Screen Time Passcode Broken After macOS Sequoia Update? Fix It

You updated to Sequoia, and now the Screen Time passcode you've had for two years gets rejected. Or the prompt never appears. Or it appears, you type the right digits, and it just sits there. You're not crazy — this is a known regression in macOS 15, and Apple's own support doc doesn't mention it. Let's walk through the fixes in order of how much of your afternoon they waste.

Why this happens

Screen Time on macOS stores its passcode in a keychain item tied to your local user and the com.apple.ScreenTimeAgent daemon. When Sequoia migrated the Screen Time database from the old CoreDuet layout to the new one, it sometimes orphaned the keychain entry. The prompt you're staring at is talking to a keychain item that no longer exists, or exists under a different access group. That's why the correct digits get rejected — the daemon is comparing against nothing.

There's a second failure mode where the passcode itself is fine but the Management prompt is being suppressed by MDM or a stale configuration profile. That one's rarer, but if you're on a work Mac, it's the culprit more often than not.

Fix 1: The 30-second kick (try this first)

Nine times out of ten, this is enough. The ScreenTimeAgent daemon caches the keychain reference at login, and a stale reference gets cleared when the agent restarts. You don't need to reboot — just cycle the agent.

1. Open Terminal (Spotlight, type "Terminal").
2. Run:

killall ScreenTimeAgent
killall ScreenTimeWidgetAgent 2>/dev/null
killall ScreenTimeWebContent 2>/dev/null

3. Wait 10 seconds. The agent auto-respawns via launchd.
4. Open System Settings → Screen Time. Try the passcode again.

If the prompt now accepts your passcode, you're done. If it still rejects it, the keychain item really is broken and you're heading to Fix 2.

Don't bother logging out and back in. I've seen people do it 20 times. It doesn't clear the keychain reference — launchd keeps the old agent alive in the background session.

Fix 2: Reset the passcode using your Apple Account (5 minutes)

Apple quietly added a recovery path in macOS 13 Ventura and it survives into Sequoia — if you set it up. When the wrong passcode is entered, the prompt should offer "Forgot Passcode?" with an Apple Account recovery option. On Sequoia, that link is sometimes hidden behind a second failed attempt. Try the wrong passcode twice on purpose, then look for the link.

If the link is there:

1. Click Forgot Passcode?
2. Sign in with your Apple Account (the one tied to this Mac, not a family member's).
3. Enter a new 4-digit Screen Time passcode twice.

If the link never appears, you didn't enable Apple Account recovery when you set the passcode. Skip to Fix 3.

Fix 3: Reset the passcode via Apple ID on a second device (5 min)

This is the path most people miss. If your Mac is signed into an Apple Account and Screen Time is shared across devices (Family Sharing), you can reset the passcode from an iPhone or iPad.

1. On the iPhone, go to Settings → Screen Time.
2. Tap Change Screen Time Passcode.
3. Choose Turn Off Screen Time Passcode and authenticate with Face ID / Apple Account.
4. Wait 30 seconds for the change to sync to the Mac via iCloud.
5. On the Mac, open System Settings → Screen Time. The prompt should now be gone or accept a fresh passcode.

I've used this on a customer's M2 MacBook Air after the 15.1 update and it cleared the issue in under two minutes. It works because the Screen Time config is stored in the iCloud Keychain / Family Sharing container, and resetting from iOS forces a full resync.

Caveat: this only works if Screen Time is set up under your own Apple Account or a Family Sharing organizer account. If a kid's Mac has its own local passcode with no Apple Account link, this won't touch it — go to Fix 4.

Fix 4: The full nuke — delete the Screen Time database (15+ minutes)

This is the last resort. It erases all Screen Time configuration on this Mac: app limits, downtime schedules, content filters — everything. You'll need to reconfigure from scratch. On the upside, it always works.

Before you start, back up with Time Machine. Not optional. I don't care how confident you are.

1. Sign out of Screen Time on the iPhone/iPad first, so the Mac doesn't immediately resync the broken state back from iCloud.
2. Boot into Recovery Mode: shut down, then hold power (Apple Silicon) or Cmd+R (Intel) until you see the Apple logo.
3. Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.
4. Find your data volume name:

ls /Volumes

You'll see something like Macintosh HD - Data. Mount it if needed:

cd "/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Application Support"
ls | grep -i screentime

You'll see a folder named com.apple.ScreenTimeAgent or ScreenTime. Delete it:

rm -rf "com.apple.ScreenTimeAgent"
rm -rf "ScreenTime"

Then kill the keychain item. Still in Recovery Terminal:

cd "/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Keychains"
ls

If you see a file named com.apple.screentime.plist or similar, delete it. If not, don't worry — the keychain item is usually stored in the login keychain, which you can't safely edit from Recovery. Boot back normally and remove it from Keychain Access instead.

5. Reboot normally.
6. Open Keychain Access (Spotlight: "Keychain Access").
7. Search for "Screen Time". Delete any matching entries. You'll be asked for your admin password.
8. Reboot again.
9. Open System Settings → Screen Time. It should prompt you to enable it fresh.

Set a new passcode. You're done. Rebuild your limits and downtime schedules from scratch.

What doesn't work (stop wasting time)

• Reinstalling macOS. A reinstall over the top doesn't touch the Screen Time database in your user Library. It feels productive. It isn't.
• Deleting and re-adding your Apple Account. Causes more sign-in headaches than it fixes. Skip it.
• Creating a new admin user. The Screen Time state is per-user, so a fresh user will have working Screen Time — but now you've got a second user to maintain and your original user is still broken. Not a fix, a workaround.
• Resetting NVRAM / SMC. Screen Time has nothing to do with NVRAM. I've watched people do this for two hours on Reddit threads. Please don't.

The permanent fix if you keep hitting this

If you're managing Screen Time for a kid and this has happened more than once, stop fighting the macOS implementation. Use a router-level content filter (Circle, NextDNS) or iCloud Family Sharing with Screen Time managed from your iPhone. The iPhone Screen Time stack is far more stable than the Mac one, and any change you make on iOS propagates down to the Mac. You'll deal with the passcode bug maybe once a year instead of once a month.

If nothing works

File a bug at feedbackassistant.apple.com with the exact macOS build (sw_vers in Terminal gives you this — for example 15.2 (24C101)). Include whether you use Family Sharing and whether MDM is involved. Apple has been quietly patching this in point releases — 15.2 fixed it for a chunk of users, 15.3 fixed more. If you're stuck on 15.0 or 15.1, updating is genuinely worth trying before you nuke anything.