PlayGuard 1.1.0

1.1.0 · 2026-10-14

⬇️ Download playguard.zip (2.4 MB) · the app alone (5.9 MB) · how to install

🚀 4 features · 🐞 5 fixes · 24 commits since v1.0.0

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🌟 Highlights

This release lets you choose what the console does when play time runs out, and makes the play timer and the history easier to read.

• ⏰ When time is up:
  Choose what the console does when the play-time limit is reached.

• ⏱️ Play timer:
  The time played beyond the limit is now shown, and a block in the same-every-day mode now follows its daily rule.

• 📋 History:
  Clearer lines, with the day a limit changed, "today" and "yesterday", and a name for entries of an unknown kind.

• ✨ What's new:
  The release highlights now come with icons, and the full changelog is a press away.

• 🐛 Dialogs:
  Text always wraps inside the dialog.

Important

Summary written automatically.

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📜 What changed

Every change in 1.1.0 (9 changes)

🚀 Features

• about: the release highlights with icons, the full changelog a press away (#122) (0b8bd5d)
• history: clearer lines — the day a limit changed, today/yesterday, unknown kinds named (#139) (0357f5b)
• play-timer: choose what the console does when the time is up (#134) (cc4b958)
• release: an airier release page, and the console's own lines in comments (#128) (b5be063)

🐞 Bug Fixes

• ci: one summary on the release page, laid out again on a re-run, airier (#124) (c7eea78)
• ci: the release's discussion updated with the release app's token (#130) (7f0efde)
• play-timer: a DAILY-mode block read through its daily rule (#133) (4404c82)
• play-timer: show the time played over the limit (#140) (3890375)
• ui: dialog texts always wrap inside the dialog (#141) (682d9ac)

🛠️ For contributors: tests, docs (6 changes)

🧪 Tests

• smoke: the desktop build runs as the simulated 1.0.0, whatever its version (#132) (ae6b42b)

📚 Documentation

• a 30-second video tour, at the top of the README (#142) (26d4b2d)
• a one-screen README (#136) (e33bdc0)
• a short README, the details in a user guide under docs/ (#135) (4c37b0a)
• tested versions apart from the ones that should work (#138) (750efa8)
• the README's video tour plays inline as a GIF, and three times lighter (#143) (39c2bde)

🖼️ On screen

Screens that look different (7 screens, before and after)

Screen	Before	After
alarm/01_overview_over	new
alarm/02_play_timer_over	new
errors/03_gate
errors/04_unlock_failed
errors/07_clock_copy_confirm
smoke/23_time_up_confirm	new
smoke/23_time_up_picker	new

📦 Install

1. New install: download playguard.zip (2.4 MB) and extract it to the root of the SD card.
   The app lands in sd:/switch/playguard/, its files in sd:/config/playguard/.

2. Already installed? Update from PlayGuard itself (About › Update), sphaira or the Homebrew App Store. The app alone: playguard.nro (5.9 MB).

3. Locked out? playguard-rescue.zip (69 KB) is the optional recovery sysmodule, for a forgotten PIN.

Note

Requires custom firmware (Atmosphère). Checked on firmware 21.0.0 → 22.5.0. Compatibility

🔍 Build

Build report (size, tests, coverage, screenshots, toolchain) · SHA256SUMS.txt · provenance: gh attestation verify playguard.nro -R JigSawFr/PlayGuard

Contributors: @JigSawFr

PlayGuard 1.0.0

1.0.0 · 2026-10-12

⬇️ Download playguard.zip (2.3 MB) · the app alone (5.8 MB) · how to install

⚠️ 1 breaking change · 🚀 58 features · 🐞 27 fixes · ✨ 9 polish · every commit

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🌟 Highlights

The first release of PlayGuard: the settings of Nintendo's Parental Controls phone app, on the console itself, offline. Custom firmware (Atmosphère) required.

• ⏱️ Play-time limit:
  The same every day or one per day on a week chart, saved profiles, extra time today in one press, and a one-switch console lock.

• 📊 Activity:
  Play time per game and per user account, day by day, a summary per period, and export to CSV, JSON, XLSX or PDF.

