How to remove "One More Minute" in Screen Time: what Apple allows, and 5 workarounds

By Abel Sánchez, Founder of Plan7 · October 31, 2026 · 6 min read

You can't remove **One More Minute**: Screen Time has no setting for it, and an Apple Community Specialist confirmed that in Apple's own forum. What you can do is make it the last free step. Set a Screen Time passcode that someone else picks, turn on **Block at End of Limit**, and after that minute every extra block of time needs the passcode.

Why the button is there

Apple's iPhone guide says that "by default, Screen Time limits can be ignored once reached." One More Minute is part of that design. It gives you time to send the message you were typing or save your game before the app locks. Apple's guide doesn't describe the button in detail and has no switch for it. In the longest Apple Community thread on the subject, the top answer from a Community Specialist reads: "this option cannot be disabled in Settings."

What changes is what comes after the minute. That depends on two settings: whether you have a Screen Time passcode, and whether the limit has Block at End of Limit turned on.

The approval options in the last row come from Apple's guide to responding to a Screen Time request. The guide is written for parents, but the same screen appears on your own iPhone when you hold the passcode.

How many times does One More Minute show up?

Apple doesn't say. In the Apple Community thread, parents report that a child account gets the minute once, while accounts aged 13 and older (adults included) can see it again and again. Check how your own iPhone behaves before you build on it: let a limit run out, tap One More Minute, wait for the app to lock, then open it again and see whether the button is still offered.

5 workarounds that make One More Minute matter less

1. Turn on Block at End of Limit. Go to Settings → Screen Time → App Limits, tap each limit and turn it on. The switch only appears once a Screen Time passcode exists. Without it, the limit stays a reminder and One More Minute is the smallest of your ways around it.
2. Let someone else choose the passcode. Set it in Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings and hand the phone to a partner, a roommate or a friend while they type it. A code you chose yourself is one you can type at 23:40. A code you don't know turns the extra time into a question you have to ask a person.
3. Spend the minute on purpose. One workaround from the Apple Community thread: when the limit hits, tap One More Minute right away and close the app. If your iPhone offers the minute only once, the next open asks for the passcode. This only helps on phones that behave that way, so run the test above first.
4. Use a 1-minute limit for apps you never want to open. A limit of 1 minute plus Block at End of Limit turns the app into a two-minute app: the limit, then One More Minute. Paired with the previous step in the morning, the app stays behind the passcode for the rest of the day, if your iPhone offers the minute once.
5. Close the app with a Shortcuts automation. In Shortcuts → Automation, create a personal automation for App → Is Opened, pick the app, choose Run Immediately, and add the Go to Home Screen action. The app flashes open and closes. It's brittle: you can delete the automation in a few taps, so treat it as a speed bump.

One day with a 20-minute limit

Here's a single App Limit of 20 minutes on the Social category, with Block at End of Limit on and a passcode chosen by someone else. The minutes add up across every app in the category.

The day ends at 36 minutes instead of 20. The 16 extra minutes came from one minute taken at 13:07 and one request that someone else approved at 21:30. Without the passcode step, the 13:10 open would have been one tap on Ignore Limit, and nobody would have been asked.

When the problem is the hour, not the minutes

A daily limit only says how much. It has no say over when the minutes get spent, so the whole budget can go in the hour you set aside for work or sleep. If that's the hour that hurts, block by time. Downtime does that on a fixed schedule; the guide to blocking apps during focus time compares the options for weeks that change.

If you want to see how fast single minutes add up, try Don't Lose Tuesday, a free 90-second game where One More Minute is one of the cards trying to eat your day.

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• App Limits not working on iPhone: why Ignore Limit still shows, and 8 checks that fix it
• How to block apps during focus time on iPhone: built-in options vs a time-blocking app
• How it works