Settings and your data
Everything on this page lives under Settings, reached from the icon in the top bar of the app list. The groups below match the group headings in the app.
How do I set cage behaviour?
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Auto-start on boot | Brings the cage back up after a restart. Pair it with Always-on VPN so caged apps never get a window of connectivity before you unlock — see Install and setup. |
| Show app count in notification | Puts the number of caged apps in the ongoing VPN notification. The notification itself is required by Android and cannot be hidden. |
| Default day pass duration | How long a day pass lasts when you grant one from an app's detail screen. |
How do I choose the appearance?
Theme (System, Light, Dark), Dynamic colour (Android 12+ takes its accent from your wallpaper), AMOLED black (a true-black dark theme, which saves power on OLED screens) and Haptics (the small vibration when a cage toggles).
These preferences are part of the configuration. Export and import carry them, and optional account backup can restore them on another phone.
How do I manage my data?
How do I export a configuration?
Writes your whole setup to a single JSON file: every rule and its transports, your profiles and their members, your schedules, your hidden apps, your pinned widgets and your preferences. You choose where it goes with the system file picker, so it can land in Drive, on the device, or anywhere else your phone can save to.
Nothing personal beyond your own configuration is in the file. It contains package names — which is to say it contains the list of apps you have caged — so treat it the way you would treat that list.
How do I import a configuration?
Reads a file written by Export configuration and replaces your current setup with it. It is not a merge: importing is how you move a setup to a new phone or roll back to a known-good one.
Two things are worth knowing:
- It is validated first. A file from a newer version of NetCage, or one that has been edited into an invalid shape, is rejected whole. A partial import never happens.
- It is safe to interrupt. If the app is killed mid-import, NetCage notices on the next launch and finishes the job before anything else reads your rules. You may briefly see a recovery screen while that happens; it resolves on its own.
How do I clear every cage?
Releases every app at once. It clears the rules, not your profiles or schedules — so a schedule that cages something this evening still will. Use it when you want to start the list again from nothing.
How do I read the event log?
A local, plain-language record of what the engine has done: caged, released, day pass granted, schedule opened or closed, boot restore, app uninstalled, engine errors. It answers "why did that app get internet back?" without guesswork.
The log is on the device only. It is never synced and never uploaded — not to an account, not to crash reporting, not to anything. Clear event log empties it.
How do I restore hidden apps or remove missing-app rules?
Hidden apps lists everything you have hidden from the main list, so you can bring one back. Rules for apps not on this device lists rules pointing at apps you no longer have installed; they are kept rather than deleted because on a synced account that rule may still be doing work on another phone. Both are covered in Caging apps.
Blocked Cage Pack publishers
Blocked publishers lists opaque publisher IDs stored on this phone. Unblock removes the local choice. It does not restore a pack that its author removed or that moderation made unavailable.
How do I choose advanced controls?
The root engine lives here, opt-in and clearly labelled experimental. It has never run on rooted hardware — see Limitations for exactly what that means.
How do I choose privacy controls?
Usage analytics, Send crash reports and Announcements are separate switches. All three start off. Turning on Usage analytics first opens Share usage data?, which names Google Analytics for Firebase, Amplitude and Microsoft Clarity and explains the replay-safe screen boundary before any of those providers starts.
Announcements gives OneSignal consent and opts this installation in only after you turn the switch on. Turning it off opts out and revokes SDK consent. Read Privacy for the exact data and provider boundaries.
The firewall works signed out. Google sign-in owns the features that need a private record: cloud backup, in-app support replies and Cage Pack publishing. Importing and reporting a Cage Pack remain available signed out. Delete account removes cloud records only after every referenced custom icon is confirmed deleted or already absent; a storage failure preserves the account and lets you retry.
Where do I find the version and public links?
The version, links to the website and this documentation, the privacy policy and terms, a way to rate the app, and Other apps by developer.