Support

• Blocking
• When iOS gets in the way
• The insteads
• History, reasons and your weekly letter
• Making it stick
• Someone you trust
• Automations
• Pro, purchases and refunds
• About Pausible

Blocking

• How does the shield work?

  Pausible uses Apple's Screen Time framework. When you choose apps, categories or websites, iOS puts a shield in front of them. Opening one shows the shield with two choices: Not now, or Instead…, which opens Pausible. There you either wait out the pause for that profile's level, or finish a two-minute instead and skip the wait. Either way you then pick how long to unlock for, and the shield comes back on its own when the time is up.

  The shield is drawn by iOS, not by Pausible, which is why it looks the same on every app and why it cannot play sound or show anything richer than a title, a line of text and two buttons.

• How do I change which apps are blocked, or the level?

  Open the profile from the home screen. Choose on the apps row opens Apple's picker; the dial under “How much of a pause” sets the level. Changes apply immediately. Each profile has its own apps and its own level, so you can keep social apps on Deliberate and news apps on Pause.

• What are off-limits times?

  A schedule that raises a profile's level for a window of time — weekdays 22:00 to 06:00, say. Inside the window the profile behaves at the window's level, however it is set the rest of the day. On Strict, an active window doesn't open at all. Every profile gets one window free; more are part of Pro.

• Why does the wait get longer through the day?

  That is the friction dial doing its job. Each level has a base wait that doubles with every reopen of that profile that day, up to the level's cap, and resets overnight. The fifth open of the afternoon should cost more than the first.

When iOS gets in the way

• iOS asked me for Screen Time permission again. Did something break?

  Not on your side. iOS drops the Screen Time permission from time to time — after some updates, after a restore, and occasionally for no visible reason. Pausible checks for it every time you open the app and once a minute in the background. When it notices, Protection Status on the home screen says so plainly and offers the re-authorisation; it takes two taps and your profiles, levels and windows are exactly as you left them.

• Protection Status says the block isn't confirmed. What now?

  Tap Self-test on the status card (or Settings → Run self-test). Pausible checks that iOS is actually holding the shield for every protected profile (profiles you unlocked on purpose are skipped) and reports the result. If it fails it usually names the reason: the permission is missing, or iOS has expired the app tokens and the apps need re-choosing. Re-choosing the apps in the profile fixes the token case; the permission case is two taps from the status card.

  If a self-test passes but a blocked app still opens freely, force-quit the blocked app and try again; iOS sometimes keeps an already-running app in front of a new shield for a few seconds.

• Does a schedule ever fail?

  iOS's scheduling for Screen Time is not perfectly reliable, especially for windows longer than about 45 minutes. Pausible does not rely on it alone: the schedule, the daily limit and the shield are separate layers and each is re-applied by the watchdog. If iOS misses a window edge, the next check catches it.

The insteads

• What is an instead?

  A two-minute alternative to scrolling, offered at the moment you'd have scrolled. Finish one and the wait is waived. There are five: Breathe (a 4-7-8 pace), Stretch (four thirty-second moves: neck, shoulders, wrists, a forward fold), Reflect (three short questions and a typed intention), Puzzle (four numbers, one target) and Read (a page of something you saved). Breathe, Stretch and Reflect are free; Puzzle and Read are part of Pro.

  If you always want the same one, open the profile and pick it under Instead: the pause screen then offers it in one tap, with Something else for the full list.

• How do I save an article to Read?

  Share it to Pausible from Safari or any app with a share sheet: tap Share, then Pausible. The article is fetched once, stored on your phone, and waits for the next pause. Nothing about what you saved leaves the device.

• Can I skip the instead and just wait?

  Always. Never mind, I'll wait on the chooser returns you to the countdown. Pausible never forces an activity on you; the instead is an offer.

• Why does the shield quote something I typed?

  When a level asks for an intention, Pausible keeps the last one you typed for that profile and the shield shows it the next time — “Last time: ‘Reply to Sam’.” — so the pause starts where the last one ended. It is stored on your phone only and is cleared when you remove the profile.

History, reasons and your weekly letter

• What does History show?

  Home → History lists each day's pauses, insteads and minutes open, plus any focus sessions, with the intentions you typed quoted beneath. The last seven days are free; Pro shows all of it. There are no streaks and no scores — it is a record, not a report card.

