ANSWERED: How to manage people with Xfinity xFi?

​Learn more about organizing devices by people and managing family settings like Active Time Limits, Active Time Details, Downtime schedules and Parental Controls.

For more information on the Xfinity app, see our xFi Features and Using the Xfinity App. For tips on managing devices, see Personalizing and Controlling Your Home Network With xFi.

WiFi Tab

In the WiFi section, you can organize all of your connected devices by the people who use them. Once you've created a person, you'll be able to access additional features to manage your home network, including the ability to Pause All Devices, set a Downtime schedule, establish Active Time Limits, enable Active Time Details and turn on Parental Controls for safe browsing.

To create a person:

1. Go to the Connected to your WiFi section on the WiFi tab.
2. Select Add a person.
3. Enter a name and select an icon.
4. Tap Add person.
   
   

Once a person is created, you can select them from WiFi, and assign their devices to them.

Pause All Devices

Internet access for devices connected to your home network can be blocked individually or at the person level. Pausing a person will pause internet access on your home network for all of their assigned devices.

To pause a person:

1. Select the person from the Connected to your WiFi section on the WiFi tab.
2. Then select Pause All Devices. You can also select Pause all devices directly from WiFi.
   • Note: This option will only be available for people that are not already paused or in Downtime and have at least one connected device.
     
     

You can pause the person for a specific amount of time (for example, 30 minutes, one hour or two hours) or indefinitely until you choose to unpause the devices.

Once a person is paused, any new device assigned to them will be paused.

Please note that any in-progress activity might not stop immediately. Access to local network devices (like printers) and connections that use cellular data or other WiFi networks won't be paused.

To unpause a person:

1. Select the person from the Connected to your WiFi section on the WiFi tab.
2. Select Unpause all devices. You can also select Unpause all devices directly from WiFi.
   • If the person is paused under a downtime schedule, you can choose to Wake up all devices directly from the WiFi tab.
     
     

This will unpause all devices assigned to that person.

Learn more about pausing individual devices.

Today's Active Time

A person’s time online will be shown in HH:MM format. For a more detailed view, select the person and then View More. From there, you can view the online time by hour of day for the current day and the past six days.

If there has been no online time for the day, click the View Past Time Spent link to view time online for prior days.

Assigned Devices

You can manage a person's assigned devices from the bottom of their page.

To assign a device:

1. Under Assigned Devices, select Assign Device.
2. Click the checkbox next to the device(s) you want to assign.
3. Finish assigning devices by selecting Assign.
   
   

To unassign a device:

1. Under Assigned Devices, select Unassign.
2. Select the trash can icon next to the device you want to unassign from the person and confirm Unassign Device.
3. Select Finish Editing when you are done unassigning devices.

Person Settings

To access a person's Settings, select the gear icon in the top right corner of a person's page.

The Settings page includes:

• Downtime.
• Active Time Limits.
• Active Time Details (for compatible gateways).
• Parental Controls.
  
  

From this page, you can also rename the person and select a new icon.

Downtime

Downtime can be used to set up scheduled pause times for people to block home WiFi access on assigned devices for the duration of the schedule. A person can have up to 30 schedules and are customizable by day, time, and schedule type/name.

To set a Downtime Schedule:

1. From a person's Settings page, select Create Schedule next to Downtime.
2. Select the type of schedule you wish to set for the person and give that schedule a name.
   
   • Note:We provide four templates: Anytime, Bedtime, Homework and Dinner.
3. Select Next to pick which days the schedule should apply.
4. Pick the start and end times for the schedule and then select Apply.
   
   • Note: Schedules cannot overlap; there must be one minute between the end of one schedule and the beginning of the next schedule.
     
     

Schedules set on a person will apply for all devices assigned to them. If a device attempts to access a website, app or service outside a web browser (e.g., mobile email app) during a scheduled pause, you'll see the device’s default message that the website cannot be reached or that it's not connected to the internet.

