System launcher crash, black screen from unknow bug

[Marios Mesaritis]

I have been using tasker on my nexus 5 stock rom since kitkat. Since i upgraded to lollipop i get a weird bug and narrowed down that its caused by tasker. At random times and more often if i back out from apop up notification from tasker or other apps my screen turns to black and none of the home multitask or back button work. The only thing that still works is the notification bar. I cant go to home screen, switch to an other app or go to settings. The only workaround is to turn off the device and then turn on.
I also have avast antivirus and antitheft installed. Sometimes when this bug occurs and i try to switch off the avast antitheft acts like the sim card has been removed and goes into lock down mode.
Any of this does not happen if i have tasker disabled.
I tried to keep tasker enabled with different profiles enabled each time but the bug occurs which ever profile is enabled.

[Marta Hintz]

Reinstall tasker

[Pent]

First: please don't email AND post.

Here's what I replied via email:

------------------------

You're the second one to report this, first one was a couple of days ago.

I tried to keep tasker enabled with different profiles enabled each time but the bug occurs which ever profile is enabled.

How about with no profiles enabled ?

As a side note i can no longer control mobile data through tasker which i could with kitkat and when i first installed lollipop.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/tasker/aYUt3rTr1cg

[Charles Butcher]

I'm also seeing a "black screen" problem that I think is down to Tasker, possibly the "Keyguard Off" action.

I have stock Lollipop on a Nexus 4 (OTA without a factory reset). I started using Tasker a few days after my Lollipop upgrade. The problem is very intermittent, so it's hard to prove anything. But I'm sure it did not happen before I started using Tasker. I'm also fairly sure that it doesn't happen when Tasker is active and all profiles are disabled.

It does happen when I enable all four of my profiles:

• turn keyguard off when connected to my home network
• change screen brightness (via Lux) for selected apps
• allow landscape mode for selected apps
• beep when plugged in to a power source.

Some folks on this Reddit thread think the black screen may be related to Tasker, and there's a less conclusive discussion on Android Central.

I'm not using Secure Settings and I haven't turned off Tasker notifications or forced the app to the background.

When I do get the black screen I can usually get by without a reboot. The notifications pull-down remains accessible, and I find that actions like turning wireless off and on can generally restore the screen. Often takes a bit of prodding, though.

[Tyler Woodfin]

I had a similar issue and realized it's because I had SecureSettings disable one launcher and enable another, but I had replaced the second launcher, and when it disabled the first one, it left me launcher-less. 

[Pent]

It does happen when I enable all four of my profiles:

You mean it happens when any of the 4 are enabled, or only when all 4 are enabled ?

Pent

[Charles Butcher]

I don't yet know, because the problem is relatively infrequent (once a day, or every two days).

It certainly happens when all 4 profiles are enabled, and I have not yet seen the problem either when Tasker is disabled or when all 4 profiles are disabled. I think it was also OK when "keyguard off" was disabled and the other 3 were enabled, but maybe I didn't test for long enough.

I've just done a factory reset and no longer have the Play Services update that allows Smart Unlock to use Trusted Places. I'd previously sideloaded it and wasn't 100 percent sure I had the right version, so this time I'll wait for an OTA. I therefore won't need my "keyguard off" profile for a while, so I'll run without it and see if that helps.

Charles

[Marios Mesaritis]

I've got a big hint for ya. I have also had a profile active that disabled the keygyard through secure settings when the bug was occuring. Im now trying tasker enabled with no profiles active and i haven't seen any bugs yet.

[Dude]

When I have Tasker enabled it freezes my rooted Nexus 4 Lollipop with a black screen.

[Pent]

I've had a couple of emails that this problem is gone when not using Secure Settings
to manipulate the screen lock.

Pent

[Charles Butcher]

I've had a couple of emails that this problem is gone when not using Secure Settings to manipulate the screen lock.

Thanks Pent, but I don't think that can account for every case, since I had the black screen on my Nexus 4 but I've never used Secure Settings. Like Marios, though, I still think Tasker's "unlock keyguard" function had something to do with it, so maybe that's essentially the same issue.

A couple of days ago I wiped the cache partition and did a factory reset. Since then it's been fine with Tasker installed and two or three simple profiles running (app detection, power detection, rotate screen, beep etc). I'm not using the keyguard lock/unlock functions, and I'm not trying to detect wireless networks.

[Pent]

Thanks Charles.

So the common element seems to be messing around with the keyguard lock, the side-effects are
nastier in Lollipop.

Pent

[Charles Butcher]

So the common element seems to be messing around with the keyguard lock, the side-effects are nastier in Lollipop.

That would be my working assumption. It's a shame, because disabling keyguard is really useful. It avoids the need to swipe up to reach the home screen when using Trusted Places, but more importantly to me it also keeps the phone unlocked when it's been turned off by an app like Screen Locker or Turn Off Screen.

