Help · after setup
These are the questions parents send to support once Gardion is already installed. If there is a message on your screen, look for its wording on this page.
On screen"Phone offline for more than a day" or "Offline"
Most often Gardion Kids has been stopped, and after a force stop Android won't let the app start on its own. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone: the app checks its permissions and shows which ones are missing. Commands you sent in the meantime aren't lost. They wait in a queue and run when the phone comes back online.
This happens when the phone's firmware unloads the app in the background: when the app is stopped, Android also removes its accessibility permission. Your child's phone needs two settings: no battery restrictions and auto-start. On Xiaomi, TECNO, Huawei, OPPO and realme, Gardion Kids shows a separate hint for that brand's system during setup. Step-by-step paths for specific brands are in the guides for Xiaomi and for TECNO and Infinix.
On screen"Protection incomplete: the phone may sleep the app"
The no-battery-restrictions permission hasn't been granted on your child's phone. Limits and locks still work for now. But over time Android will stop the app in the background. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone, go to the No battery restrictions step and choose "Unrestricted" or "Do not optimise" on the next Android screen.
On Xiaomi, tap Allow. The Xiaomi list with No restrictions lifts MIUI restrictions, and the Android permission stays ungranted after it.
On screenthe switch is marked as a restricted setting
Android 13 and later protects apps installed outside an app store this way. Open the App info page for Gardion Kids in the phone's settings, tap the three dots in the top right corner and choose Allow restricted settings. Then go back to accessibility: the switch becomes active.
On screen"Setup isn't finished"
The parent app shows this message when you tap Lock and the setup wizard on your child's phone hasn't been completed. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone and go through the remaining steps: the app shows which permissions are missing. Once setup is complete, you can lock the phone from yours.
On screen"A new version of Gardion Kids is out"
If Gardion Kids came from RuStore, open RuStore on your child's phone and update the app. If you installed it from a link on our website, open Gardion Kids, enter your PIN and tap Check for update. Android asks you to confirm the installation, and the new version won't install without that confirmation.
On screen"Lock won't work: no parent PIN"
Your child's phone has no parent PIN. Without one, Gardion Kids won't lock the phone, because there would be no way to unlock it, and without internet the phone would stay locked. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone and set a PIN. It is the last setup step, and the Lock button works after it.
On the PIN screen, tap Forgot the PIN. The recovery code is in the parent panel: open gardion.io on your own phone or computer and find this device. Each device has its own code. If the phone has never been online, it doesn't have the code yet: connect it to the internet and open the app again.
Someone entered the parent PIN on your child's phone and removed the lock. If neither you nor another adult in the family did it, your child knows the code. Change the PIN in the parent app settings. The time of the event is shown in the feed.
On screen"Gardion can be removed without you knowing"
Device admin is turned off on your child's phone, and while it is off, Gardion Kids can be uninstalled without you knowing. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone and turn on device admin. The app opens the system screen where you confirm it.
Delete the device from the list in the parent panel. The phone receives a command: it lifts the locks, turns off admin rights and opens the uninstall screen. A phone that is switched off runs the command the next time it starts. You can't uninstall it from the phone itself. The phone can't tell you apart from your child and keeps everyone away from the uninstall screen. More on the removing Gardion page.
If the device is offline, lock and other commands wait in a queue and apply once it's back online. The panel shows how long each device has been offline. When the device is online and the command still didn't work, write to us. We'll need the phone model, the Android version and a screenshot.
On screen"Protection is off on your child's phone"
A permission that Gardion needs was turned off on your child's phone. The alert names the permission, and most often it is Accessibility. While it stays off, screen time isn't counted and apps aren't blocked.
If you didn't turn it off, someone did it on the phone itself. Your child may have switched it off. It also happens when the phone's firmware stops Gardion Kids in the background and Android removes the permission along with it. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone: the app shows what's missing and opens the right settings screen. If the alert keeps coming back, close off the settings sections your child shouldn't reach. For Xiaomi, we listed them in our guide on a child turning off parental controls on Xiaomi.
