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Tasker Quick Start – get started in 10min!

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Are you new to Tasker? This is how you should spend first 10 min with the application. Tasker has a steep learning curve. I hope this Tasker Quick Start will get you up and running in no time. This is a setup guide, I’m not going to talk about creating any profiles just yet (I have plenty of tutorials for beginners for you to use) but setting up the Tasker so it would work with whatever you throw at it.

Tasker Quick Start

Don’t be surprised if Tasker won’t run in the background if you don’t have any running profiles. Before I show you how to create your own, we have some things to do.

Settings

To let Tasker do its own thing we have to enable few settings. These are Android level settings and placed all over your menus. Use search icon to search the location of each option. Remember that custom ROMs and manufacturers can group these in different sub-menus.

  1. Disable battery optimisation – this means that Tasker won’t be closed due to battery saving actions. Don’t worry, the app is not using that much battery. You won’t even notice it.
  2. Grant Notification access –  Tasker can see what notifications are present in your status bar but only if you allow the app to see it.  Make sure this is enabled.
  3. Device Manager –  enabling this (needs to be disabled before you can uninstall the Tasker) will allow Tasker to perform more low-level actions like locking your screen.
  4. Accessibility Settings – For now, Tasker still has the access to this, but Google changes the policy on how these settings can be utilised by apps. It’s possible that future version of Tasker won’t have access to this menu.  You can read more about changes here.

Tasker Preferences

We have 10 min, and I want you to be as PRO in Tasker as possible! This means we will step up the game a little and change some preferences (3-dot menu) to suit the rest of our tutorial. Open preferences menu in Tasker and change the following:

UI Tab
Monitor Tab
Misc Tab

New Tasker GUI

If you followed the previous chapter, you will see that Tasker looks slightly different,  it has more tabs. You are in the PRO mode now so here is the explanation what’s what:

Profile Tab

A profile is a tab for contexts (triggers). You can have multiple profiles, and each profile can have multiple contexts. These are conditions in which something has to be done. It could be a time condition like it’s 4 pm do something now. It could be hardware based: the screen just got turned on, do something now, or software based: the YouTube app is open – you need to make sure this is done when the app is opened.

Each profile can contain up to 4 contexts (4 state conditions or 3 state and 1 event condition):

To recap, if you receive a message – this is an event, but if you have an unread message pending, this is a state condition.

Tasks Tab

Tasks are folders in which actions are placed.  When a condition is met (see profile) a linked task will be executed by Tasker. Tasker will go through each action stored in a task in a specified order.

Actions

Actions are listed under Tasks. These are steps that Tasker goes through to do stuff.  Each step is an action.  So action could be turning on WiFi, enabling silent mode or saving a phone number to a variable. You can have an almost unlimited number of actions in a single task.

You can test the tasks manually by tapping the play button at the bottom.

Scenes Tab

In this tab, you can build your user interface. Tasker can create overlays which contain buttons toggles and switches. This UI can control Tasker values and variables. There are many alternatives, as the Tasker interface can be a bit cumbersome.

Variables Tab

This tab stores all the variables that belong to the project. Variables are split into 3 groups

System variables (spelt with caps) are created and updated by Tasker. You cannot change the value of this variables. These are ‘read-only’ variables. You can copy the value to a global variable and manipulate it further.

Global variables are user created. The variable must have at least one uppercase letter. You can create these at will and modify the data stored in that variable. You can also share the data between your projects or profiles.

Local variables are created by the user, but also some of them are provided by the system. These are spelt with all lower case letters and they hold the data for a short time.  You cannot share the data stored outside of the task they run within.  Once the task is completed the variable automatically clears the data stored.

If you want to know more about the variables – check out this tutorial and the Tasker reference page.

Projects Tabs

At the bottom, you will see a space for more tabs. This is how you organise your projects. You can name the projects, set icons and keep your projects organised. Think of the projects as folders. They have no impact on how Tasker works, but keeping things organised can help in keeping the law and order among your profiles.

Creating your first profile

The process can start from any tab really. You could start with a task, scene or profile – the best way to explain this one is this video:

Examples from internet

I mentioned this multiple times in my tutorials, here is a quick rundown. Tasker files come in 4 flavours.

When importing files from the internet, pay attention to the file extension, and what menu you use to import the files over. If you try to import the project file via profile import menu, you are not going to find the file in your directory. Only files specific to the import menu are visible to you. To access the import menu, long press on a correct tab.

 

 

Troubleshooting

I suspect you will run into issues sooner or later. There are few things you can do to fix it. Before you run online and ask questions, check if the downloaded file is compatible with your phone and the Android version.

Run your task manually, when an action is performed successfully, you will see a small green circle confirming it. Otherwise, you will see a red circle indicating that this action is causing the issue.

Another way is to enable the log and check the orders of your tasks. This may look a little daunting at first, but it is worth learning how it looks like and how to learn it. The log is available via Tasker menu (More/Run Log). It will display the tasks and actions that are performed in the chronological order. Watch out for error messages which will point you to the task or action that causes the issues.

Still no luck?

Before you ask questions take a look at 10 most common Tasker mistakes. If you decide that the issue is more than you can bite on, get prepared. The community will ask you for your profile file or description, screenshots or error messages. Be descriptive, provide the Android version and the phone you are working on. Not all actions are available on the same devices, Android versions or ROMs. 

 

To export the description – select the task or profile in question and use the Tasker menu. The Export section will give you an option to copy the task description to the clipboard/email.

More Questions?

I took a swing at answering the most popular questions listed by Google. Perhaps your question is there as well? All look at all posts we have about Tasker. I write for pocketables.com for free, if you enjoy my content you can tip me via PayPal or join one of Patreon Rewards tiers.

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