With KitKat I used SkipLock to keep the phone unlocked at home, and TOS as a soft key to turn off the screen. When I pressed the power button again I'd be straight back to the home screen. With Lollipop, using the soft key locks the phone, so I have to enter my PIN even though Trusted Places should be keeping it unlocked. If I use the power button to turn off the screen, Trusted Places works fine. I can't find a "screen off" app that doesn't also lock the screen, at least in Lollipop.

[Marios Mesaritis]

If may add another piece of info... The bug doesn't necessarily occur at the moment of execution of the keyguard on/off task but at a random time frame after that event, while the profile containing the task is still active

[Pent]

If may add another piece of info... The bug doesn't necessarily occur at the moment of execution of the keyguard on/off task but at a random time frame after that event, while the profile containing the task is still active

Yes, that's always been a characteristic of screen lock side-effects. Android at some point gets a surprise that
screen lock is not in an expected state I guess.

Pent

[Pent]

Adding Secure Settings support link:

https://intangibleobject.uservoice.com/forums/216738-general/suggestions/6735637-android-5-0-issues

Pent

[Gabriel]

It's definitely the keyguard settings, I had the same issue and just removed the keyguard settings from my tasker profiles. Since then no blank black screen or freeze up. Hope it helps someone :)

[TabernacST]

Just posting this forum link as an FYI to see if this will help... 

http://forums.androidcentral.com/android-5-0-lollipop/465232-lollipop-black-screen-2.html#post4117344

It seems like there are a lot of people experiencing problems with black screens that are either using location or state profiles, or perhaps due to Secure Settings attempting to set or clear a PIN. 

My tasks are running, I'm using the secure settings BETA, have not had success with clearing the PIN since Lollipop and get occasional black screens.  Tried a full root/new image same thing. 

[Duck Redbeard]

I get these occasionally and have gotten them on at least 3 different ROMs. Since 4.3 all the way to now, 5.0.1. Touchwiz ROMs and GPE ROMs.

I got one today when I clicked on a notification, Gmail. Maybe we could post here when people get these so we can figger out if there is something in common.

I am using secure settings, but not using it for any lock screen/key guard/PIN settings. I had no location profiles going active in the prior 30 minutes.

[Duck Redbeard]

Maybe I should mention that I have an AT&T Galaxy S4. Also running Nova. We gotta find the common factor to make progress on this.

[Brian Baldwin]

I have been battling black screen of death and having a screen that won't wake till after a bunch of power button presses. This is only while using profiles like "screen on" and "on device boot".
To avoid or fix the problem I started my tasks that are attached to those profiles with...

Keyguard on
Keyguard off
Keyguard on
Then the rest of the task.

I have experienced this issue with Android 4.4+ and is very pronounced right after a reboot. The first screen toggle after a reboot will almost always give a SOD or something similar.
Anyways, if you toggle the keyguard like I show you may eliminate the issue.
BTW thanks pent for Tasker. It's the best app on Google Play.

[Duck Redbeard]

Since the last occurrence, I removed all keyguard steps from all tasks. (Search feature is awesome). I shall report any future BSODs.

[Duck Redbeard]

Still happening. Seems to happen when I run tasks that somehow involve location. I am considering letting auto location plugin do some of that work.

[Duck Redbeard]

[Brian Baldwin]

On Friday, January 16, 2015 at 6:59:47 AM UTC-6, Duck Redbeard wrote:
> Since the last occurrence, I removed all keyguard steps from all tasks. (Search feature is awesome). I shall report any future BSODs.

My post wasn't for you so you can keep that snide remark about a search function to yourself.

[Duck Redbeard]

Back up, buddy. There was no "snide comment" intended for you at all. Simply a note to the Dev that we appreciate the search function available inside Tasker. I've been using Tasker for a few years and never knew about the search until I started working out this BSOD issue. Perhaps others reading my post would benefit from learning of this function. It is awesome to have that tool.

When I knew that I had issues that seemed to be associated with screen on and keyguard switching, and that I used those settings in several places, I knew it would be hard to find them. I have 32 profiles and 70 specific named tasks. Some tasks have over 30 steps. Several profiles trigger unnamed tasks. You know how long it would take to manually open each profile and task and find each and every occurrence of these settings? So yes, I am going to encourage people to use the search tool in tasker.

It helped me identify the conflicting steps and resolve my issue. I won't need to append a redundant toggling of a setting to each task.

[Pierre Gauthier]

Tanks for this tip, i did'nt use this before. Long time to search thing whitout this.

Pierre

[Duck Redbeard]

It has been 3.5 days since my phone did the black screen. The last thing I did was to remove all steps that did anything with keyguard. I had a few using Secure Settings and a few that were inside Tasker.

Crossing my fingers and probably putting a hex on me, but I'd say this issue is resolved for me.

