got circular to updating his MacBook. But mostly, it’s since Apple’s rollout of the new characteristic has been confusing and frustrating, alongside fiddly requirements that power have you digging through drawers for your old devices.

I’m not equal trying to use Screen Time on my son’s devices. He’s 18, distant at college, and fine beyond my parental controls. The issue is I apparently need him to update his MacBook Neo before I can use Apple’s new Screen Time features on my 15-year-old daughter’s iPhone. His university is four hours away, and akin many university kids, he’s an expert at ignoring content messages from his mom asking him to do a boring chore.

My issue stems from Apple’s necessity that, to use the new Screen Time on any equipment in your connected household, every iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and equal Vision Pro in your Apple Family Sharing collection has to be updated to the applicable OS 27.

On top of that, if you have older devices that aren’t compatible alongside the latest OS, you can’t use the new Screen Time on them at all. While Apple says these “legacy devices” won’t forestall you from using the new Screen Time on newer devices, several users are finding they can lone rotate on the new Screen Time features following deleting the old gadgets from their accounts.

All of this is creating a lot of frustration for parents akin me, who fair desire a reliable, uncomplicated way to oversee their child’s display time. I reached out to Apple concerning the problems I’ve been having, and the business acknowledged the issues, saying it is making changes to “resolve” them.

”This is our biggest kid safety update yet, designed to provision families equal additional tools to assistance keep children safe,” Apple spokesman Katie Lowry told me. “We’re continuing to enhance the rollout of the new parental controls so parents can get set up quickly and easily, and we’re operating to determine delays several families are seeing.”

Apple’s Screen Time is the company’s type of parental controls, and it’s been beset by issues since its introduction in 2018. In the years I’ve been using it, I’ve faced ongoing problems, from settings not syncing reliably throughout devices to difficulty managing contacts and period limits remotely. And of course, my children finding ways to override my settings, gratitude to Reddit threads, YouTube videos, and annoyingly fine guesses.

When Apple dedicated a big piece of its 2026 WWDC keynote to Screen Time, I was hopeful it meant the business had taken genitor feedback earnestly and was construction a additional sturdy and easier-to-use experience. The updates and new features appearance promising, but I haven’t been capable to try them since of the ongoing setup issues. And I’m not alone.

Alongside the roadblock alongside my son’s MacBook Neo (which, admittedly, is on us), I’ve run into multiple another hurdles during trying to admission the new Screen Time.

There’s the issue that Apple thinks my Mac Mini, which I updated to macOS 27 complete a week ago, is motionless on macOS 26. There’s the issue of my sixth-gen iPad Mini that I handed downward to my son, but which Apple motionless lists under my name and as operating iPadOS 18. Then there’s the issue that my daughter’s iPad Pro is too old to update to the latest software.

My son’s iPad Mini is compatible, and I updated it whenever he was final residence (without his MacBook). But whenever I went to allow the new Screen Time controls again, Apple showed that identical iPad Mini under my document as needing to be updated. That iPad evidently doesn’t exist: a shade iPad, you power say. Eventually, removing it from my document fixed the issue (Settings > Apple Account > Devices > Remove Device), but it took multiple attempts digging through menus, affirmative waiting a complete weekend for it to clear.

In fact, all my attempts to conform to Apple’s requirements for the new Screen Time have taken a during to boot in. It seems there’s a postpone between updating a equipment and the assistance becoming available. My publishing company updated all his devices but motionless didn’t have access. It was lone following waiting and removing all his bequest devices — those that can’t be updated to 27 — from his document that the choice appeared.

It’s unclear whether it was period or his actions that led to his eventual success. Apple’s documentation says bequest devices shouldn’t halt you from using the new Screen Time on compatible devices, but some Reddit users additionally established that removing them unlocked access. Either way, Apple needs to create this entire procedure clearer so families don’t provision up on trying to admission what I anticipation are precious features.

The fact that these bequest devices can’t use the new Screen Time features raises a bigger issue. Passing older devices downward to children is average in families, and the necessity to be on type 27 volition average many kids’ devices won’t get admission to the improved parental controls.

For example, my daughter’s third-gen iPad Pro (a hand-me-down from my husband) taps out at iPadOS 26, definition it can’t always run the new Screen Time. So, she volition have one equipment (her iPhone 15) that can use the new Screen Time and one equipment (her iPad) that can’t. I won’t cognize how this volition activity until I have access, but my conjecture is it won’t be fun.

My conjecture is that I’ll have to use the old Screen Time immediately on the iPad, fairly than managing it from my phone as I do now. This is since it won’t be compatible alongside the upgraded iCloud architecture that syncs settings between devices in your family group. If you have multiple older devices, you may desire to fair rod alongside the old Screen Time controls for now.

In the meantime, I’m motionless trying to fig out what bug is causing my Mac Mini to obstacle the update, during continuing to nag my son to update his MacBook Neo. College is a fun, occupied time, and “update application on my computer” is low on his to-do list. But his reticence fair power stem from being slightly doubtful of my petition to update his equipment so I can use Screen Time on his sister’s iPhone.

Technology certainly has added another tricky tier to the parent-child relationship. After a decade of attempting to balance giving my kids admission to the benefits of innovation alongside keeping them harmless and instruction them fit habits, I’m frankly exhausted. I have a brace of years remaining in my struggle, but the irony of this circumstance isn’t misplaced on me; that the scheme meant to defend one kid now depends on the goodwill of the other, who is totally complete it.