SentryScreen 0.3.0

Release notes. Last updated 25 September 2026.

The first release of SentryScreen for macOS. This page describes build 20 and keeps the changes from earlier builds in this version.

Release identity

Version

0.3.0

Build

20

Update channel

stable, the channel every installation follows.

Requires manual installation

No. A Mac already running SentryScreen picks this build up in the background within a day. A new Mac uses the installer link in your license email, which always points at the current build.

Supported Macs

Apple silicon Macs running macOS 14 (Sonoma), macOS 15 (Sequoia), macOS 26 (Tahoe) or macOS 27 (Golden Gate), and Intel Macs running macOS 14, macOS 15 or macOS 26. One installer serves both; Intel Macs run at a reduced frame rate (see Known limits).

Changes in build 20

• A note when the license agreement changes. If SentryScreen was set up on this Mac before 24 September 2026, the administrator’s SentryScreen menu shows a one-time note that the license agreement has changed, with a link to read it. Tap OK to dismiss it. Protection keeps running whether or not the note has been read.
• Background updates after a pause. After a pause, SentryScreen could go on reporting a cover as showing when nothing was on screen, which held up a background update until SentryScreen restarted. It now clears that report when the covers come down.
• Screen Sharing. If the Mac is unlocked through Screen Sharing while its screen stays on, SentryScreen is now designed to keep protecting instead of pausing until it restarts. We could not recreate this situation in testing, so we have not yet seen this fix at work on a real Mac.
• Settings tabs on macOS 27. The row of tabs at the top of Settings now fits inside the window, also with larger text.

Your settings and parent PIN are kept during the update.

Changes in build 19

• Ready for the free trial. This build is the first that understands a free-trial key. A Mac on a paid subscription works exactly as before.
• Clearer activation wording. The activation screen now asks for the email you used with SentryScreen, since it may be a trial email rather than a purchase email.
• Free trial on the Mac. During a free trial the Subscription page shows how many days are left, with Monthly and Yearly buttons that open checkout. Subscribing keeps the same key and lifts the trial to 3 Macs. When the trial ends, protection stops and SentryScreen shows how to subscribe; nothing is charged.

Your settings and parent PIN are kept during the update.

Changes in build 18

• macOS 27 on Apple silicon. SentryScreen now supports macOS 27 (Golden Gate) on Apple silicon Macs (see Supported macOS set).
• Installing on a Mac with more than one account. On macOS 27, a Mac can go on listing an account as logged in after it has logged out. The installer now restarts protection only for accounts that are really logged in and skips one that has logged out, instead of failing the install.
• No false alarm after a logout. The background check that restarts protection if it stops now watches only accounts that are logged in. An account that has logged out is noted once in the local log and watched again when it logs back in; it is no longer reported as a failure every minute.
• That check waits during an install. The installer pauses it while it restarts SentryScreen’s background parts and starts it again at the end, also when that step fails, so it cannot restart protection in the middle of the handoff to the new version.
• Background updates after this one. After an update installs, SentryScreen now confirms that protection came back only in accounts that are logged in, so an account that has logged out cannot make a healthy update look failed. The version doing the update runs this check, so it applies from the update after build 18.
• Refund terms. The 30-day money-back guarantee now counts per subscription: cancel a subscription within 30 days of its first payment and that payment is refunded in full. We may decline repeat refund requests, for example for a new subscription bought after an earlier refund. The license agreement has the new wording, effective 24 September 2026.

Your settings and parent PIN are kept during the update.

Changes in build 15

• Better protection in Quick Look. Improved handling of previews while protection is active.
• Clearer license recovery. License-seat errors explain how to recover an available device slot.
• More complete removal. Administrator-approved removal also works offline. If the device slot cannot be released, use Manage Devices from another device to release it.
• More reliable startup. Fixed startup and background recovery problems found during macOS 27 testing. Build 15 did not add macOS 27 to the supported list.

Your settings and parent PIN are kept during the update.

