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Parental Control is perhaps one of the best benefits of being inside the Apple ecosystem. You can ensure the right amount of oversight and control over what your children do using their iPhone, iPad, or iPod. You also get to prevent your kids from unwanted exposure and protect your money by limiting the number of options and apps they can see/use.
Altogether, it is a smooth sail, from setting up Parental Controls to monitoring what is happening. However, the problem occurs when you forget the parental control password. If you did not know, iOS asks you to set up a Screen Time password different from the core iPhone passcode. You cannot disable/make changes with Screen Time without entering the password.
Well, that’s what Apple tells you. As it stands, there are some ways to disable parental controls on the iPhone without entering the password. Some of them incur a data loss, while others are super-smooth. This article covers almost everything you should know about disabling parental controls on the iPhone.
What Are Parental Controls on iPhone?
Parental Controls, also known as Screen Time, are a set of iOS features that allow parents to oversee/control what their kids are doing on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Setting up a Screen Time passcode on iPhone devices will allow you to do the following things.
- You can create content and privacy restrictions
- Prevent children from making App Store and iTunes purchases
- Control/hide in-iOS features like Siri, FaceTime, Camera, or Mail
- Stop children from accessing explicit content across the device
- Oversee their web browsing by limiting adult websites
- Control how Location/Bluetooth/Share My Location services are used
- Prevent the user from making system-level changes, like passcode and cellular data settings
Once you have turned on Screen Time, the iPhone will ask for the Screen Time passcode when your children attempt any of the tasks mentioned above. Simultaneously, the apps you have restricted would stay hidden when your children are using the device.
In addition, you can also set up App Limits. App Limits are a type of restriction that works with only the apps you have selected. For instance, you can stop your kids from using WhatsApp for more time by setting up an App Limit.
We hope you have the basic idea about Screen Time and Parental Controls on iOS now. Without further ado, shall we check out why you may want to turn off parental controls?
When to Turn Off Parental Controls on iPhone?
There are several instances when you may want to turn off Parental Controls on an iPhone. The commonest ones are as follows:
- You want to give the iPhone to an adult who does not need the protection/oversight from Parental Controls and Screen Time. For instance, you may be planning to use the device by yourself and get a new one for your kid.
- You bought a used iPhone that came with a parental control lock. In this case, you cannot use the iOS device properly without providing the Screen Time passcode. At this point, it is better to disable the entire Parental Control system at once.
- You forgot the Screen Time password that you had set way back. Now, you like to make some changes to the iPhone, but you cannot. Of course, you will have to turn off parental controls for a better experience altogether.
Depending on the condition of the device, you may want to avoid data loss as well. That is why we’ve covered multiple methods here.
How to Turn Off Parental Controls on iPhone without Password?
As we said, you may not remember the Screen Time passcode that you had set earlier. In this situation, you have two plausible way-outs to turn of Parental Controls without entering the password.
Method 1. Remove Parental Controls on iPhone by Using Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup
Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup is an all-in-one iPhone backup unlocker that can help you to remove Screen Time passcode. Once you have removed the Screen Time passcode, you can easily turn off Parental Controls. This is such an easy process, and it does not incur any data loss.
Here are the steps you want to follow for removing parental controls from an iPhone using Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup.
Step 1. First, you have to download and install the Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup on your computer. This process would take only a few minutes.
>> Get Tenorshare 4uKey - iTunes Backup <<
Step 2. Now, you can connect your iPhone to the PC/Mac using the authorized USB cable. Your iPhone would ask you whether you should trust the computer. Tap on Yes to continue.
Step 3. Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup will ask you to turn off the Find My Phone feature before you can disable Screen Time passcode. Do that as per the instructions.
Step 4. From the upcoming set of options, choose the one named Remove Screen Time Passcode. On the next screen, you can press the Start button as well.
Step 5. Wait while Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup removes the Screen Time password from your iPhone. Depending on the device you have, this process may take up to a few minutes.
Once the process is done, Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup will let you know that it has removed the Screen Time passcode. Now, you can go ahead and turn off the parental control features. You must understand that this process doesn’t do anything to your iPhone storage or data.
Instead, it intelligently disables the part of the iOS system responsible for the Screen Time passcode. This way, only the passcode is removed, and the data is kept without any change. After this process, you can also set up Screen Time with another passcode, if you want.
Once Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup has removed the passcode, you can go to Settings > Screen Time and choose Turn Off Screen Time. In case you had enabled content-specific restrictions, you can go to that menu and deselect the content restriction options. You can check out our bonus section for detailed steps.
It’s also great that the Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup works with almost every iPhone model in the market right now. We are talking about even the latest devices, including the iPhone 12 series and the new iPad lineup.
As you can see, this method is as easy as a piece of cake. Learn more from our Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup Review here.
Method 2. Remove Parental Controls By Restoring iPhone with iTunes (Data Loss)
Let’s say you don’t mind losing data when you disable parental control features without a password. In such a scenario, you can use the built-in iOS utilities to reset the iPhone. In this case, we are using iTunes — which is integrated to Finder in macOS Mojave and later.
If you have a Windows PC, though, you have to download and install iTunes on it. You also have to use only the official USB cables. The process is pretty straightforward too. You first have to connect your iPhone to a computer and launch iTunes.
Once iTunes has detected your iPhone, you can go to the Summary tab. Here, you can see many options, but you have to choose the Restore iPhone button. This will perform a factory reset on your iPhone, and you can start using the device without Screen Time restrictions when you set it up the next time.
While this method gives you a practically new iPhone, it poses the risk of data loss. If you want to retain the data you had on the device, we cannot recommend this method. Also, you don’t have much of a high success rate or flexibility while following this method.
Note: In this step, iTunes would either ask you to disable Find My on your iPhone. Alternatively, you could enter your Apple ID credentials when there is a prompt.
Bonus: How to Disable Parental Controls on iPhone with Password?
Let’s say you know the password you set for Screen Time. In this case, turning off Parental Controls on an iPhone is easier than you can imagine. You have to follow the steps we have listed below.
Step 1. Open Settings on your iPhone and choose Screen Time from the options.
Step 2. Scroll down to the bottom, and you will see an option to Turn Off Screen Time.
Step 3. Press on the button and provide the passcode when you get a prompt.
Again, your iPhone may ask you to provide the Apple ID credential for extended verification. There is also an option to reset the Screen Time passcode if you have access to the Apple ID.
This should effectively disable Screen Time and Parental Controls on the device. You can now use the iPhone without any restrictions. Alternatively, you can remove specific content restrictions from the device as well. To do this, you have to choose the Content and Privacy Restrictions menu instead of the Turn Off button.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? As we said in the beginning, it’s all good when you know the passcode.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, it takes just a few seconds for anyone to turn off parental controls on iPhone, even if you don’t remember the password. There are so many ways that you can explore even if you don’t want to incur any data loss, such as Tenorshare 4uKey – iTunes Backup. In either case, you can turn off parental controls on iPhone in just a few seconds. Instead, you have to ensure that the method you choose works fine with the iPhone model you have and the version of iOS that it runs on.
