How I finally removed reappearing Screen Time App Limits

I’ve seen other discussions here on this issue, but those have all been closed and I can’t reply to them. I wanted to share a workaround that solved a persistent Screen Time issue for me, since I didn’t find this exact solution online.

The problem:

• Old App Limits kept reappearing for my children across devices (MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad).
• Deleting them directly - whether on my parent device or the child’s devices - didn’t stick. Within a minute or two, the limits would re-sync back from iCloud.
• Upgrading to iOS 26 / iPadOS 26 / macOS 26 did not fix the problem.

What didn’t work:

• Turning Screen Time off/on.
• Turning off “Share Across Devices.”
• Deleting limits from every device.
• Waiting overnight after removing them.

What finally worked:

1. On each device, I picked each of the stubborn App Limits.
2. I changed the limit to 1 minute per day, and applied it to just a single app.
3. I left it alone overnight to allow iCloud/Screen Time to fully sync this new version across all devices.
4. The next day, I then deleted that limit.
5. This time, the deletion propagated correctly, and all the old limits disappeared permanently.

Why this seems to work:

• Simply deleting the limits wasn’t forcing iCloud to overwrite its “master copy.”
• By making a small change (1 minute), the system treated it as new data, synced it everywhere, and then accepted the deletion as the latest version.

Takeaway:

If you’re stuck with reappearing App Limits, try editing them first, wait for sync, then delete. This forced the cloud version to update, and finally cleared out the old limits for good.

Hope this helps someone else avoid hours of frustration.