Roblox Screen Time Glitch on Mac OS X

Roblox under Screen Time on Mac OS X has a known glitch, experienced by several users. This is a very annoying glitch, but I’ve found a workaround solution to this glitch.

Do you have a young child? I mean, a young child of school going age. Is she a girl? Chance is, she’s addicted to Roblox! Am I wrong?

I’ve got two little daughters, aged 6 and 10, and they are both addicted to Roblox. My younger daughter uses her Samsung Android phone to play Roblox, while my elder daughter uses both her Samsung Android phone and her Mac laptop to play Roblox. It’s easy to control their playing time on the android using Google’s Family Link App. Just set the screen limit and app limit on their phones, and done! However, it’s not that easy to limit the elder one’s playing time on her Mac.

Limiting Roblox Playtime with Screen Time

For limiting her playing time on Mac, I use OS X built-in Screen Time settings, which is a kind of parental control. Just go to System Preferences -> Screen Time, and set the Apps limit for Roblox. I set 30 min per day for her Roblox time, and give extra playing time as rewards depending on her good deeds and behaviors.

There is a well-known glitch (or incompatibility?) when running Roblox with Screen Time. To give extra time to her, she has to first request extra time from within the Roblox app. However, once I grant her request, the Roblox App would start acting weird. Hers keeps flicking and the whole computer becomes unresponsive. The only solution is to restart the computer using the power button. The same thing happens with my Mac Mini so it’s not specific to a specific machine. Online Google search also returns no solution to this problem.

The Solution

We tried to figure out how to resolve this issue, and finally found a workaround.

1. My daughter would request extra time for Roblox from within the app from her laptop
2. She then quit Roblox App, and wait for my approval
3. I approve her request through Screen Time on my iPhone / iPad / Mac
4. She then opens her Roblox app, and play normally without any bug

That’s All! A very easy solution to solve the issue arising when Roblox is used under Mac OS X parental control. So next time you have this problem, try to follow the above suggestion. Oh, if it works, please do let me know. If it doesn’t work, also please do let me know in the comments.