Microsoft Family Safety not recognizing my child's device under his profile

Yoshi H 25 Reputation points
2026-04-21T18:17:26.1133333+00:00

Setup

  • Windows 11 laptop (Acer) set up fresh with parent account as Administrator
  • Child account added as a family member and set as Standard User

Microsoft Family Safety setup

  • Child is correctly added to the family group on family.microsoft.com as a child member
  • Activity reporting is turned on
  • The child can sign into the laptop without issues
  • Family Safety app has been installed, uninstalled and reinstalled on both accounts

The problem

  • The laptop does not appear as a connected device under the child's profile in Family Safety
  • Settings > Accounts > Family was showing "We couldn't connect to Microsoft Family Safety right now, so changes you make to family settings might not save" error persistently
  • This error has cleared after completing a Microsoft account verification prompt
  • After contacting Microsoft Support via chat, I was advised to remove my child and re-add him within Microsoft Family Safety, and after I completed the steps, the error message reappeared
  • After all of the above, the device still does not register in Family Safety after more than 24 hours

What has been tried

  • Multiple restarts
  • Deleting and recreating the child's profile on the device
  • Reinstalling the Family Safety app
  • Completing Microsoft account verification
  • Signing into the Family Safety app on both accounts

The issue is that the Acer Windows laptop is not recognized as a device under my child's profile so I can begin to set controls for his laptop usage. Please provide steps so Screen Time can be used properly.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Microsoft Family Safety | For home | Windows
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Answer accepted by question author
Kai-H 26,840 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-04-22T07:08:06.22+00:00

Hi, Yoshi H

This usually means the child can sign in to Windows, but the PC has not fully finished linking back to Microsoft Family Safety, so the device never shows under the child and Screen Time has nothing to attach to.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

On the laptop, sign in as the parent and re-check Settings > Accounts > Family / Family & other users. Make sure the child is still listed there as a family member and still set to Standard user, not Administrator.

Sign in to the child’s Windows profile, go to Settings > Accounts > Verify. If there is no Verify button, open Edge and go to aka.ms/familyverify. That step often fixes the “can’t connect to Microsoft Family Safety” side of this.

It is recommended that you turn on Sync your settings on the child profile, then sign out, restart the PC, and sign back in with the child account before checking family.microsoft.com again.

If the child is 13+ in the U.S., confirm Activity reporting was not opted out. Also try removing any Screen Time limit once, then adding it back after the device appears.

If it still refuses to appear, send logs from the Family Safety app: Home > Help & Feedback > Send logs.

Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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