Your app blocker was never a lock
Brick, Opal, one sec, Jomo, ScreenZen. Doesn't matter which one you bought. You can switch every single one of them off in about forty seconds — and the company that sold it to you already knows.
The whole post in three lines
- Every iPhone blocker runs on Apple's Screen Time API. There is no second option. They are one engine with different paint.
- So they all come off in the same place, and a Screen Time passcode doesn't save you: it can be reset with the Apple Account linked to it. That's your account.
- Fix: make that account somebody else's. Ten minutes, free, and suddenly every blocker on your phone works like it claimed.
They're all the same app
An iPhone app can't reach into another app and stop it opening. Apple's sandbox forbids it. There is exactly one sanctioned way around that — the Screen Time API — and every blocker on the App Store uses it, because there is nothing else to use.
So when you compare blockers, you are comparing interfaces. The streaks, the breathing exercises, the little tile you tap. Underneath, identical. Which means they share one off switch:
Settings → Screen Time → revoke the app's access. Shields drop. Everything's back. Your device passcode is the only thing you needed, and you know your device passcode.
Don't take my word for it. Take Opal's
This is from Opal's own help page on how to make Opal foolproof:
"This is the single strongest foolproof move on iOS. When a Screen Time passcode is set, Opal cannot be uninstalled without it — even after a session ends, even after a force-quit."
Read it again. The strongest thing Opal can offer you is not a feature of Opal. It's a setting in iOS that they're asking you to switch on. Brick's Strict Mode leans on the same thing. Every one of them does.
"Fine, I'll set a Screen Time passcode"
Great. Watch it fall over.
Settings → Screen Time → Change Screen Time Passcode → Forgot Passcode? → sign in with the Apple Account linked to it → pick a new passcode.
That account is yours. You just unlocked your own lock, in about twenty seconds, using a flow Apple publicly documents. No jailbreak, no exploit, no clever trick. It's a front door.
And here's the one that really hurts: it doesn't matter if a friend chose the passcode and you never saw it. If the recovery account is still yours, you never needed the passcode. Apps that tell you to hand your phone to someone trusted are giving you half the answer.
The fix takes ten minutes
Apple lets the Screen Time recovery account be a different Apple Account from the one signed in on your phone. Almost nobody knows this. It is the whole ballgame.
- Someone you trust makes a new Apple Account on their own phone, using an email
only they can read. An alias works — a Gmail
+address lands in their normal inbox. - They come to you, in person. There's no remote way. Under Settings → Screen Time they type a passcode you don't see, then their Apple ID at the recovery prompt.
- Check your restrictions are how you want them before they leave. After this, you can't change them.
That's it. You keep your own Apple ID for everything else. You just stop holding the key to your own restrictions — and every blocking app on the phone becomes as strong as it always said it was.
Want the version that doesn't need Screen Time at all?
Supervised mode plus a configuration profile marked non-removable. It's enforced above Screen Time, so revoking Screen Time access doesn't touch it. It locks DNS to a filter, blocks other VPNs that would route around it, kills Safari private browsing, and stops apps being deleted. That's in the setup guide too.
The honest small print
None of this survives wiping the phone and restoring it from a computer. Nothing on-device does, and anyone promising otherwise is selling something. The point isn't a phone nobody can unlock — it's that undoing your own decision should cost more than the distraction is worth. Tapping Forgot Passcode? costs nothing. Wiping your phone at 1 a.m. costs enough.
And the custodian thing fails permanently if it fails: if they vanish or lose the account, you can never change your Screen Time settings again and a full reset is the only way out. One account, one person, agreed in advance. Not five accounts, not spares.
Are these apps worthless? No — they're good at friction, structure and showing you your own behaviour, and this site recommends ScreenZen for exactly that. Just don't confuse friction with a lock. Fix the recovery account first, then use whichever app you like.
Common questions
Can you bypass the Brick app?
Yes. Five Emergency Unbricks ship with every device and unblock everything without the tile, and you can request more through a form, usually answered within 48 hours. Without Strict Mode you can just delete the app. With it, deletion is blocked by Screen Time — so Brick is only ever as strong as the passcode behind it.
Can Opal be turned off in Settings?
Yes, unless a Screen Time passcode is set. Their own documentation says so.
Can Screen Time block the Settings app?
No. iOS gives you no way to hide or restrict Settings. It isn't in Allowed Apps and it can't be deleted. Guides claiming otherwise are wrong.
What about the Shortcuts trick that closes Settings?
Speed bump, not a lock. It fires after Settings opens, Go to Home Screen doesn't quit the app, and you can delete the automation. Stopping that needs Screen Time — so you're back behind the same passcode. And it does nothing at all about Forgot Passcode?.
What if the custodian's account is lost?
You can never change your Screen Time settings again, and erasing the phone is the only way out. Permanent. Pick one person and talk about it first.