Compatibility
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Supported firmware, Atmosphère and launchers, emuMMC and sysMMC, and how PlayGuard compares with a replacement sysmodule. Back to the README.
Supported versions
Tested on a console — PlayGuard was run on these:
- Firmware 23.0.1 — Atmosphère 1.12.1
- Firmware 22.0.0, 22.1.0, 22.5.0 — Atmosphère 1.11.x
- hbmenu, sphaira and the Homebrew App Store
Should work, untested — nothing in PlayGuard rules these out, but no one has reported them yet (reports welcome). Each firmware needs an Atmosphère that boots it: the one listed or any newer one.
- Firmware 23.0.0 — Atmosphère 1.12.0. Same commands as 23.0.1 in the switchbrew table.
- Firmware 21.0.0 → 21.2.0 — Atmosphère 1.10.x. Every feature.
Before 21.0.0, everything but the play timer — restrictions, PIN, temporary unlock, activity, network clock, companion app and history work. The play timer's settings block (0x44 bytes) only has this layout since 21.0.0, so PlayGuard turns off what lives in it: the daily limits, the bedtime alarm, extra time and the console lock.
- Firmware 20.0.0 → 20.5.0 — Atmosphère 1.9.x
- Firmware 19.0.x — Atmosphère 1.8.0
- Firmware 18.0.0 → 18.1.0 — Atmosphère 1.7.x
- Firmware 17.0.x — Atmosphère 1.6.x
- Firmware 16.0.0 → 16.1.0 — Atmosphère 1.5.x
- Firmware 15.0.x — Atmosphère 1.4.x
- Firmware 14.x — Atmosphère 1.3.x
- Firmware 13.x — Atmosphère 1.1.0 → 1.2.6
- Firmware 12.x and older — Atmosphère 1.0.0 and older
PlayGuard checks that Atmosphère runs, not which version: what counts is the firmware it boots. Console shows both.
Launchers. Launching over a game (title override) is recommended. The app says whether it runs as an application or as an applet (album). Over a game, the console counts PlayGuard's time as that game's. In the activity, it goes to the user picked at launch: open it with a parent's user, not a child's. The play timer is the console's, the same for every user: it counts that time whoever opened PlayGuard (unless the timer is off).
Nintendo Switch 2. Not supported: there is no Atmosphère for it.
Newer firmware? Above the newest firmware tested on a console, PlayGuard opens read-only and checks whether a newer release supports it. If one does, it offers to update (in PlayGuard itself, through sphaira or the Homebrew App Store). Otherwise you choose: read-only, read-only with the developer tools (to investigate the firmware), or every feature at your own risk. The choice can be remembered for that firmware and app version; Console › Compatibility brings the screen back.
emuMMC and sysMMC. Each has its own parental controls, and PlayGuard only sees those of the system it runs on. On emuMMC, Console and First steps say so; on sysMMC too, when an emuMMC is set up on the SD card. Set the controls on both, or hide the hekate boot menu so that a child cannot pick the other system. PlayGuard keeps each system's history, backups and state apart (the sysMMC and the emuMMC, in nand/); the preferences and profiles are shared.
Can it get the console banned? PlayGuard never contacts Nintendo: online, it only reaches public time servers, GitHub (updates, and the reports you send). What gets consoles banned is custom firmware or an emuMMC going online to Nintendo (switchbrew FAQ). No ban tied to parental-control or clock changes is documented; that is not a guarantee.
A console without Internet? That is what PlayGuard is for, and the play timer still needs a network clock that has been set. With no time server to ask, Console › Network clock › Measure offers to set it to the console clock instead: check the console clock first, with Synchronize Clock via Internet off, and turn that setting on only afterwards (see Console).
Phone notifications. Since 22.0.0, a console still linked to the phone app may notify the parent when the PIN is entered on the console (switchbrew). Whether PlayGuard's own unlocks trigger it is unknown.
Why PlayGuard
Children love video games, and video games mean screens: a limit is part of looking after them. On an unmodified Switch, Nintendo's phone app took care of it. Once the console runs custom firmware, a whole new world opens up — and parental control goes out of the window, because the phone app no longer reaches the console. Knowing how long they played, setting a limit, getting the game stopped without a fight or one more "five more minutes" became hard.
The few tools that existed did not do the job: activity reports that were barely maintained and not very detailed, parental controls that were rough and unfinished. And I did not want a custom replacement either, or a sysmodule always running in the background. The idea was to reuse the console's own parental controls as much as possible, with everything they already do — the limit, the PIN, the warnings, the suspension — and to bring their settings back onto the console. That is PlayGuard.
Driving the console's own controls also opens the door to much more: reporting play time to a home server, taking orders from it, Home Assistant, automations. Where that could go is in the roadmap's horizon.
PlayGuard or a replacement sysmodule?
PlayGuard drives the parental controls built into the console (the pctl service), offline. The other approach replaces them with a sysmodule, for instance NS Parental Control (a sysmodule and a Tesla / Ultrahand overlay).
- Play-time limit — PlayGuard: One for the console (the console's own timer). A replacement sysmodule: One per user account.
- PIN, warnings, suspension — PlayGuard: The console's. A replacement sysmodule: Its own.
- In the background — PlayGuard: Nothing (the optional recovery sysmodule only acts at boot, when a
RESCUEfile asks it to). A replacement sysmodule: A sysmodule, from boot. - After a firmware update — PlayGuard: The console's controls keep working; PlayGuard opens read-only until a version supports the firmware. A replacement sysmodule: The controls depend on the sysmodule still working.
- Deleted from the SD card — PlayGuard: The limits stay on the console. A replacement sysmodule: The controls go with it.
Need a different limit for each child? Pick a replacement sysmodule — the console's timer has one limit for the whole console. Otherwise, PlayGuard keeps Nintendo's controls and just brings their settings to the console.