Articles on: Troubleshooting

Detox is blocking an app I didn't mean to block. How do I fix it?

Fastest fix: add the app to iPhone Settings → Screen Time → Always Allowed. It will bypass every block, Detox's included, going forward, no matter which group or block is running.


Why it's blocked: the app is almost always part of a category you selected in Apple's picker (Social, Entertainment, etc.). Selecting a category blocks every app Apple classifies inside it, including apps you may not have realized were there. Occasionally an app you rely on, like Messages or Messenger, gets caught even when you never selected it individually, because iOS Screen Time can bundle related apps together. Two ways to fix this below; for an app you rely on that keeps getting caught, Option 1 (Always Allowed) is the dependable one. The in-app version of these same steps is at Detox → Settings → Problems with blocks? → App blocked by mistake?.


This is about an app you didn't mean to add to a block in the first place.


If you meant something else: your apps stayed blocked after a schedule ended → see Why are my apps still blocked after the schedule ended?. A block isn't firing at all → see Detox isn't blocking my apps. How do I fix it?. Some Home Screen icons turned blank or white → see Why are some of my app icons blank or white?.


Option 1: add the app to iOS Always Allowed


This is the group-agnostic fix. It tells iOS itself to never block this specific app, regardless of what any app (including Detox) does, and it works no matter how many App Groups you have or which one swept the app up:


  1. Open iPhone Settings → Screen Time → Always Allowed.
  2. Tap Choose Apps.
  3. Find the app you want never blocked and add it to the list.


Once an app is in Always Allowed, it bypasses every Screen Time block, including Detox's. Reserve this for apps you genuinely always need available (messaging, navigation, a phone-call app); don't use it for content apps you'd just end up scrolling on.


Option 2: remove the app from your groups


If the wrongly-blocked app is in a monitored category but not one you'd want to always allow, you can refine the App Group that contains it so the app stops being blocked.


Detox no longer keeps one shared list of monitored apps. Apps now live inside named App Groups, and each block uses a specific group (your Auto Block always uses your initial group; Scheduled Blocks and Block Now can each use any group). The app you want unblocked may sit in more than one group, so you repeat these steps for each group it appears in:


  1. Open Detox → Settings → Monitored Apps. This opens your list of groups.
  2. Tap the group that contains the wrongly-blocked app.
  3. Tap to edit the group's apps, which opens Apple's Family Activity Picker.
  4. Unselect the category that contains the wrongly-blocked app.
  5. Add back the individual apps from that category that you do want blocked.
  6. Save.


Editing a group takes effect right away on any block currently using that group, including your Auto Block if you edited your initial group.


This is more granular but takes a bit more setup. The benefit is that the unwanted app stops appearing in blocks that use those groups.


See How do I block specific apps and websites? for the full picker walkthrough, and What are App Groups? for how groups work.


When the in-app guide is more reliable


The 3-step guide inside Detox always reflects the current iOS path (Apple's settings menus do shift between iOS versions). If you're following the steps above and something doesn't match what you see, open the in-app guide for the up-to-date version.



Updated on: 24/07/2026

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