Changes in build 14

• More reliable protection after a background restart. SentryScreen now avoids a restart stall and keeps the status at Starting until capture and protection are active again.
• A pause ends on time while a menu is open. Protection resumes at the scheduled time while you are using a menu, and the status waits for the resume to finish before it says Protecting.
• Clearer display status. SentryScreen refreshes the display name and count when macOS reports a change. It shows a warning if the display used for protection is no longer available.
• More reliable first start after an update. The installer prepares the local protection component before it verifies that component. Normal installation permissions no longer look like changed content.

Changes in build 13

• Fewer covers on swimwear and other covered content. When the detector sees both a covered and an exposed reading of the same area, the covered one now wins, and each class has its own confidence bar. The cover still drops on explicit content exactly as before.
• A still page is not a gap. The cover now counts evidence by frames seen, so a page that stops changing keeps the same protection as one that scrolls.
• Covers that follow the window. A cover lifts on what a window reveals when it closes, hands over cleanly when one window replaces another, and no longer flickers on and off while a window is being moved.
• Diagnostic reports, only if you opt in. Setup asks once; the App page has Send a report now and shows whether it was sent or queued. A report describes the app's own state and never includes a picture of the screen.
• A key that stopped working can be replaced or removed from the menu, behind your PIN, and a subscription with no active billing period says so plainly instead of "confirming".

Changes in build 7

• Settings in three pages. General, Subscription and App, so the subscription state, the seats in use and the version each have a place of their own.
• Clearer activation and subscription states. The menu bar and the settings pages say plainly whether the Mac is activated, paused, in a grace period or waiting on a payment, and what to do next.
• Keyboard and accessibility. The menu opens with a safe control focused, Return moves through the PIN fields, and the macOS Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast settings are honored across the wizard, menu and settings.
• Login Items shows SentryScreen. macOS names the background items after the app instead of the developer account.

What is in this version

• A cover over explicit content. SentryScreen checks what is on the screen, on the Mac itself, and drops a solid cover over a window showing nudity or sexual images the moment it appears, in any app or browser. The cover moves with the window and lifts by itself once the content is gone.
• Set up once, for every account on the Mac. Install it, set a parent PIN, turn on one macOS permission (Screen Recording), and activate the Mac. After that, protection starts at every login, for every user account on that Mac, and keeps running when the Mac is offline.
• Parent controls behind your PIN. The menu bar shows whether protection is on. Settings need the PIN; removing SentryScreen needs the Mac’s administrator password. A password-protected panic shortcut clears the covers for five minutes, so a cover can never trap an adult at the Mac: it asks for an administrator’s password, and protection comes back by itself.
• Activation by link or by key. Your license email carries an activation link and the key itself. Open the email on each Mac and click the link; if the link does not open SentryScreen, type the key into SentryScreen instead. One subscription covers up to three Macs.
• A subscription check and background updates. About every six hours, a background service on the Mac sends one small message to our server to confirm your subscription and ask whether a newer version exists. When one does, it downloads it, checks it, and installs it without asking. The message contains seven things and nothing else; they are listed under Privacy below.
• A standard macOS installer. The package installs for the whole Mac from an administrator account and opens the setup window when it finishes.

How this reaches you

A Mac already running an earlier build picks this build up by itself, in the background, as described under Update behavior. A new Mac uses the installer link in your license email; the site does not offer one. The minimum macOS for this build is 14.0.

Supported macOS set

• Installs on macOS 14, macOS 15, macOS 26 and macOS 27. macOS 27 is supported on Apple silicon Macs only; Intel Macs are supported on macOS 14, macOS 15 and macOS 26.
• Change from the previous release: macOS 27 added, on Apple silicon only.

Installation

1. Open the installer from your license email. Approve the standard macOS installation request with an administrator password.
2. Wait for the SentryScreen setup window to open by itself.
3. Create your parent PIN.
4. When SentryScreen asks for Screen Recording, choose Open System Settings and turn on SentryScreen under Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording. If macOS offers Quit & Reopen, use it.
5. Wait for Protection is on, then choose Done.

Then activate the Mac: open your license email on that Mac and click Activate SentryScreen; if the link does not open the app, type the key into SentryScreen instead. Protection starts when the Mac is activated. Until then SentryScreen is installed but not protecting.

