General: Forums topic: Family Controls Forums tag: Family Controls Configuring Family Controls documentation Screen Time Technology Frameworks documentation FamilyControls documentation What's new in Screen Time API video Meet the Screen Time API video

We've been using the WeatherKit API for a few years now. Everything has been pretty stable. We'll periodically get 404 errors, but they usually disappear within a couple days. Starting March 5th we've again been getting 404 errors that slowly ramped up to March 20th and continued. We have had no code changes on our end, so something seems to have changed / broken on the server side of things. Here are some example API calls that are giving us a 404 error now https://weatherkit.apple.com/api/v1/weather/en/35.9981205/-78.8920444?dataSets=forecastDaily&dailyStart=2025-03-21T05:00:00Z&timezone=America/New_York&countryCode=US https://weatherkit.apple.com/api/v1/weather/en/41.4789363/-81.7404134?dataSets=forecastDaily&dailyStart=2025-03-21T04:56:00Z&timezone=America/New_York&countryCode=US Does anyone have any insights or information on this? Also if Apple is listening, an error more meaningful than 404 would be much much appreciated.

Subject: Call Directory Extension Enable Failure for Individual User Dear Apple Developer Support, We are experiencing an issue with our Call Directory Extension where one specific user cannot enable it, while thousands of other users on the same iOS version can enable it successfully. Issue Details: App: 美信 (Midea Connect) Problem: Extension fails to enable with error: "请求'美信'的数据时失败" (Failed to request data from app) Affected: 1 user out of thousands iOS Version: 26.0.1 What Works: All other users can enable the extension normally Same iOS version, no issues App Group and Extension identifier are correctly configured User Has Tried: Reinstall app - No effect Toggle extension off/on - Still fails Restart device - No improvement

Hi! For some reason my DeviceActivityReport sometimes fails to load. I've tried setting up a very simple mock views and displaying a report with a simple "Hello world" but even that won't work. It prints the following error message in the terminal but doesn't show anything else or any context as to what has gone wrong. Failed to update the client's configuration: Error Domain=DeviceActivityReportService.ReportViewController.ClientError Code=2 "(null)" It seems like the "makeConfiguration" method for the report isn't even being invoked. That may though just be an issue with printing messages in the extension. Any help on what could be the issue, or even just a message that you're being the same thing would be greatly appreciated!

I have a question regarding CarKeyErrorCode in the CarKey framework. I plan to use the following methods in the CarKey framework: CarKeyRemoteControl.start CarKeyRemoteControlSession.vehicleReports CarKeyRemoteControlSession.perform RemoteKeylessEntryAction.ExecutionRequest.results Each of the above methods throws an Error. Are these different from CarKeyErrorCode? Is CarKeyErrorCode only used in CarKeyRemoteControlSessionDelegate.remoteControlSession(_:didInvalidateWithError:)? If methods 1-4 do not return CarKeyErrorCode, what kind of Error do they return? Thank you in advance.

Hello! What is the TTL for evaluation key(s) used in Live Caller ID feature on iOS client side? We would like to align our server-side key storage TTL with the iOS client implementation to optimize memory usage. Would really appreciate your help on this.

My CoreSpotlight extension seems to exceed the 6 MB memory limit. What’s the best way to debug this? I've tried to attach the debugger on the Simulator but the extension seems to be never launched when I trigger the reindex from Developer settings. Is this supposed to work? On device, I am able to attach the debugger. However, I can neither transfer the debug session to Instruments, nor display the memory graph. So I've no idea how the memory is used. Any recommendations how to move forward? Is there a way to temporarily disable the memory limit since even with LLDB attached, the extension is killed.

I am able to block apps using FamilyControl and Shield. Unblocking is also simple—just assign nil to store.shield.applications. However, I want to unblock them even when the app is not open. Use case: Let's say the app allows users to create a session where a particular app is blocked for a specific duration. Once the session starts, the app should remain blocked, and as soon as the session time ends, it should automatically be unblocked. Please help me with this. Thank you!

