Getting started

From the SD card to a console set up for your child, in about ten minutes, then the everyday tasks.

Before you start

• A console running Atmosphère. PlayGuard drives the console's own parental controls through a restricted service: it needs custom firmware. Not modded? It cannot help (troubleshooting).
• A supported firmware. 21.0.0 to 23.0.1 for every feature; older ones, everything but the play timer; a newer one opens read-only until a release supports it (compatibility).
• One limit for the whole console. The play timer is the console's: it is the same for every user. Different limits per child need another tool (why).

Want to look around first? Try PlayGuard in your browser, against a simulated console on its first start.

1. Install it

Search for PlayGuard in the Homebrew App Store or sphaira, or extract playguard.zip from the latest release to the root of the SD card (install).

2. Open it the right way

Open PlayGuard over a game (hold R while starting a game, with hbmenu, sphaira or the Homebrew App Store), with a parent's user:

• over a game, PlayGuard runs as an application, with all its memory; from the album it runs as an applet, with less;
• the console counts the time spent in PlayGuard as that game's, and gives it to the user picked at launch: a parent's, not a child's.

3. Follow First steps

On the first start, the First steps guide comes up (later: About › Help & diagnostics › First steps). Today shows the same steps as a card until they are done (1 of 3):

1. The PIN. The console's own PIN, asked by the HOME menu to start a game past the limit or to change the settings. Avoid 0000, 1234 or 2580: PlayGuard flags a PIN anyone would try first.
2. A daily limit. The same every day, or one for weekdays and one for the weekend. Change any single day later on Play timer.
3. The network clock. The play timer counts with it. A console that never reaches Nintendo's servers keeps it inaccurate: see step 5.

4. Unlink the phone app

Still linked to Nintendo's Parental Controls app (or a second-hand console linked to someone else's)? PIN › Unlink the companion app. Otherwise the app's next sync overwrites what you set in PlayGuard. It works offline.

5. Set the network clock

Console › Network clock › Measure the time difference asks three public time servers, then Set the network clock. Setting the clock starts today's play time over, so do it before the child plays.

A console without Internet: when no server answers, PlayGuard offers to set the network clock to the console clock instead. Check the console clock against a phone or a watch first, with System Settings › System › Date and Time › Synchronize Clock via Internet off (details).

6. Choose what happens when time is up

Play timer › When the time is up: the console shows "Time's up", then either suspends the game or only warns. Suspending stops play without a fight, but unsaved progress may be lost; warning leaves it to the child. Add a bedtime alarm on the same tab if you want one.

7. Protect PlayGuard itself

PIN › Protect PlayGuard with the PIN:

• Before a change (the default) — anyone can look, only the parent changes something;
• To open PlayGuard — a lock screen at start;
• Never — PlayGuard flags it on the bell while a PIN is set.

8. Hand the console over

Today › Show the child shows only the time left and when play ends, large enough to read from across the room. Ⓐ and the PIN bring the parent's screens back.

Everyday tasks

Next

• Every tab and setting: features.
• Something does not work as expected: troubleshooting.
• What the console does, and how sure we are of it: how parental controls work.

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