iPhone Screen Time shows app usage despite App & Website Activity being off

Turning OFF App & Website Activity under Settings > Screen Time disables Screen Time's activity monitoring and reporting functionality. However, this does not necessarily mean that all previously collected Screen Time data is immediately erased or permanently deleted.

In my observation, after turning OFF App & Website Activity and subsequently turning it back ON, Screen Time reconstructed the usage history, including activity from the earlier period. This suggests that previously collected activity data may have been retained rather than permanently deleted when the feature was switched off.

There are a few possible explanations for this behaviour:

1. Previously collected data retained locally: Screen Time may retain historical usage records on the device even after App & Website Activity is disabled. When the feature is enabled again, the system may use these retained records to rebuild the usage reports.
2. iCloud synchronisation: If Share Across Devices is enabled, Screen Time activity from other Apple devices signed in with the same Apple Account may also contribute to the reconstructed reports.
3. Reporting refresh: Re-enabling App & Website Activity may trigger Screen Time to refresh or rebuild its usage reports using historical data that was already stored locally or synchronised from other devices.

An important distinction must be made here: The fact that Screen Time displays historical usage after being re-enabled does not necessarily mean that it continued recording activity while App & Website Activity was switched OFF. It may simply have restored, retrieved or refreshed previously collected data.

In other words, the reappearance of historical usage records should not be interpreted as proof that Screen Time was actively monitoring the device during the period when the feature was disabled.

Apple does not publicly document every detail of how Screen Time retains, synchronises and reconstructs its historical activity records. Therefore, the exact mechanism behind this behaviour cannot be established solely from the reconstructed report.

The takeaway: Turning OFF App & Website Activity disables Screen Time's monitoring and reporting functionality, but it should not be assumed that doing so immediately erases previously collected usage history. Re-enabling it may make previously retained or synchronised historical data visible again.

When Share Across Devices is on, any Screen Time limits or schedules you set apply to your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. If you turn off Share Across Devices, each device has its own Screen Time settings.

If you use multiple Apple devices signed in with the same Apple Account and have enabled Share Across Devices under Screen Time, your Screen Time settings and activity information are synchronised across those devices through iCloud.

This means that your App Limits, Downtime, and other Screen Time restrictions are generally shared across all devices associated with that Apple Account.

The good thing is that you do not have to manage Screen Time settings separately on every device. You can modify the App Limits, change Downtime schedules, or adjust other restrictions from any one of the devices signed in with the same Apple Account. Once the changes synchronise through iCloud, they will be reflected on the other devices as well.

In short: You can manage Screen Time settings from any one of your Apple devices, and the changes will be synchronised across your other devices, provided Share Across Devices is enabled and iCloud synchronisation is working correctly.

This makes managing Screen Time much easier, particularly when you use an iPhone, iPad and Mac.

vee_apple wrote:

3. When I turn it back on, the app I used while the feature is off is reflected on screen time

That is incorrect. If App & Website Activity is turned off, you will see the screen shown below instead.

hello thank you for the reply

i dont think its showing me historical data when i turn it back on

what i mean is

1 I turn off app and website activity

2 I use an app while this feature is off, say instagram for 5 mins

3 When i turn it back on, screen time shows I used instagram for 5 minutes

for the record, sharing across devices is off too