Active Time Limits

An Active Time Limit provides the ability to set time limits for people on your home network to help your family promote healthy internet usage habits. Once enabled, theXfinity primary userwill receive a text message, email and/or push notification (depending on your xFi notification preferences) when a person’s devices are close to reaching their active time limit on your home network.

To set up an Active Time Limit:

1. From a person's Settings page, select Active Time Limit.
2. Check the box next to Weekdays and/or Weekends.
3. Adjust the bar to set the active time limit.
   • This will be the daily limit for the person starting at 12 a.m. (midnight) each day.
4. If you would like the device to automatically pause once the time limit is reached, be sure to enable this setting for the active time limit.
   
   

Activities such as streaming music or videos, surfing, shopping, gaming and downloading books, pictures and videos, count towards active time. Applications that you may not be actively using but are running in the background (for example, an app downloading an update) may count towards active time. Access using cellular data, a public Xfinity WiFi hotspot, or other available WiFi networks won't count toward active time.

For more information on what counts towards active time, see our xFi Frequently Asked Questions.

To receive Active Time Limit notifications, be sure you have Network Activity notifications turned on in xFi. Learn about notification preferences.

Active Time Details

Active Time Details offers a detailed view of how much time you and your kids are spending on supported applications and their associated sites when connected to your home network. Once enabled for a person, network traffic from their devices will be analyzed. Time spent onsupported applicationsor websites will be reported out by Application and by Category. Active Time Details is not enabled by default; it's an optional feature that can only be enabled at the People level.

Active Time Details cannot be enabled for the xFi default Household and Guest groups.

To turn Active Time Details on:

1. From a person’s Settings page, select Active Time Details.
2. Agree to the user consent by checking the box.
3. Select Turn On.
   
   

Once enabled, data may not be viewable immediately. Activity is measured in five-minute increments and refreshed in xFi every 15 minutes.

Active Time Details can only be tracked on devices connected to your home WiFi network that are running one of the supported platforms: Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Chrome OS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Activity cannot be tracked on Smart TVs or on Amazon platforms (Kindle, Kindle Fire, etc.)

Applications that do not require an internet connection will not be tracked. Customers can find more information on supported applications in the active time details FAQs page in xFi.

Note: Active Time Details is available to all Xfinity Internet subscribers who rent an xFi Advanced Gateway (XB6 or greater).

Parental Controls

Parental Controls help reduce the risk of children accessing content that is generally deemed inappropriate. To set Parental Controls on a device, you must first assign it to a person.

To set Parental Controls:

1. From a person's Settings page, select Parental Controls.
2. Select On to only allow access to content deemed appropriate for all ages.
   
   

Content should be blocked fairly quickly once Parental Controls are enabled; however, content that was already accessed on a device may be cached and, therefore, may still be accessible on that device for up to 24 hours. Parental Controls only restrict access for devices connected to your personal home network.

The following third-party settings are applied to people who have xFi Parental Controls enabled:

• Google SafeSearch:On
• Bing SafeSearch:Strict
• YouTube Restricted Mode:On
  
  

When Parental Controls are turned on, these services' protective settings help limit exposure to potentially explicit content for the associated websites as well as the Google and YouTube apps.

If a device assigned to that person attempts to access a website or app known to host inappropriate content for that level, a block page will be displayed. In the case of secure websites or mobile applications, the block page may not be displayed, but access is still prevented.

Note:For households that receive internet through the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) program, Parental Controls will be automatically enabled on your gateway. Any device that connects to your network will automatically be blocked from accessing inappropriate content. Customers can disable this setting for specific devices, creating a person, assigning those devices to that person and turn Parental Controls off.

Learn more about what criteria the Parental Controls feature for xFi uses to determine if content is appropriate to access.

Note for customers with Apple devices:

Apple’s new releases of iOS 15 and macOS Monterey include an internet privacy service called iCloud Private Relay. If this feature is enabled, xFi Parental Controls filtering and Active Time Details won’t work. Learn more about iCloud Private Relay. ​