• 🔒 Restrictions and PIN:
  Restriction level, age rating and its organisation, show or change the PIN, and an optional PIN to open PlayGuard.

• 🕒 Network clock:
  Set from public NTP servers, so the play timer counts right on a console that never reaches Nintendo.

• 🛡️ Safe by design:
  The play timer is never written while it counts down, every change is logged and can be undone, settings are backed up to the SD card.

• 🛟 A way back in:
  A recovery sysmodule for a forgotten PIN, and unlinking the phone app on a second-hand console.

• 🔄 Updates and reports:
  Update in place from PlayGuard, "What's new" after each update, diagnostic reports sent as a link and QR codes.

• 🌍 Languages and themes:
  Every console language, light and dark themes.

Important

Coming from Pctl Manager: the app is now in sd:/switch/playguard/ and its files in sd:/config/playguard/.

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📜 What changed

Every change in 1.0.0 (95 changes)

⚠ BREAKING CHANGES

• new name and SD-card folder (sd:/switch/playguard/).

🚀 Features

• a branded loading screen with a progress bar over the start-up steps (#101) (12716f8)
• a summary per period and games to rediscover in Activity (#81) (3543af7)
• About tab, What's new after updates, and ways to support PlayGuard (#34) (a7a4fb3)
• Activity day by day, deleted games' totals and play time per account (#21) (33f2153)
• Activity tab with play time per game (0a6a556)
• activity: time on no account, and new user accounts flagged (#93) (49ce852)
• an intro at start-up, the loading screen held 2 seconds (Preferences) (#110) (ee3aea7)
• ask for the PIN before a change, or to open PlayGuard (#19) (bb91242)
• back up and restore the parental-control settings (0a6a556)
• bedtime alarm display and opt-in advanced actions (time's up alarm, pause / resume) (4a00686)
• change the bedtime alarm, checked against what the console reports (#44) (dd86342)
• clock: set the network clock to the console clock when no server answers (#94) (a8f1c8d)
• console lock — one switch for a 0-minute limit every day (#28) (ec78f4f)
• dev builds in tabs, reports to GitHub gists only (as .url links); fix update check and build install on the console (#114) (a874d16)
• dev builds: the build list at once, kept and refreshed on demand; artifacts download through a GitHub App; network tasks no longer wait behind the play log (#48) (18144ca)
• dev: clear the cache and the log files, with confirmations and result screens (#102) (ef3e91f)
• developer tool to compare the play-timer block, exemption list in the diagnostic report (#22) (8e8841d)
• development builds from the build artifacts, signed in to GitHub with a QR code; no more pre-releases (#40) (a2c6ce6)
• dev: the builds on a screen of their own, by kind, the pull requests sortable (#112) (0ccf593)
• diagnostic report in sd:/switch/playguard/logs/ (never contains the PIN) (4a00686)
• diagnostics: the start-up times in the diagnostic report (#106) (ebe85c5)
• export the Activity figures to the SD card as CSV, JSON, XLSX or PDF (0a6a556)
• extra time today from the Play timer tab (0a6a556)
• firmware 23.0.1 / Atmosphère 1.12.0 support with firmware and Atmosphère detection (4a00686)
• French translation, language and theme preferences, readable error messages (4a00686)
• install a development build in place from the developer tools (#39) (9af654e)
• lock parental controls again right after a write (4a00686)
• network clock from ~50 public NTP servers, measured against 3 servers (adapted from anbingxi's fork) (4a00686)
• new PlayGuard logo and store art (f576890)
• onboarding, applet warning, Activity totals, week view and i18n polish (#14) (17bc3f1)
• per-day editor with no-limit days, Monday–Friday / weekend presets, copy a day and discard changes (4a00686)
• play-time limit profiles saved on the SD card (4a00686)
• PlayGuard in every console language (#25) (8ff5b0c)
• preferences — start tab, extra-time amounts, remembered Activity choices, daily update check, start-up clock check, backups kept (#17) (cfb9d44)
• profiles with any name, edited and renamed without applying; backups keep the alarm, the rating body and the raw play-timer block (#18) (392499d)
• READ_ONLY build "PlayGuard Diagnostics" that cannot change anything (4a00686)
• record the play timer every 30 s, explain the cl...