• Pausible suggested an off-limits window. Where did that come from?

  From your own log, on your phone. Once a week's opens for a profile mostly land in the same two hours, Pausible offers a window over them one level up; when a profile is opened far more than the rest, it offers the next level; when five opens on a profile were tapped as habit or bored, it offers to make Stretch that profile's first instead. It shows one suggestion at a time, Not now silences that idea for two weeks, and accepting goes through the same settings you could change by hand. Nothing is sent anywhere to work this out.

• What are the chips on the pause screen for?

  When a level asks what you're opening the app for, you can say why in one tap — Bored, Lonely, Avoiding something, Checking something, Habit, Someone messaged, Something else — instead of, or as well as, typing a line. A chip on its own is enough. It goes into your log on the phone and nowhere else, and once a week holds five of them History reflects it back in one line: “Mostly bored · mostly after 22:00.”

• What is the weekly letter, and who writes it?

  Part of Pro. History → Your week shows three short sentences about the past seven days: what happened, the pattern if there was one, and one gentle observation. Never a score, never a verdict. On an iPhone with Apple Intelligence turned on, Apple's on-device model writes it from a handful of numbers (pauses, insteads, minutes, your most-tapped reason, your busiest two hours) and Pausible checks that it used only those numbers before showing it — the card then says “Written on your phone”. On every other iPhone, or when the check fails, a plain template writes the same three sentences and the card says “From your week”. Nothing about your week is sent anywhere; there is no server to send it to. One letter a week, written only while you're looking at History.

• What does “closed early” mean on a day?

  You unlocked an app and then locked it again before the time was up, from Lock it again on the home screen or on the Lock Screen's unlock card. The minutes you gave back are noted on the day. They are never counted for or against you.

Making it stick

• I turned a level down and it says “at 4:00 AM tomorrow”. Why didn't it change?

  That's Slow to loosen (Settings → Make it stick), on by default. Anything that makes Pausible stricter happens at once. Anything that makes it looser — turning a dial down, removing or lowering an off-limits window, removing a profile that still blocks something, pausing your windows for a holiday, or turning Slow to loosen itself off — waits until the next morning (4:00 AM) or, if you choose, 24 hours. The change is shown under the control it will move, with Undo beside it. Undo is free, always. The point is that a 2 am decision doesn't win.

• Can I turn Slow to loosen off?

  Yes: Settings → Make it stick → Off. Turning it off is itself a loosening, so it waits for the current policy (next morning, or 24 hours) and shows an Undo like any other change. If you have set a trusted code, it asks for that first.

• “5 more minutes” has disappeared from the block screen.

  You've used this week's quick unlocks. The shield's “5 more minutes” — the only way through a block without opening Pausible — works three times in any seven days. Settings → Make it stick shows how many are left (“2 of 3 left this week”); Pro can set the limit anywhere from none to seven. Every other way in stays open: Instead… → Open Pausible always works, and so do the wait and the insteads.

• How do I lock Pausible with my Screen Time passcode?

  iOS 26.4 and later can put Pausible's settings behind your Screen Time passcode, so that loosening needs that code too — ideally one someone else holds. Settings → Make it stick walks through it: on your iPhone, Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings (set a passcode if iOS asks), then Content & Privacy Restrictions → Apps with Screen Time Access → Pausible → Don't Allow changes. Come back and flip I've locked it.

  Honestly: Pausible cannot check whether you did this. iOS gives apps no way to see it, so the switch is your word, and Protection Status says “Locked with your Screen Time passcode” because you told it so. Pausible never sets a passcode of its own and never asks for yours.

• Can Pausible stop me deleting it?

  No, and it never will. Delete the app and every block, every code, every pending change and every setting is gone at once; iOS removes the shields the moment the app is deleted. Slow to loosen, the trusted code and the Screen Time lock all make loosening slower — none of them holds your phone hostage. That is the deal.

Someone you trust

• What is the trusted code?

