Install

This page describes v1.3.0, the latest release. The development version

How to install, update and remove PlayGuard, and what it writes on the SD card. Once installed: getting started.

On this page

Where to get it
Updating
Removing it
Files on the SD card

Where to get it

Pick one:

Homebrew App Store / sphaira's App Store (same catalogue) — Search for PlayGuard and install it. New releases are picked up automatically, after a review: often a few days after GitHub. PlayGuard knows it was installed from there and recommends updating through the store.
Manual — Download playguard.zip from the latest release and extract it to the root of the SD card. The app lands in sd:/switch/playguard/, its files in sd:/config/playguard/.
sphaira › GitHub — The release zip already contains the entry (/config/sphaira/github/playguard.json): after a first install, update from GitHub in sphaira.

The optional recovery sysmodule (playguard-rescue.zip) is a separate download: extract it to the root of the SD card too, then restart the console. It lands in atmosphere/contents/4200000000505247/ and only acts when a RESCUE file asks it to — see Locked out?.

Then open PlayGuard over a game, with a parent's user (why).

Updating

In PlayGuard: Preferences › Update with picks how — in PlayGuard itself (it downloads the release, checks it, replaces itself and restarts), sphaira, the Homebrew App Store or by hand. With Check for updates every day on, PlayGuard opens on the new release when there is one.
The recovery sysmodule follows PlayGuard's version: after each update, extract that release's playguard-rescue.zip again (or Update on the bell's The recovery sysmodule is out of date), then restart the console.
Settings, history, profiles and backups stay: they are in sd:/config/playguard/, not next to the app.

Removing it

Delete sd:/switch/playguard/ (the app) and, to remove its files too, sd:/config/playguard/; with the recovery sysmodule, also sd:/atmosphere/contents/4200000000505247/. The limits, the PIN and the restrictions are the console's own: they stay on the console. To remove them as well, use Security › Delete all parental controls first.

Files on the SD card

All in sd:/config/playguard/ (the app itself stays in sd:/switch/playguard/: removing or reinstalling it keeps them). Versions that kept them next to the app had them moved there at their first start.

config.json — Preferences (language, theme, NTP server, Protect PlayGuard with the PIN …); every key in config.md. One that cannot be read is kept as config.json.bad (the previous one as .bad.1) and the settings start again from their defaults; PlayGuard says so once at start-up
profiles/ — Saved play-time limit profiles
exports/ — Activity exports
nand/<system>/ — What belongs to one system, each with its own parental controls: sysmmc/ for the sysMMC, emummc/ for the emuMMC. Inside: history.json the change history (newest 500, a change the console refused included; one that cannot be read is kept as history.json.bad, the previous one as .bad.1, rather than overwritten, and PlayGuard says so once); state.json what Block all games, the extra time, a pending relock and the firmware choice need remembered (config.md); forwarders.json the forwarders PlayGuard made; watch.json what PlayGuard last saw of the console, to tell what changed outside it (config.md; deleting it is harmless); backups/ the settings backups (never contain the PIN); cache/ the last play activity read (every account, and each account viewed), shown at once on the next start while the log is read again. The files of a version before these folders go to the first system PlayGuard starts on
cache/ — The game icons (icons/, 16 MB at most, emptied when the console language changes), shared by every system, so names and icons are not read from each game again at every start; the release notes of Atmosphère, hekate, sys-patch and the firmware (sys_notes.json, for Console) and PlayGuard's own (for About); in developer mode, the list of Install another build (dev_builds.json)
github_token — The GitHub sign-in of Send a report… and, in developer mode, of Install another build; deleted by signing out (About › Help & diagnostics › GitHub account, shown once signed in)
gate.nro, gate-<hash>.nro, gate_*.txt — The protected forwarders' gate (Console › Forwarders): its program, its free hours, closed hours and pause after refusals, its tries until PlayGuard reads them, and how long its opening screen lasts (gate_wait.txt, read at each start)
previous_build.json, boot_check.json — After a build is installed in place: the name of the build replaced (kept next to the .nro as playguard.nro.previous), and the check of the next start (deleted once its first screen is up)
rescue_report.txt — Left by the recovery sysmodule after it acted, until PlayGuard shows it at start-up (one it cannot read is removed, and PlayGuard says so)
rescue_nonce — A random challenge the recovery sysmodule answers in its report, so PlayGuard can tell a report it wrote from one written by hand (sysmodule/README.md); a new one at every start
logs/ — reports/ the saved diagnostic reports (never contain the PIN or the serial number); crashes/ one file per crash (what made PlayGuard stop); uploads/ one Internet shortcut (.url) per report sent online; play_timer/ the developer tools' play-timer files. How many reports, crash files and links are kept: About › Help & diagnostics (by number, age or size; the newest always stays)