Screentime request not triggering notification on parent device.

Thank you ZGauba! Your suggestion worked after I tried SEVERAL other recommendations in various community threads. I still can't get the requests to show as notifications, the way they did until a few weeks ago, but now the requests come through as texts on my phone and I don't have to login on my desktop mac (which was particularly troublesome while on vacation!). I wish Apple would make the Screentime settings as seamless and intuitive as they've made most of the other Apple functions.

I was not either until last night when I read here or another thread that you have to have an e-mail listed in your iMessage settings in addition to your phone number. Once I added an email and turned my phone on and off and ensure the child’s phone had an email as well listed under the message app in setting I did see improvement

Add email to iMessage for both (parent and child). Messages/iMessage...

Adding an email to iMessage - Apple Community

Then you get the notification in Messages.

I’m having the same issues. It’s hit or miss when it works. Both my children have near-new devices. iPhone 11, iPad 10th gen for daughter. iPhone 12, iPad 7th gen recently replaced for son. All updated to current software. I get the iMessage notifications but sometimes, they still come up as requests that pop up in settings for me to approve. I’m holding my son’s phone and sending the request and it isn’t coming through to my phone from his iPhone. I’ve been having the same or a similar issue since iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. It will ask me to enter my AppleID and password to approve in person, but when I enter it, it tells me to go into settings to continue signing in. When I go to settings, nothing happens. Unable to approve. This usually resolves itself after a day but it’s frustrating to deal with. Force restarted both devices. Still nothing.

I think whoever decided to change to iMessage instead of notifications doesn't have kids. It is really a nuisance to have it come through iMessage. My kid will continuously spam me with requests to get my attention. Well, that means when I text her, she is missing my responses in the enormous sea of requests sent. And I have to scroll through all of those requests jamming up my iMessage thread with her. I hate it. Please give us the option back to choose if requests come to parents as notifications or in iMessages.

It is absolutely horrible to receive screentime requests through iMessage. Apple, please change this back! Whoever decided to change to iMessage instead of notifications doesn't have kids. It is really a nuisance to have it come through iMessage. My kid will continuously spam me with requests to get my attention. Well, that means when I text them, they are missing my responses in the enormous sea of requests sent. And I have to scroll through all of those requests jamming up my iMessage thread with her. I hate it. Please give us the option back to choose if requests come to parents as notifications or in iMessages.

Thanks for letting us know Pho Da Nguyen,

If you're still running into difficulty, you can connect with Apple directly to report the issue using either Get Support or if you're in a region without direct support options, you can also Contact Apple for support and service.

Hope that helps.

Take care.

Having the same issue here, for one of the two kids - his requests suddenly no longer show up as iMessages. His brother’s requests do still show up as iMessages. Everyone’s iMessage otherwise working fine.

I'm happy that worked for you. It does not work for us, though. We all use our iCloud addresses for iMessage, always have, and it was working fine until a few months ago when it just stopped working. (Your solution makes me wonder if adding a new address is somehow resetting the iMessage group, and perhaps that is why it starts working again.)

FYI for anyone finding this. I fixed it, checked both son and my phone were fully up to date. Confirmed iMessage was on for my phone then discovered my son’s phone iMessage on but had his phone number and email checked. I unchecked his email because when I checked his phone his notifications were coming from his text message center but addressed to my email and not coming through. I then on my son’s phone turned I message off then back on and immediately got the same familiar notification on my phone to approve the app! Hope this helps someone, it worked for me.

This did not work for us. My wife is not getting these but I am. The kids’ devices are correctly set up, but something is not right in my wife’s settings and I can’t figure out what it is. One day of new iPads for kids and I already find the parental controls completely broken.

edit: I take it back, my wife’s iMessage settings were incorrect. Hopefully this will work. It is very frustrating how complicated and totally undocumented this is. Setting up the iPads last night was a nightmare. The setup got stuck and I had to start over, the settings for screen time are inscrutable and I couldn’t figure out how to make the App Store work without turning off restrictions entirely. This is not a good start.

This is so ridiculous, my iPad receives all the push notifications from my Daughters phone despite both being on ios17, perhaps due to the fact that it has iMessage switched off, as I have never had a need to receive my messages on every Apple device I own, so if it can still work and receive screen time notifications without iMessage on the iPad, then why do I need to use iMessage to manage it on my phone if notifications are still operational, I have no need for email based iMessages as anybody or any mailing list I’ve signed up to could then attempt to send me a message whereas who has my personal phone number is a lot more limited

We had the same issue where only one parent would get the screen time request via iMessage. What seemed to work is deleting my child’s phone number and email from the device that wasn’t receiving the request and then adding them back again. Both parents are now receiving the requests.