UPDATED: Tasker won't restart after ultra-fast boot on Android car head unit

[Zoltán Bíró]

Dear João,

I've done some investigations what actually happened when Tasker won't restart after ultra-fast boot on my Android car head unit (actualy a Lenovo D2).

• I set a trivial and very obvious profile to tick every 2 seconds and the action is simply a beep. This doesn't even need any special requests, e.g. Accessibility.
• After checking that it indeed works, I turn off the car ingnition.
• Let's wait a minute and turn ignition back on. Te head unit wakes up in less than 2 seconds, but it's not a true wake-up from standby, now the unit is in an initial state, e.g. there are no apps showing in App Overview.
• All Accessibility services are turned off, Tasker obviously doesn't work anymore, so I start Tasker manually.
• Even so, the profile (for ticking in every 2000 ms) still not gets fired! As Tasker wouldn't have been started at all.
• Now I turn off the profile (actually ANY profile) and turn the profile on again. 
• Tasker now “wakes up”, even it sets back accessibility for Autoinput (as stated in Preferences → KEEP ACCESSIBILITY RUNNING) and from now on all profiles do work as expected, even the ones which use AutoInput.

Unfortunately this is the third Android car head unit (and not even from the same manufacturer) where I encounter this very annoying problem (Actually makes Tasker useless!), so I think it is worth to make an investigation. I can help you by any means to find a solution together. 

Best regards,

Zoltán

[João Dias]

Hi Zoltán. Thanks for the update.

Unfortunately I don't think there's anything Tasker can do about it, since the system doesn't seem to make it run on boot like it should :( If Tasker isn't running in the first place, then it can't do anything...

Sorry, I don't think I can help here...

Thank you for your contact.

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João Dias

[Zoltán Bíró]

Well, you might be right, but there still is a weird thing which I cannot explain and still makes me have serious doubts.

As I stated in my previous mail EVEN AFTER STARTING TASKER MANUALLY it cannot fire any of its profiles. I need to manually turn off and back on one of the profiles in order to get TASKER work.

 

Repeat: Tasker is already started, hence (theoretically) you have all the controls over the profiles — and they still don't get fired without manual "help".

 

What if Tasker isn't even killed on ultra-fast boot, just — due to a bug or an unknown reason — it simply doesn't do what is supposed to?

 

As a first step I'd ask for a debug version having implemented a kind of watchdog which performs a self-test in — say — every 2 seconds or even disables—enables all the profiles. And — according to the result — we can find out what to do as a second step. Is it a hard thing to make?

PS. Android 10 on head unit, , Tasker version 6.1.12

 

Thanks, 

Zoltán 

[João Dias]

Tasker only actually starts its profile monitoring after you back out of it or save (or do some other actions that make its monitor startup). So, can you please test if you open it and then press back right away, if it starts too?

[Zoltán Bíró]

So, can you please test if you open it and then press back right away, if it starts too?

The short answer is: Yes.

But let me expain what I actually did. 

After enabling AND saving the profile it will work immediately, that is, you'll hear a short beep every 2 seconds (as expected). Obviously even after exitig the Tasker app it still works in the background, the beeps continue. 

Now let's turn off the ignition.

There are 2 scenarios from now on.

1. When turning back the ignition immediately (after just for a few seconds) the system is able to restore the state exacly as we left. In this case the beeps will begin shortly, Tasker keeps working in the background again.
2. When turning back the ignition just after – say – a minute, the reboot will be still a very fast one, but this time the system perform a kind of initialising. Now, there are no beeps at all. If starting Tasker we can see that the profiles are on and no save is necessary (there is no check icon on the top row). Though no profiles do actually work. But yes, when pressing the back button the beeps will start again.

Did this information helped you?

[João Dias]

Yeah, it confirms my suspicion that Tasker really isn't started automatically like on other normal Android Systems... Unless that version of Android has some place where you configure services or apps to start at startup, I don't think there's anything I can do to help, sorry!

[Zoltán Bíró]

Well, I have to admit it, but still unclear the following aspect: 

IF I start tasker manually, the service still won't start as well, unless refreshing the profiles' state or exiting Tasker. This proves that Tasker would be able to start the service by itself (I mean it has enough privilege to do it), but It actually doesnt do it for a certain reason. Well, is it that complicated to perform a check on every Tasker startup – when Tasker starts manually! – to see whether the necessary services (incl. the accessibility ones) are alredy running? And if not, to start them?  Because I think have the possibility to restart Tasker after such ultra-fast “boot”, but, as stated before, a simple restart is not enough.

best regards,

Zoltán

[João Dias]

The reason why Tasker doesn't automatically turn on your profiles when you first open it is because most people want the change to first change their setup or disable some stuff before actually applying their settings. It's a very niche use-case to not have Tasker automatically run at startup. Phones normally allow that to happen 😅 Can you just clarify why it would be better for Tasker to start up its profiles when you open it, since you'll have to open it manually as well? Thanks and sorry for the hassle

[Zoltán Bíró]

You've misunderstood me a little, as I don't want to start Tasker manually. Instead I've found a kind of open source project where, when a USB mass storage device is attached, the app will be triggered by Android, both in cold boot, and also in "fast boot". If I managed to start Tasker from this app on fast boot Tasker would do the rest: re-enable accessibility, restart the profiles and so on. 