I followed the method outlined in Apple's documentation to test "Revocation of Consent." Our server received the notification sent by Apple, but the parsed data only contains the following content (some data has been modified for privacy, but the fields remain unchanged): { "receiptType": "Sandbox", "bundleId": "com.xxx.xxxxx", "receiptCreationDate": 1764932591296, "requestDate": 1764932591296, "originalPurchaseDate": 1375340400000, "originalApplicationVersion": "1.0", "appTransactionId": "705020051250081000", "originalPlatform": "iOS" } How can we identify that "a parent/guardian has revoked authorization for a specific user"? We are unable to determine which minor user should be restricted from using certain features of our app. I hope to receive a prompt response from Apple's technical experts! Thanks A Lot ！

I have been using the hourly weather forecast API, for some reason sometimes the API fails with 400 Bad Request, but on retrying just a minute later the call successfully returns data. The start and end time are 2 days apart so I don't think it's an issue with the time frame. The failed calls also don't return any reason so not sure what is the exact failure. Has anyone encountered this issue or knows why this might be happening?? Thanks!!

Hello, I have noticed that the ShieldConfiguration is only requested when opening a target app, and never when the application token is moved to a different shield while the target app remains in foreground. This causes problems because many times the wrong ShieldConfiguration is displayed (recycled) instead of requesting a new ShieldConfiguration. This bug has been around since the introduction of the Screen Time API in 2020 and is has not been addressed. Bug reports: FB14237883 FB17902392 Please fix asap!! Not acceptable to have bugs not being addressed for more than 5 years. Most concerning: This is still reproducing on iOS 26 beta 7!! Thanks a lot for your help.

How to uninstall/delete Voice Control on macOS so that I can test my app for the case when the initial use of Voice Control causes it to be downloaded from Apple? Is there a folder in the macOS System or Library to delete to force a re-download of Voice Control? My macOS app uses the older NSSpeechRecognizer to handle speech commands, but to use NSSpeechRecognizer required authorization via [SFSpeechRecognizer requestAuthorization...]. I do this and on a macOS system it can trigger a download of Voice Control, the macOS feature. An alert appears with: "A 390 MB download is required to use speech recognition features in MyApp. You may need to quit and open MyApp again after download completes."

I’m testing FinanceKit with Apple Cash and noticed that transfers don’t include any counterparty information. Here’s an example transaction I fetched: Transaction( id: 5A96EA49-B7C9-4481-949D-88247210C1D7, accountID: 28D7C0E2-DC2A-4138-B105-BCE5EE00B705, transactionAmount: 30 USD, creditDebitIndicator: .credit, transactionDescription: "Transfer", originalTransactionDescription: "", merchantCategoryCode: nil, merchantName: nil, transactionType: .transfer, status: .booked, transactionDate: 2025-08-19 21:57:54 +0000, postedDate: 2025-08-19 21:57:55 +0000 ) As you can see: transactionDescription is just "Transfer" originalTransactionDescription is empty merchantName is nil No counterparty details are exposed In contrast, the Wallet app clearly shows the other person’s name and avatar for Apple Cash transfers, making it easy to understand who the payment was with. In FinanceKit, there’s no way to distinguish between transfers with different people — every transfer looks identical. Questions Is there a hidden or planned field for Apple Cash counterparty information? Can FinanceKit provide at least minimal metadata (e.g., contact name, initials, or a privacy-preserving identifier)? Is there any workaround today to correlate Apple Cash transfers with contacts? Feature request: Please expose counterparty information for Apple Cash transfers. Even something as simple as a stable identifier or name string would enable developers to build Wallet-quality transaction detail screens. Thanks!

