Support

Email info@pauseowl.com and a person will answer. There is no ticket system and no bot.

Setting up

1. Open PauseOwl on your phone and choose Parent. You will see a six-character code.
2. Open PauseOwl on your child's device, choose Child, and type that code.
3. Allow the two prompts on the child's device: Screen Time and notifications. Both are required.
4. Still on your child's device, tap Choose apps and pick the ones that may be paused. They appear on your phone within a few seconds, and you are done.

The code expires after ten minutes. If it runs out, go back and start again — nothing is lost.

Some apps show as "App 1" with no icon

They are still being controlled — pausing works normally. What is missing is only the name and picture.

Apple hands an app's name and icon to your phone, not to us, and it sometimes takes a while to catch up for a device that joined your family recently.

It usually sorts itself out. Close PauseOwl fully and open it again later, and the names are generally there.

In the meantime nothing is broken: the apps in that list are the ones your child chose, in the order they chose them, and STOP works on all of them.

My child's app list is empty

The apps are chosen on your child's own device, not on your phone, and the list there is simply what is installed on that device.

If it comes up empty, the usual cause is that the Screen Time prompt was declined when PauseOwl was set up. Without it iOS will not show any app list at all. Open PauseOwl on your child's device and it will ask again.

Worth confirming while you are there:

• The device is signed in to your child's own Apple Account, and that account is in your Family Sharing group. See below — Screen Time cannot manage an adult account.
• PauseOwl was allowed to send notifications on that device. That is how a pause travels.

If the list is there but a name or icon is missing, that is the section above and nothing is wrong.

I tapped STOP and nothing happened

Almost always one of these three, in the order worth checking:

• Notifications are off for PauseOwl on the child's device. That is how a pause travels. Settings → Notifications → PauseOwl → Allow.
• Their device is offline. A pause waits and arrives when they reconnect. Nothing is lost.
• Screen Time permission was declined. Without it iOS will not let any app pause anything. Open PauseOwl on their device and it will ask again.

Choosing a whole category

Ticking a category — Social, say — works, and PauseOwl takes the individual apps inside it. Each one then appears in the list on your phone and can be paused on its own, which is the point: a category is a quick way to pick several apps, not a single switch.

My child's device needs to be a child account

Screen Time can only manage a device signed in to a child's Apple Account that is part of your Family Sharing group. An adult account cannot be managed this way — that is Apple's rule, not ours. You can change an account's role in Settings → Family.

I paid, and it is not unlocked

Open PauseOwl, go to PauseOwl Family and tap Restore Purchases. It has to be the same Apple Account that made the purchase. If it still does not unlock, email us and include the date you bought it.

Removing a child's device

Remove it from the parent app and its apps are freed immediately. If that device is switched off, it stops pausing as soon as it comes back online — it does not stay stuck.

Getting your data out, or deleting it

There is no account and nothing to export: PauseOwl keeps no record of what your child does. What is stored, and what happens when you remove a device, is set out in the privacy policy.

Something else

info@pauseowl.com. Telling us which device is the parent and which is the child, and what you saw, gets you a useful answer faster.