Mastering Your Apple Watch: Turning Off Downtime Like a Pro

Downtime is a feature on your Apple watch that allows you to mute almost all the notifications of your iPhone for a particular period. Apple has a default setting for turning the downtime on, from 10 pm to 7 am.

When the downtime feature is turned on, then you will get limited notifications, including notifications for phone calls and those apps only that you have marked as “Always allowed” in the settings.

All the devices on which you have enabled the screen time will automatically have the downtime feature enabled. Five minutes before the start of the downtime, your device reminds you about it.

Apple provides an additional setting in the downtime feature, which is “Block at Downtime.” You can use this setting only if you have set a Screen time passcode.

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Many Apple Watch users face difficulty due to the enabled downtime. This is because the downtime feature disables specific Apple Watch apps, and there is no setting available that can mark certain Apple Watch apps under the “Always allowed” category.

How to Turn Off Downtime On Apple Watch

Here are three ways to disable Downtime on the Apple Watch. Let’s begin with the most effective method to fix the problem.

Turn Off Sync Across All Devices

As we mentioned earlier, you’d want Downtime enabled on your iPhone, not your Apple Watch. Here’s how to turn off the ‘Share Across Devices’ toggle and prevent the Downtime setting from enabling on your Apple Watch. However, disabling this toggle will disable any Screen Time setting from syncing to your Apple Watch or any other device with the same Apple ID.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap on Screen Time.
Scroll down and turn off the toggle for ‘Share Across Devices’.

Disable Downtime on Your iPhone Screen Time Settings

Additionally, you can also turn off Downtime entirely on your iPhone, and it will reflect the same on your Apple Watch by all means – even if the ‘Share Across Devices’ toggle is turned on. Here’s how to do it.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap on Screen Time.
Tap on Downtime.
Tap on ‘Turn Off Downtime’ or ‘Ignore Downtime Until Schedule’ if you have enabled a Downtime schedule.
Turn off the toggle for Schedule so that Downtime does not automatically start again.

Further, you can customize the Downtime schedule on your iPhone and modify the time interval. The changes will also be applied to your Apple Watch.

Ask the Family Group Organizer to Change Downtime Settings

If your Screen Time settings are being controlled by a parent or another family member – you can ask them to modify the Downtime settings for your devices. They can disable Downtime, and you can use your Apple devices without a problem.