Help with ScreenRecess

Setup steps, monitoring controls, and help when your apps need attention.

Devices and languages

ScreenRecess supports iPhone, including iPhone Duo, and iPad, including iPad mini. It requires iOS or iPadOS 26 or later and Screen Time authorization.

The app is available in English, Spanish, French, German, and Brazilian Portuguese. It follows your device’s language preferences, including the per-app language setting. The steps below use English button names; labels may differ with your app language. After changing the app language, open ScreenRecess once so the blocking screen can use that choice.

Complete setup separately on each device. App selections, recorded usage, and recesses stay on that device; there is no shared allowance or sync across your iPhone and iPad. This support page and the privacy policy are in English.

Get started

Open ScreenRecess and choose Complete setup.
Read the cycle explanation and approve Screen Time access.
Choose apps or categories in Apple’s picker and confirm your selection.
Review timings and the monitoring setting, then tap Finish Setup.

Saving initial settings does not start monitoring. Finish Setup is the final step; finishing with monitoring off saves the configuration without activating it.

Common questions

My apps are paused.

Check the recess status inside ScreenRecess. Closing a paused app does not cancel or restart recess.

Recess appears finished, but access hasn’t returned.

Open ScreenRecess and follow any restoration or retry guidance. The countdown alone does not confirm that restrictions have cleared. Check for other Apple Screen Time limits too.

Monitoring needs attention.

Follow the specific status and retry action shown in ScreenRecess. Turning monitoring off and on cancels recess and starts a fresh allowance, so use the provided retry guidance to preserve the cycle when possible.

Screen Time permission is missing.

Restore Screen Time access through the app’s guidance. Apple’s Screen Time Restrictions permission is separate from Enable Monitoring.

I want to change apps or timings.

Open Edit Settings, make changes, review their effects, then save. Cancel discards the draft. Selection updates retain recorded minutes but can lose unreported use when monitoring is replaced.

I want to pause monitoring.

Turn Enable Monitoring off to remove this app’s restrictions and cancel recess. Turning it back on starts a fresh allowance when setup and permission are ready.

Contact

For help with ScreenRecess, email support@getscreenrecess.com.

ScreenRecess is published by Azeez Otori.

For help involving a child under 13, a parent or guardian should contact support on the child’s behalf. Please avoid unnecessary personal information about the child.

When contacting support, include your app version, device model, iOS or iPadOS version, app language, the visible status, and a short description of what happened. For an iPhone Duo layout issue, also tell us whether you were using the inner or outer display and its orientation.

Please don’t send passwords or private Screen Time data. If you include a screenshot, remove personal information first.