"Guard didn't restart" on the home screen

Occasionally the Home screen shows this status:

Guard didn’t restart Your apps and permission are fine. iOS refused to start the timer.

Read it literally. Your app picks are intact, Screen Time access is granted, and nothing about your setup is wrong. Tollgate asked iOS to start the usage timer that powers the gate, and iOS said no. This happens rarely, usually when the Screen Time system on the phone is briefly overloaded or wedged.

The escalation path

1. Tap “Try again.” Most of the time the second ask just works, and the status flips back to “Guard active.”
2. Close and reopen Tollgate. The app re-checks and re-arms the guard every time it comes to the foreground, so a fresh open is a fresh attempt.
3. Restart your iPhone. If iOS keeps refusing, its Screen Time daemons are stuck, and a reboot is the reliable way to unstick them. After the restart, open Tollgate once so it can re-arm.
4. Still stuck? Walk the full shield checklist, especially the App & Website Activity check. A phone where that setting is off will refuse timers all day.

Is anything guarded while this shows?

No. Until the timer starts, scrolling is not being counted, so the gate cannot fire. That is exactly why the Home screen surfaces it loudly instead of pretending all is well. Tollgate’s rule is that a silent failure is worse than a visible one: if the guard is down, you will always be told.

Your stats, streak, and settings are untouched throughout. This state is about the timer only.