Tap a question to see the answer.
System Guard shows facts about your device: what it is, what it is doing right now, and whether a newer iOS is available for your exact model. Tap any value and it explains what it means and whether it matters.
It does not look for viruses, malware or a jailbreak, and it does not give your device a rating. iOS keeps every app in its own sandbox, so no app on your iPhone can look inside other apps. Earlier versions of System Guard showed a “security state”; that is gone on purpose.
System Guard reads only what Apple makes available to every app, and it never changes anything on your device.
System Guard compares the version you have installed with Apple's public list of releases for your model. Apple rolls updates out over several days, so Settings may not offer it to you yet. It can also differ if your device runs a beta.
Check Settings › General › Software Update, and try again a day later if nothing shows there.
To find the newest iOS for your model, System Guard asks our server, which keeps a copy of Apple's public release list. “Could not check” means that request did not get through: usually there is no connection, or it is very slow or overloaded.
Nothing is wrong with your device. System Guard checks again later on its own. If it keeps saying this on a good connection, let us know; in rare cases the problem is on our side.
iOS keeps free memory small on purpose: memory nobody uses is wasted. What matters is available memory, which is free plus inactive memory — memory that was used recently and is handed to whatever asks next. That is the figure the Overview shows.
Compressed memory, and memory held by apps in the background, is also given back when an app needs it. A Mac's Activity Monitor works the same way.
The total is a little less than the amount on the box, because part of the memory is set aside for the hardware before iOS starts: a 12 GB iPhone shows around 11.5 GB.
Capacity is the size on the box. The file system itself reports less — about 239 GB on a 256 GB iPhone — because iOS takes the rest. System Guard, like Settings, shows the size on the box and counts iOS as used space.
Free is the same figure Settings uses: the space that is empty now plus what iOS can clear on demand.
A small difference remains, usually well under 1 GB. Settings and the app define “available” slightly differently, both figures change by the minute as iOS clears caches, and Settings takes a while to calculate, so it may show an older figure. A widget shows the figure from its last refresh; the time is on the widget.
The model is newer than the device list in the app. The list updates from our server once a day without an app update, so the name usually appears within a day of being online. If it is still missing after that, tell us through More › Send feedback.
iOS gives the name of the Wi-Fi network and the address of its access point only to apps that may use your location, because the two together can reveal where you are.
System Guard asks only when you tap Show network name and access point (part of System Guard Pro). It reads nothing about your position for this and stores nothing.
The test runs against Cloudflare's public speed-test servers, in three parts:
So one test uses at most about 308 MB. On a metered connection, such as cellular data or a hotspot, the app tells you before you start that the test counts against your data plan. The speed test is part of System Guard Pro.
Local network (part of System Guard Pro, in the Network tab) lists the devices on the network you are connected to — printers, speakers, TVs and anything else that answers. It has two ways of finding them:
Both report only that a device is there, never what it is running. A device that is asleep may not appear. Nothing is changed on any device, and the list is not stored.
iOS asks for permission the first time, because the devices in a home say something about that home. If you declined, turn it on in Settings › System Guard › Local Network.
The traffic card shows what the whole device sent and received, by day, for the last 30 days: Wi-Fi and wired together, with cellular called out when there is any. iOS gives apps no figures per app, so System Guard cannot say which app used the data.
Settings › Cellular counts differently: per app, and since the last time the statistics were reset. The two will rarely match.
System Guard can only count while it, or one of its widgets, gets to run. It takes a reading each time you open or leave the app and each time a widget refreshes. After a restart the device starts counting from zero, so the traffic between the last reading before the restart and the first one after it is missing. With a widget on your Home Screen the gaps stay small (see History). Traffic through a VPN is counted once, not twice.
No app can read these figures directly. But iOS writes them into an analytics file every night, which you can open and share. System Guard reads the battery part of it. Battery health is free.
Open Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom and tap Analytics & Improvements. Switch on Share iPhone & Watch Analytics. Already on? Go to step 3.
iOS writes the file at about 2 a.m. If you have just switched sharing on, come back tomorrow. The first file is useful straight away, even after a short day.
On the same screen, tap Analytics Data. The list is sorted by name: scroll down to the names beginning Analytics-. The date is in the name. Tap the newest one. It opens as a page of text — that is right.
Tap the share button at the top right and choose System Guard. System Guard reads the file and tells you what it found.
Share the other files beginning Analytics- from the last few days, one at a time. When System Guard says “No battery data in this part”, that is normal (why).
Many files at once: instead of sharing each file, choose Save to Files for each one, then tap Import analytics files in Battery health and select them all. System Guard keeps what it needs and ignores the rest.
Battery health is in the More tab, on the Overview, and under Device › Capacity & power.
iOS splits each day's analytics into several files, and only one of them carries the battery record. So most files have no battery data at all — that is the common case, not an error.
You do not need to know which file is the right one. Share the others from the same days too, or save them all and import them at once. System Guard recognizes each file's device from inside the file, keeps the battery readings, and lists every file you imported under Imported files, so you can see which ones you already have.
Almost always, Share iPhone & Watch Analytics is switched off (step 1 here). Switch it on and come back the next day: iOS writes the file overnight.
If it is on and there is still nothing, your device may be managed by an employer or school, which can switch this setting off. Battery health cannot work on such a device.