On screen"Your child’s app was stopped"
Android recorded that Gardion Kids was stopped by hand, with the Force stop button in the phone's settings. The alert says how long the controls were off. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone and check that the home screen doesn't show a "Missing: …" line. Then ask your child what they were doing with the phone at that time.
On screen"Your child’s app wasn’t running"
Gardion Kids wasn't running on a phone that was switched on. Almost always the firmware unloaded it to save battery. Open Gardion Kids on your child's phone, then allow it to auto-start and to run without battery restrictions, as described above in the answer about battery saving.
On screen"Protection may have been removed from the device"
Gardion protection was removed from your child's phone, and the phone hasn't been online since. Pick up the phone and check whether Gardion Kids is still there. If the icon is there, open the app and it will walk you through the missing steps. If the icon is gone, the app was deleted. What to do then is covered in our article on whether a child can delete parental controls.
Android gives the final say to whoever holds the phone. Every parental control app from a store gets its permissions from that person, and the same person can take them back. All such apps work this way, Gardion included. So we tell you about everything we can see: a permission turned off, the app stopped by hand, an attempt to remove uninstall protection, and a phone that stays offline for a long time. Anything else only you can notice. If the report doesn't match what you see at home, for example your child spent the whole evening in a game and the report is empty, pick up the phone and look for yourself.
On screen"Windows won't let the update run"
Gardion updates itself on the computer: it downloads the new version and runs the installer. The panel shows this card when an antivirus stops the installer from starting. The built-in Microsoft Defender is not the cause, because Gardion adds its own Defender exclusions during installation. Third-party antivirus software is, and each one needs two folders added to its exclusions: C:\Program Files\WinSystemMonitor and C:\ProgramData\WinSystemMonitor. The update then installs on its own.
In Kaspersky, open Settings, then Security settings and Threats and exclusions. Click Manage exclusions, click Add, use Browse to select the first folder and keep the status Active. Add the second folder the same way.
In Dr.Web, open the menu and choose Security Center, then Exclusions and Files and folders. Click Add, select the folder with Browse and click OK.
In ESET, open Advanced setup, then Scans, Exclusions and Detection exclusions. Click Add and type each path with an asterisk at the end: C:\Program Files\WinSystemMonitor\* and C:\ProgramData\WinSystemMonitor\*.
In Avast, open Menu, then Settings, General and Exceptions. Click Add exception and select the folder on the File/Folder tab.
Other antivirus products usually call this section Exclusions too. If you can't find it, message us and tell us which antivirus you use.
On screen"The update is waiting for a restart"
The new version has been downloaded, but the old one is still running and its files are in use. Restart the computer, and the update installs the next time it starts.
On screen"The computer is almost out of space"
Gardion checks how much space is left on the system drive. When 10 GB or less is free, the panel shows this card, because without free space Gardion can't download updates. Free up enough space to get above 10 GB. The quickest way is to uninstall programs and games nobody plays any more: in Windows, open Settings, then Apps and Installed apps. Then empty the Downloads folder and the Recycle Bin. The card disappears once more than 10 GB is free.
On screen"This computer has not updated"
Gardion normally updates within a few minutes. This card means the installer never finished on this computer, and an antivirus is the usual reason. Install the new version yourself. In Gardion Family, tap Add device, choose Windows and open the personal link on your child's computer. Run the installer over the old version. Your settings and your child's time are kept.
Someone moved the computer's clock by hand, usually a day forward so that a new day and a new limit begin. Gardion checks the time against our server, so changing the clock doesn't start a new day. If no adult changed it, talk to your child. If the clock drifts on its own and Gardion warns that it is wrong, open Settings in Windows, go to Time & language, then Date & time, and turn on Set time automatically.
On screen"The website filter isn't working right now"
Gardion checks by itself whether blocked sites open on the computer. When they do, a VPN or another program that changes internet settings is almost always running. Find it in the list of installed programs in Windows and uninstall it. Once it's gone, the filter blocks those sites again.
Write to us from Support requests in the parent app, at app@gardion.io or on Telegram. Include the phone model, the Android or Windows version and a screenshot.
app@gardion.io@GardionSupportBotQuestions before you buy are in the FAQ
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