[Biswajit Biswas]

Same problem ! Reporting. I am a new user of tasker! And don't know much about it. But this black screen issue is annoying! Lollipop 5.0.2. Moto G XT1033

[Bill Franklin]

I am having the black screen problem since buying Tasker 3 days ago.  LG G3 on ATT with Lollypop 5.01.  I am running Tasker on another LG G3 Sprint with Android 4.4.2 and it has never happened on that phone with the exact setup, apps, etc.  Both phones have Nova Launcher.  I can recover without rebooting by pulling down the notification bar and pushing on stuff.  Also, the LG soft buttons at the bottom remain in the black screen and sometimes, I can get my homescreen back by pushing them without pulling the notifications down.

[Jon Gordon]

I also am having the same issue.  I stopped using it for about a month and had no problems and today I started using it again and sure enough within an hour I was getting a black screen when I stop open/use my phone(Nexus 5- 5.0.1).  This issue was still there in 5.0 but not there in kitkat.  I really like the program but it's to the point that there is no reason to use it if it is going to keep messing up.  I will say this though, in 5.0.1 I don't have to full reboot to get into my phone like with 5.0 but still it's a big problem.  Any help with getting this resolved would be great!!!

[Rich D]

If you are using secure settings and disable keyguard this is most likely the issue. If you update secure settings it will recommend not using disable keyguard. 

[Eduardo Rodrigues]

I've tested without keyguard and worked perfect.

With keyguard enabled again it resume the problem

Eduardo

[H Johnston]

Hi Guys,

I'm on 5.1 and I deleted Secure Settings with no luck for me. Still getting the black screen that hangs. The screen unlocks fine but when using the custom buttons the black screen occurs.

Any ideas?

Cheers

[baudi]

Same here. 

I have a scene that I use at night as an alarm clock. I have Tasker set to exit the scene when the phone is no longer in landscape mode. That reliably causes the black screen. 

[David Stein]

I just began getting this black screen problem this week on both of my phones. First is a Verizon variant of the HTC One M8 running CM12.1 nightly 20150514. Second is an LG G3 D850 running Resurrection Remix v5.4.5 (a CM12.1 variant). Both have Nova Launcher v4.0.1 as the default launcher.

I do make use of Secure Settings, but not anything having to do with the lock screen or keyboard. I primarily use it for monitoring and changing the location mode and for toggling Bluetooth tethering.

What I do use on the LG is enable the feature that bypasses the pattern unlock when the phone is connected to Bluetooth devices I've marked as trusted. I'm not sure if this is an Android 5.1 feature or something unique to CM12.1 (and it's derivatives).

What seems to trigger the black screen for me is when an Alert->Pop-up fires and I attempt to dismiss the pop-up using the back button rather than just wait for the timeout to expire. I haven't noticed anything at all that would seem related in the runlog.

I haven't yet tried eliminating Secure Settings, changing from Nova to another launcher, or grabbing a logcat.

[Matt Caputo]

It happens when Tasker disables the lockscreen and it doesn't get re-enabled right away. Not sure if there really is a fix for this.

[Marta Hintz]

I have gotten this black screen also with other apps. It is due to the lag between one screen and another. I see it as a RAM issue on my note 4.

[whitedavidp]

I know this is an old thread and am not sure if the issue has ever been fixed or even fully characterized. But I am experiencing this issue now in 2017 and my circumstance is not quite the same as described above. I have a rooted but otherwise stock Samsung Note 1 GT-N7000 running Android 4.1.2. I am using this old phone as a security monitoring camera using IpWebcam.

There is no lockscreen enabled at all. Secure Settings is installed but is used only on boot up to set the Airplane Radios and not again.

I have a simple Profile that responds to the Display On event. When this occurs, a check is made to see if the Rolling activity of IpWebcam is on top of the stack. This is done using a root shell command (dumpsys). It generally is on the top of the stack. But if it is not on top, and it may not be due to my fiddling around with other stuff, I then have Tasker start the IpWebcam's Rolling activity. If the Rolling activity is already on top, nothing is done. That's it.

What I find is that sometimes, I cannot find any distinct pattern or time interval, when the home screen button is pressed while the display is off, the Note 1's led touch lights come on as usual but the rest of the display is black. I am not sure yet if the notification bar is visible as others have said and I will check on that next time this happens. But if I wait for the screen timeout (30 seconds) and press home again, the display usually comes on and the IpWebcam's Rolling activity is showing.

I have been testing with this single profile disabled but with IpWebcam's Rolling activity on top and showing. I am making sure I do nothing to disturb this. I find that this black screen issue simply does not seem to happen. So while I cannot claim to be 100% sure, I am thinking that the issue is caused or at least triggered by Tasker's handling of the Display On event.

Can anyone shed any light on what is happening here or how to "fix" it?

Thanks!

[whitedavidp]

This is a red herring. My problem has been shown to have nothing whatsoever with Tasker. Please disregard my previous post here. Sorry.