Update behavior

• Nothing to migrate, and the Mac never restarts for an update. When a later version installs, SentryScreen stops and starts again, so protection is interrupted for a few seconds.
• How later versions arrive: a background service checks with our server about every six hours, at a time that varies so that many Macs do not call at once. Before installing anything it confirms the package is the one our server described (same size, same checksum) and that it is signed with our Apple Developer ID. If either check fails, nothing is installed.
• When an update waits: while a cover is on the screen (up to 24 hours), while setup is still waiting for the Screen Recording permission, and while the Mac is on battery below 20%.
• If protection does not come back after an update, SentryScreen puts the previous version back from the copy it keeps on the Mac (kept from the first automatic update onward). If it cannot, it stops updating rather than retrying and records the failure locally.
• A few future releases will need a manual install. SentryScreen keeps protecting with the version it has, and that release’s notes on this site say so. Your settings and PIN are kept.
• Updates cannot be turned off. The subscription check and updates run for as long as SentryScreen is installed, paid up or not, because an out-of-date protector on a child’s Mac is worse than an unpaid one. You can start a check by hand: menu bar › Settings… › Subscription › Check now.

Privacy

• New local data: this is the first release, so everything it keeps is new. The privacy statement describes each item and where it lives. The update service keeps its own notes in the same local log folder as the rest of SentryScreen and, from the first automatic update onward, keeps one copy of the previous version’s installer on the Mac so it can be put back.
• Network behavior in this version: the subscription and update check described above, to api.sentry-screen.com, and the download of an update package from dl.sentry-screen.com. The check-in message contains exactly seven things, each one listed in the privacy statement; the license key is left out on a Mac that has not been activated yet. Nothing else is ever sent: no screen content, no detection results, no application names, no window titles, no log files. No request carries a User-Agent header. The part of SentryScreen that looks at the screen has no network code at all, and your child’s account makes no network request. The privacy statement is the authority on what is sent and what our server keeps.
• Control: none inside the app. There is no setting that switches the check or the updates off; removing SentryScreen does.
• New in build 19, for a free trial only: the check that starts a free trial on a Mac also sends, once, a one-way hash of the hardware identifier macOS assigns that Mac, so each Mac gets one free trial. A paid subscription never sends it. The privacy statement describes it and how long it is kept.
• Retention change: none. This is the first release.

Known limits

• It reacts; it does not prevent. Content can be on screen for a fraction of a second before the cover lands, and longer if it slides in from the edge of a window.
• It can miss things, and it can cover harmless things. It is a detector, not a person: one layer of protection, not the whole answer.
• Explicit means nudity and sexual images. It does not look for violence or words.
• It covers what is on the screen, and that is all. It does not block websites, filter downloads, restrict apps or read messages. Video from protected streaming services such as Netflix is hidden from every app by macOS, so it is not covered.
• Intel Macs run at a reduced frame rate, which SentryScreen chooses by itself when it starts.
• Updates cannot be turned off. The check runs on its own schedule; Check now in Settings › Subscription runs one immediately (Update behavior).
• Removal needs an administrator: Settings › Remove SentryScreen…, or the removal script (below). It does not cancel your subscription.

Recovery and removal

• Screen Recording permission. If macOS loses the permission, SentryScreen shows a red banner. Open the SentryScreen menu, choose the repair action, and turn SentryScreen on again in System Settings. macOS owns that switch, so no PIN is asked for. Protection is back when the banner clears and the menu says Protecting.
• Forgotten PIN. From an administrator account, open SentryScreen and choose Forgot PIN. macOS asks you to confirm you are the Mac’s owner (Touch ID, Apple Watch or your login password), then you set a new PIN. The old PIN is never shown. A Standard account cannot do this.
• Removal. From an administrator account, open the SentryScreen menu bar icon, choose Settings…, and at the bottom choose Remove SentryScreen…. It asks for an administrator name and password, lets you keep or delete the parent PIN and settings, and can also clear the Screen Recording permission record macOS keeps. It removes the local diagnostic notes and stops protection on that Mac only. If the app will not open, run sudo "/Library/Application Support/SentryScreen/uninstall.sh" from Terminal instead. Removing SentryScreen does not cancel your subscription; your other Macs are not affected.

Questions about this release: write to us from the Support page.