Actually not just a new setting of optionally turning on the profiles on startup would be a good solution. Even better (and simpler) to implement a new intent where Tasker is just started with automatically restarting the profiles and enabling accessibility. Most of users won't even notice that something has changed.

Best regards,

Zoltán

  

[Brenden M]

Can you have a profile triggered before or as you intend to ultra-fast boot? Have it run a task immediately that has a WAIT ACTION of a minute or whatever, and after the wait, you disable or enable the profile. I suspect the task will run and the profiles will be operational with this simple workaround.

I got the idea from my own usage case of a complex set of profiles and tasks I use to alert myself of battery states off and on charging—just fun being productive stuff.

However, I noticed sometimes when I would be charging or removing the phone from charge during a restart, I would, after the boot, have some profiles not following the actual state or event context.

If Tasker was actually running and could run tasks, some profiles might not be doing what they should, but as you said, a manual bump is working.

My workaround would hope that Tasker is "running" or "not killed" and can adequately run a task that waits then does in a task something like your manual step.

[Zoltán Bíró]

Unfortunately – as oopposite to phones where you can live motnyts without restarting – a (fast) boot is always performed on every ignition, that is, every time I want to use the car. In these conditions Tasker turns useless (as easier to do the task manually just when I need than always disabling/enabling a profile manually).

[João Dias]

So, just to be clear, you can send a custom intent at start up? If so, you can already start the com.joaomgcd.taskerm.plugin.ServiceRequestQuery service with the intent and Tasker should start up in the background :)

[Tyrone Hirt Stachera]

Hey, João!
Could you please implement a check box in the tasker settings like "Enable task monitoring at startup", I'm a programmer too and I know that this wouldn't cost you more than a few if/else statements and a maximum of 10 lines of code ...

I've been looking for "workarounds" for days to make this work, and in the meantime I've found at least 3 posts from people with the same problem as me, they can't make Tasker be used efficiently in their head units.

Do you realize that having an automation app that doesn't let you run automations by themselves when you start is controversial?

Sorry to be sincere, but it's something like "Hey, there's a light switch here, but the lamp only turns on after you touch it", it doesn't make much sense.

If you can, please implement this function, I'm sure we will all win, it's not something complex to do, however it is something that greatly increases Tasker's possibilities and can greatly reduce chargebacks.

Currently, Tasker doesn't work for the function I purchased, I think the app is brilliant, but this point of being mandatory to trigger monitoring manually is completely unoptimized.

Think with me, you're in your car, driving, do you think it's right to have to open Tasker manually, play the tasks and close it, something efficient? It's easier to crash the car.

Anyway, please consider it, I will be very happy to use the application.

[João Dias]

Hi. Tasker already automatically starts up on boot. The problem is that those devices don't work like regular Android and don't allow apps to start up like they normally do. Try to use Tasker on a normal phone and you'll see that Tasker will start up automatically in the background :) Hope this clarifies it.

[Tyrone Hirt Stachera]

Thanks for the answer, João!

The problem is not starting at boot, most of these devices allow this without problems, the problem is the tasker performing its functions as soon as it is open.

It only starts "listening" to profiles after a task is played or after manually entering the application (which is already running) and pressing the return button.

Any other application can normally perform its programmed functions at startup on my device. For example, in the GoneMad app in its settings I activated the option to play the song as soon as the app opens, however, this app does not have the option to play automatically as soon as it returns to the foreground, so if I start the app from GoneMad, then go to the radio app and then return to GoneMad, I have to play the song manually. So I created a task in Tasker to do this automatically for me.

I recorded a video where you can see exactly what I'm talking about:
Tasker - Demonstration

Note that Tasker starts perfectly as soon as the device wakes up, but it only starts listening to profiles after I open it manually and press the return button.

I believe this can be easily resolved with a function that makes Tasker start listening to profiles automatically as soon as it is opened. This function could be enabled through a checkbox in Tasker's settings.

[João Dias]

Ok, I added the feature :) Check the Preferences > MONITOR Tab > Start Monitor On App Open option.

Can you please try this version? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YGuMAWRfyYlUKMdgb4xyVEUfddWz_zzI/view

If you want you can also check any previous releases here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GW55YKFiuOZhJVswnt_BQUCJoGm36ugF

[Tyrone Hirt Stachera]

Wow!!
Now it works perfectly, this will be great for those who use Tasker in head units.

Thank you very much for your attention and dedication, tasker is excellent!

[João Dias]

Awesome :) Thank you for testing! Glad it's working!