  Part of Pro. Settings → Someone you trust generates a six-digit code on your phone, shows it once, and lets you share it with a person you trust. From then on the hardest changes ask for it: lowering a profile from Firm or Strict, removing a Firm or Strict window or lowering its level, turning Slow to loosen off, pausing your windows, and getting past a Strict off-limits window (the pause screen offers Ask the person who holds your code, and the code lets that one open through at the Deliberate level). Removing the code needs the code. Five wrong tries in an hour lock it for an hour.

  The code is made on the phone and stored only as a salted hash — Pausible does not keep the digits and cannot show them again. It leaves your phone only if you send it to someone.

• I lost my code. How do I get it back?

  You can't, and neither can we — Pausible never had it, only a hash. If the person who holds it can't be reached, the way out is to delete and reinstall Pausible. Everything resets: profiles, windows, history, the code. That is deliberate. A code with a back door is not a code, and the one thing Pausible will never stand between you and is deleting the app.

• Does the person who holds my code get anything on their phone?

  No. There is no account, no pairing and no app on their side; they just know six digits. When you need the code, you ask them and type it. Pausible never contacts them.

• How do I pause my off-limits times for a holiday?

  Open any profile that has a window and tap Pause all windows…, then pick the day they come back (up to two weeks out). Every off-limits window is ignored until then; the dial keeps working. Pausing is a loosening, so it waits for Slow to loosen and asks for the trusted code if one is set. Coming back early is one tap — Resume on the home screen or the profile — and happens at once.

Automations

• Can a Focus turn Pausible up on its own?

  Yes, with Pro. Pausible provides a Focus filter: on your iPhone, Settings → Focus → the Focus you want (Sleep, say) → Focus Filters → Add Filter → Pausible → choose the level under “Raise to”. While that Focus is on, every profile runs at least at that level; when it turns off, your own levels are back. A filter only ever raises a level, never lowers one. Settings → Automations in Pausible lists this and two Shortcuts recipes with exact steps.

• Can I start a focus session from the Action button, or when I arrive somewhere?

  Yes, through the Shortcuts app. Pausible's Start Focus Session action takes a number of minutes; put it in a shortcut and assign that to the Action button (Settings → Action Button → Shortcut), or in an automation that runs when you arrive at a place. Focus sessions from Shortcuts, Siri and Control Center are part of Pro; Settings → Automations has the steps.

Pro, purchases and refunds

• What does Pro add, and what does it cost?

  The two hardest levels (Firm and Strict), unlimited off-limits times, the Puzzle and Read insteads, history beyond seven days and your weekly letter, someone you trust, your own quick-unlock limit, automations (the Focus filter and Shortcuts recipes), and the Siri, Control Center and Live Activity controls for focus sessions. It is $49.99 once, with Family Sharing, or $24.99 a year if you prefer. There is no weekly plan and no free trial. Blocking itself is free and never goes behind the paywall.

• I bought Pro on another phone. How do I restore it?

  Settings → Restore purchase. Make sure the phone is signed in to the Apple ID that made the purchase (or, for a lifetime purchase, to an Apple ID in the same Family Sharing group). Restore is free and can be run as often as you like.

• How do I cancel the annual plan?

  On your iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Pausible Pro → Cancel. You keep Pro until the end of the period you paid for. If it lapses, nothing is deleted: profiles above the free ceiling are stepped down to Deliberate and your extra windows stay in place, and everything comes straight back if you subscribe again.

• Can I get a refund?

  Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us — we never see your payment details. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com, or see Apple's refund page. They are fair about it.

About Pausible

• What happens if I delete the app?

  Every block it set is gone, immediately, along with everything it stored — including any trusted code and any change still waiting for the morning. Pausible can't lock you out of your own phone; iOS removes the shields the moment the app is deleted. That is by design.

• Is this a parental-control app?

  No. Pausible is for adults managing their own phone. It uses the individual form of Screen Time authorisation, which cannot be applied to another person's device, and it is not in the Kids category. For managing a child's device, use Apple's built-in Screen Time under Family Sharing.

• What does Pausible know about me?

  Nothing. There is no account, no server and no analytics, and Apple's framework never tells us which apps you chose or opened. The privacy policy fits on one screen.

• Which iPhones does it run on?

  iPhone on iOS 17 or later. The instead shortcut on the shield (Instead… → Open Pausible) needs iOS 26.5 or later; on older versions Pausible sends a notification you can tap instead.