Your Apple Watch's analytics files are on your iPhone, in the same Analytics Data list, and their names begin with Analytics- too. You cannot tell them apart from the iPhone's by name, and you do not need to: System Guard reads from inside each file which device it came from.
iOS fetches the watch's files from the watch while the Analytics Data screen is open, so they can take a while to show up. If you expect one and it is not there yet, leave the screen open for a moment, or go back and open it again.
In Battery health, switch to the watch with the device picker to see its readings.
iOS deletes analytics files after about a week. A day whose file is gone is missing from the charts for good, so import at least once a week. Battery health shows the date of the newest file you imported, under the import button, and warns you there once it is more than six days old.
Battery health changes slowly — a week may add one charge cycle and no change in capacity — so the value is in the long run: after a few months the charts show how fast your battery is really aging.
Above 100 %: a new battery often holds a little more than its rated capacity. Settings never shows more than 100 %; System Guard shows the figure as iOS records it, so a healthy battery can read 102 % or 104 %. Apple considers a battery worth replacing at around 80 %.
Older reading: iOS does not measure the battery all the time. It records a full reading every so often and writes the latest one into the day's file, so a file from this morning can hold a reading from yesterday or the day before. System Guard shows the date of the reading, not of the file.
The temperature, voltage and current extremes are lifetime figures, not that day's.
Not there? Swipe the row of apps in the share sheet to the end and tap More; you can move System Guard to the front there.
Shows up for other files? iOS does not tell apps in advance what kind of file an analytics file is, so System Guard offers itself for most documents — everything except pictures, video, audio, PDFs, archives, contacts and web links. That is why you may also see it when sharing a text or JSON file. If you share something that is not an analytics file, System Guard says so and stores nothing.
An analytics file contains much more than your battery, for example how apps and the system were used. System Guard reads only the battery record and ignores the rest. The file itself is not kept.
What it keeps — the battery figures, and the name and date of each file you imported — stays on your device. It is never uploaded, and it is not part of the device report or a support message. You can delete any reading in Battery health. The Privacy Policy lists every figure.
Analytics sharing itself is Apple's setting and sends its data to Apple; System Guard never sees what goes to Apple. You can switch it off again once you have imported your files.
History (part of System Guard Pro) charts free storage, memory in use and the thermal state over up to 90 days. Every point on a chart is a reading, and System Guard takes one when you open the app and every time one of its widgets refreshes — at most one every 20 minutes.
iOS almost never lets the app itself wake up in the background. A widget, on the other hand, is refreshed by iOS about every 30 to 60 minutes during the day, even if you never look at it. So without a widget, readings are only taken while the app is open, and the charts have gaps.
Touch and hold the Home Screen, tap Edit › Add Widget, and choose System Guard. Any of its widgets will do, including the free small Storage widget.
The same readings keep the traffic figures and the storage alert up to date.
Both are in History and are off until you switch them on; iOS asks for permission to send notifications at that moment.
The checks run when the app opens and when one of its widgets refreshes, so a widget makes them timely. They are local notifications: decided on your device, nothing is sent anywhere. Not getting them? Check Settings › Notifications › System Guard.
Four widgets for the Home Screen and the Lock Screen: Storage, Memory, CPU and Status (iOS version, storage, thermal state and Low Power Mode at a glance). The small Storage widget is free; the others and the Lock Screen versions are part of System Guard Pro.
Widgets cannot be live: iOS decides when to redraw them, usually every 30 to 60 minutes during the day. Every widget shows the time of its reading. To update a Home Screen widget straight away, tap its refresh button, or open System Guard.
On iOS 18 and later there are also two Control Center controls: one opens the check-up, one starts a speed test (Pro).
The watch's own system information, which the watch itself never shows: model and identifier, watchOS version and build, uptime, CPU cores, memory and how it is used right now, storage and display. There is also a Watch storage complication.
With System Guard Pro the watch also shows your iPhone's status — iOS version, storage, memory, battery, Low Power Mode and thermal state — and an iPhone status complication. The iPhone sends it when System Guard runs there, so open the app on the iPhone once if the watch says “No status yet”.
There is no Mac version of System Guard.
Seven actions for the Shortcuts app and Siri, for your own automations — for example, “every morning, if free storage is below 5 GB, notify me”:
The check-up has 16 tests in six groups. Each one asks you to judge what you see, hear or feel, and records your answer. The five basic tests — display, touch, speakers, microphone and haptics — are free; System Guard Pro adds the other eleven, the complete run and the summary.
The results stay on your device until you tap Clear results. Nothing is uploaded. With System Guard Pro you can export them, together with the Device and Network details, as a PDF, text or JSON report through the share sheet — handy when you sell a device.
One purchase, no subscription. Family Sharing is supported.
Free for everyone: the Overview, the Device tab, Compare, the rest of the Network tab including traffic, Battery health, the five basic check-up tests, the small Storage widget and the watch's own information.
You do not have to buy again: the ad-free upgrade of earlier versions is the same purchase as System Guard Pro. Open the More tab, tap Get System Guard Pro, then Restore Purchases.
Purchases belong to the Apple Account that made them. If you have switched accounts since, sign in with the account you originally used and restore again. Still locked? Let us know.
Refunds are handled entirely by Apple — we have no access to your purchase and cannot issue one ourselves.
Request it at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Use More › Send feedback in the app. Leave Attach device report on and we can usually answer without asking back; you can read the report first under More › Device report. You can also use the contact form on our website.
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