skärmtid, förklarat
Does Screen Time transfer to a new iPhone? Settings yes, history mostly no
New iPhone week has a quiet casualty: your Screen Time history. The transfer brings your limits, your downtime schedule and your passcode over faithfully, and then the usage charts start suspiciously close to empty. That is not a transfer gone wrong; it is how the feature works, and if you are switching phones soon there is one thing worth doing before you do.
What actually transfers#
Your Screen Time settings ride along with the transfer or backup: App Limits, Downtime, Communication settings, the Screen Time passcode. The record of past use is a different story. The usage detail lives on the device in a form that does not reliably survive the move, which is why a new iPhone is one of the classic causes of vanished Screen Time: your rules arrive, your past mostly doesn't.
What Share Across Devices does and doesn't save#
If Share Across Devices was on before the switch, your combined report may still show recent activity contributed by your other devices, and the new iPhone joins the merge going forward. But this is a rolling view, not an archive: the window only reaches about four weeks back on the best of days, and a device swap in the middle of it tends to leave seams. Treat anything the new phone shows about the past as a bonus, not a record.
If you haven't switched yet#
You have a short window to save what the old phone still knows. The manual way: screenshot the weekly reports in Settings → Screen Time → See All App & Website Activity, paging back through the weeks the arrows still reach. The durable way: export the data via the Shortcuts action, or start an app like finit on the old phone first, let it import the weeks the window still holds, and the record follows your iCloud to the new phone instead of dying with the old one.
If you already switched#
Whatever the old phone alone knew and didn't hand over is gone; nothing on the new device recovers it. The useful move now is forward-looking: check that Share Across Devices is on again on every device, confirm your limits arrived, and decide whether the next device switch should cost you your history too. A record that lives outside the phone's rolling window is the only version that survives hardware.
De korta svaren#
Does Screen Time transfer to a new iPhone?
The settings do: limits, downtime, and the Screen Time passcode come over with the transfer. The past usage history mostly does not; the charts on the new phone start out largely empty and fill from day one.
How do I keep my Screen Time history when switching iPhones?
Save it before the switch, while the old phone still shows it: screenshot the weekly reports, export the data with the Shortcuts action, or run an app that imports each day into its own record. Once the old window is gone, there is nothing to recover.
Why is Screen Time empty on my new iPhone?
Because usage history is not part of what a transfer restores. That is normal behavior, not a failed migration. With Share Across Devices on, some recent combined activity from your other devices may still appear.
Does the Screen Time passcode transfer?
Yes, the passcode and your limit settings carry over with a standard transfer or backup restore. If you no longer know the passcode, that is a separate account-recovery matter with Apple, not something this page covers.
Phones are replaceable on purpose. If the record of your attention shouldn't be, start keeping it before the next switch, not after.
