Safeleaf: questions and answers

Last updated: 24 September 2026

The questions parents ask most. The same answers are in the app, under Help → Questions and answers, so you can read them on the phone you are holding.

Before you start

What do I need before I start?

Both phones on your home wifi, about twenty minutes when nobody needs their phone, and the password for every account on it: Google, Samsung if it has one, and yours if Family Link supervises it. A computer and a cable if you want to save their things and put them back.

Why does their phone have to be factory reset?

Android only lets an app manage a phone if it is set up that way on a phone that has just been reset. It’s the same way a company sets up its work phones. It’s also why your child can’t switch Safeleaf off afterwards.

Will they lose their photos and messages?

Anything you don’t save first. Photos backed up to Google Photos come back when they sign in again, but check which folders it backs up: often only the camera. Texts, chat history and game saves need saving before the reset. The app shows a checklist and won’t show the setup QR until you have been through it.

Their phone has Family Link on it

Remove their Google account from the phone before the reset: Settings → Accounts → their account → Remove. It asks for your Family Link password. This ends supervision on that phone without touching the account itself. Their photos, email and purchases stay where they are.

If setup didn’t work

This phone can’t see what happened on theirs, so here is every known cause, in the order you would meet them. A factory reset always gets you back to the start, so nothing here is permanent.

Tapping six times did nothing

It only works on the very first welcome screen of a phone that has just been factory reset. If you have gone past that screen, or the phone was never reset, reset it and tap six times on the same spot as soon as the welcome screen appears.

It asked for an old account, or said the phone is already set up

The phone still belonged to someone. A Google account that was on it before the reset turns on reset protection, which asks for that account’s password. Samsung phones have a second lock tied to the Samsung account. Family Link supervision blocks setup too.

Sign in with the account it asks for, then remove every account from Settings → Accounts and reset again. On a Samsung, remove the Samsung account before you reset. If you can’t sign in to it, don’t reset until you can.

It couldn’t download the app

Setup downloads Safeleaf from mysafeleaf.ca, so their phone needs working internet at that moment. Use a home wifi network. Wifi that shows a sign-in page first, like at a café or hotel, won’t work.

To check the download is available, open mysafeleaf.ca/app-release.apk in a browser on this phone. If it downloads here, the problem is their connection.

It downloaded, then said “Something went wrong”

The most likely cause you can fix: the QR was made by an older version of Safeleaf than the one it downloaded. Their phone checks that the two match, and refuses without saying why.

Update Safeleaf on this phone, come back to this screen for a fresh QR, then reset their phone and scan the new one. Don’t reuse a photo or screenshot of an old QR.

Safeleaf opened on their phone, but this phone shows nothing

Setup worked. What’s missing is the second step: on their phone, open Safeleaf and tap “Show pairing code”. On this phone, tap “Scan their pairing code”. Do it once on each parent’s phone, with both phones on the same wifi.

None of these

Some causes are on our side and there is nothing you could have done differently, and some phone makers block this kind of setup. Write to n12n.can@proton.me with their phone’s make and model, and the text from Diagnostics on this phone. We would rather hear about it than have you keep resetting.

Words the app uses

When nothing is unlocked

These are the rules that apply by default — the quiet state of the phone, when you have not granted an unlock and no scheduled window is open.

Everything else is an exception to it: an unlock you issue lifts it for a while, a scheduled window replaces it between the times you set, and a per-app rule below overrides it for that app alone.

Per-app rules, and “Always allowed”

Each app can have its own answer for mobile data and for wifi, overriding the rules above for that app.

“Always allowed” is different in kind. It puts the app on a list that nothing can revoke — not a policy you save later, not a scheduled window, not a mistake, not a hostile grant. It is for the things that must work at 2am: the phone dialler, messages, maps. Use it sparingly, because an app on that list is outside every rule you write.

What “managed device” means

Safeleaf becomes the phone’s Device Owner: the role Android gives to a work phone’s management app. It can only be granted during setup, on a phone that has just been reset, which is why the factory reset is unavoidable.

It is also the whole difference from an ordinary app blocker. A blocker can be force-stopped, uninstalled or switched off in Settings by the person it constrains. A Device Owner cannot — not by your child, and not by you without another factory reset.

QR code, or ten spoken digits

Two ways to send an unlock when you are not on the same network as their phone, and neither needs a signal on either handset.

Show the QR when your child is in front of you — they point their camera at your screen. Read the ten digits down the phone when they are not: it is the same unlock, in a form that survives a phone call. Both expire, and each one can only be used once.

Every day

How do I let them use something for a while?

Tap Unlock their phone. If both phones are on the same wifi, the unlock goes straight to theirs. Away from home, tap Send it: it goes through Safeleaf’s relay, sealed so the relay can’t read or change it, and their phone unlocks within a minute if it’s online. If either phone has no signal, show them a QR code or read out ten digits instead. That works with no signal at all.

Can my child turn Safeleaf off?

No. They can’t uninstall it, force-stop it, clear its data, change the VPN or the clock, or turn on developer options. The one thing they can do is factory reset their phone. That is left open on purpose, so a lost parent phone can never leave theirs locked for good. It’s hard to miss: it wipes everything on their phone, and their phone stops answering yours.

An app still can’t connect, and I allowed it

Check three things. Is a scheduled window closed, like bedtime? Is it allowed on the connection they are using? Mobile data and wifi have separate rules. And is their phone on one of the wifi networks you listed? It will only join those. If all three look right, open Diagnostics on their phone and on yours.

How do I change the rules?

Tap Rules on your phone and save. Their phone takes the new rules the next time it hears from yours. It checks that each change was signed by a parent’s phone, so nobody else can make one.

How does the app on their phone get updated?

Your copy updates from the Play Store as usual. Theirs doesn’t, because a managed phone can’t install apps the ordinary way. Send an update from Activity when both phones are on the same wifi, or let their phone check for itself once a day. That setting is under Rules, in Keeping their app up to date.

How do I add the other parent?

Tap Add another parent. It’s simplest before you set up their phone: the other parent shows their key, you scan it, and the setup QR includes both of you. You can also add them afterwards, as long as a parent their phone already trusts is there to approve it.

Lost, reset or replaced

I lost my phone, or I have a new one

Install Safeleaf on the new phone and tap Replacing a lost parent phone?. You’ll need the recovery key you wrote down when you set up their phone, and the backup file you made. If another parent’s phone still works, they can add your new phone instead. Without any of these, the only way back is to factory reset their phone and set it up again.

Their phone was factory reset

Safeleaf went with everything else on it. Set it up again from Configure, Set up their phone again, including saving their things first.

How do we take Safeleaf off their phone for good?

Factory reset it. That’s the only way, by design: anything easier would be something your child could do too. Save their things first, the same way you did at setup.

Still stuck

Write to n12n.can@proton.me. Include your phone’s make and model, and copy in the text from Diagnostics on each phone. It saves a round of questions, and it contains nothing about what your child does.