I am developing multi timer app which works in background mode. at first, I could go multi timer in background mode using background mode 'audio' which uses slient wav file. However, app has rejected background mode 'audio' should not use which not for audio app. I want to know how to develop timer app which works in background mode in ios platform. native ios timer that let us alarmed time. so I want develop that kind of app Sincerely,

I'm currently experimenting with AlarmKit and, when configuring an alarm with a Relative schedule, but that never repeats, I find that it is still scheduled in the AlarmManager, but the documentation says that an alarm that has no repeat schedule will be removed from the AlarmManager after firing. This behavior is experienced both in my project and with the sample code AlarmKit-ScheduleAndAlert To reproduce, create a non-repeating alarm, and, after firing, it will still be on the list marked as Scheduled Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

I experimented a lot with Live Caller ID when it first appeared with iOS 18 Beta. Now I'm starting to pick it up again and have immediately noticed some detrimental differences between the behavior observed when it was in beta status to how it currently behaves with iOS 18.3. The main difference is caching - if a call is made and data from a live call id lookup displayed on the call screen, then if the call is made again immediately then that data is re-fetched from the server. And it takes a long time too, about 5 or 6 seconds before the data is displayed in the call screen (with the beta it took about 3 seconds). In the data set cache_expiry_minutes is set to 50, yet it's not being honored, there's no caching occurring at all. Yet this did used to occur several months ago when the feature was in beta. What's happened to caching, why is it no longer working when it used to? Another change is there used to be a notification displayed when a call was blocked, this no longer is displayed. Is this an intentional change or a bug?

In the past I was always able to install every major macOS version on an external drive so that I can test my apps. But now I'm unable to install macOS Tahoe 26 on an external drive. Actually, as far as I'm aware, there are not even official links to macOS 26 installers, but only instructions on how to update to macOS 26 from an existing macOS installation. So I thought I'd install macOS 15 on a separate drive and then update to macOS 26, but whenever I run the macOS 15 installer, tell it to install on the external drive, and reboot after the setup process completes, my MacBook just boots into my main macOS partition as if nothing happened. 3 months ago I somehow managed to install macOS Tahoe beta 1 on an external drive, I don't remember how (but I don't think it was anything crazy); booting into that beta 1 partition and trying to update doesn't work either, as my MacBook again boots into my main macOS partition. I already asked help about the update problem one month ago here, but nobody replied. Could someone at Apple please provide instructions on how one is supposed to install macOS 26 on an external drive (if possible before it becomes available to the public)? Are we supposed to buy a separate Mac for every macOS version that we want to test our apps on?

Hi everyone, I’m developing a screen-time and focus app that uses Apple’s Family Controls framework to block distracting apps and reward users through a gamified experience. Apple approved Family Controls (Distribution) for the main app identifier, but they did not approve the required extension target (which implements DeviceActivityMonitor, required for the framework to function). Because of this, I can’t archive or upload the app to TestFlight — and I’ve been stuck in limbo for over 2 months. This is severely delaying my launch. The app works perfectly, but I can’t release it because the extension wasn’t included in the entitlement approval. Has anyone else run into this with Family Controls? Is there any known way to escalate or fast-track approval for additional app IDs or targets? Would really appreciate any help, advice, or hacks. 🙏 Thanks, Enzer

I'm new to the Screen Time API and trying to block custom websites, but I can't get WebDomain tokens to work. When I create a WebDomain like WebDomain(domain: "reddit.com"), the token property is always nil. I have proper authorization and the app works fine for blocking apps, but website blocking just won't work. I'm confused because I see apps like JOMO that let users type in any website domain and successfully block it using Screen Time API. They have the same 49 domain limit and only ask for Screen Time permission, so they must be using the same API I am. But somehow their WebDomain tokens work and mine don't. I've tried creating the tokens right after getting authorization and during the FamilyActivityPicker session, but still get nil. Am I missing some setup step or API call that makes WebDomain tokens valid? Any help would be really appreciated since I'm stuck on this.

Hello, I'm working on implementing Live Caller ID Lookup, but I noticed that https://github.com/apple/live-caller-id-lookup-example redirects to https://github.com/apple/pir-service-example. Could you please clarify why this redirection occurs?