The lock/unlock screen based on WiFi connectivity is very handy but I am now using Power Toggles which gives me a one click disable/enable lock screen on a notification bar. It will do till Tasker is sorted. So far its been nearly a week since I've had the frozen black screen.
Lollipop - Black Screen
- Thread starter DirtyHarree
- Start date
I've had the same issue with stock Lollipop via OTA on an unrooted Nexus 4. I'm using Tasker and Nova Launcher. I did sideload the Play Services update. I have Trusted Places set to unlock the phone when I’m at home.
I suspect Tasker, because when I have disabled Tasker I've so far not seen the problem recur, and IIRC it didn't happen in the few days between getting Lollipop and installing Tasker. There’s a post on Reddit in which some people are blaming Tasker, and specifically the “keyguard off” command, which I use. (As a newbie I’m not allowed to link).
I've mostly been able to avoid rebooting by using the notifications pulldown to turn Wi-Fi off and then back on again, or toggle aeroplane* mode. Once the black screen is gone, everything seems fine until the next time.
* Is it called "aeroplane mode" just because I'm a Brit? If so, I'm touched.
I suspect Tasker, because when I have disabled Tasker I've so far not seen the problem recur, and IIRC it didn't happen in the few days between getting Lollipop and installing Tasker. There’s a post on Reddit in which some people are blaming Tasker, and specifically the “keyguard off” command, which I use. (As a newbie I’m not allowed to link).
I've mostly been able to avoid rebooting by using the notifications pulldown to turn Wi-Fi off and then back on again, or toggle aeroplane* mode. Once the black screen is gone, everything seems fine until the next time.
* Is it called "aeroplane mode" just because I'm a Brit? If so, I'm touched.
Last edited:
Same issue here Nexus 4 lollipop rooted. I don't use Tasker, but AutomateIt Pro.
The only time my Nexus exit from Black Screen without reboot, was receiving a phone call, the screen show the call in screen and when I finish speaking, the phone was ok again.
I have also an additional issue: when I reboot the phone, sometimes the thouch screen doesn't works very well, I have to tap with 2 or 3 fingers same time to produce a touch on the screen, very extrange. After other reboot works again.
Ruben
The only time my Nexus exit from Black Screen without reboot, was receiving a phone call, the screen show the call in screen and when I finish speaking, the phone was ok again.
I have also an additional issue: when I reboot the phone, sometimes the thouch screen doesn't works very well, I have to tap with 2 or 3 fingers same time to produce a touch on the screen, very extrange. After other reboot works again.
Ruben
I haven't mentioned that I am using Nova Launcher, I think it could be stone issue with it.
I have received now in my Nexus 7 the 5.0.1 Lolipop update, but I don't sufer this problem on it. I anyone test it on Nexus 4, please report here.
Ruben
I have received now in my Nexus 7 the 5.0.1 Lolipop update, but I don't sufer this problem on it. I anyone test it on Nexus 4, please report here.
Ruben
Disabled the Wifi-connect/around based profiles on Tasker (used in conjunction with Secure Settings) - and have been stable for over two days now. Will update if I get any black screens again. So far, the analysis above seems to have helped. Thanks.
So far since only disabling my tasker profiles that unlock the screen using secure settings, I have not had a single black screen on my n5 or n6 both on 5.0
onthecouchagain
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- Aug 12, 2010
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I don't think this is googles fault. You are on the latest and greatest version of android. Google changed the way they do things, now it is other devs responsibility to catch up. This is why they put out the Dev preview. Now that I am on a final l release, I see this problem still persisted. I had the same prob in the l preview once smart lock was introduced. Now I see that tasker & secure settings are the cause. Due to the fact that they are not up-to-date with the changes in how android accomplishes certain tasks.
onthecouchagain
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Hm, I guess I should try to pay more attention to what app is opened/opening the next time it happens, but if I'm not mistaken, the few times it's happened to me were during going Home via the home button and app switching with the App Switcher button. And I believe once when I pulled down the notification shade twice to go to Settings.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but that's what's happened to me before.
I've had the same problems - getting a black screen and only seeing notifications and the 3 buttons, and not being able to get out of that mode unless rebooting. Then just opening an app and pressing something like Home got me there again.
It started a few days after installing Lollipop on my rooted Nexus 5, which I did about 2 weeks ago using Nexus Root Toolkit to flash back the stock recovery, I had TWRP, and then installing the OTA the normal way. This way I got to keep all apps+data.
When it happened the first time I tried rebooting but same thing happened over and over for hours. First after about 3 hours it stopped and everything worked fine, very strange indeed. Then it took about 2 days and started happening again.
I got tired of it and thought it had something to do with me not factory resetting the device (wiping cache+user data) after installing Lollipop so I did that. After only a day I started getting the same issue again. I tried wiping the cache directly, same problem. I could only do a few actions (eg. opening drawer and uninstalling an app) before getting a black screen. I started searching and found this thread and realized it might be some app causing it. Since several people blamed Tasked I uninstalled that and rebooted, didn't help. It could still be Tasker for some people I think depending on what rules you have set up. The next suspicious app I had was No Lock Screen, com.futonredemption.nokeyguard, (I'm not allowed to link) which I uninstalled. After that I haven't gotten the black screen again, tried rebooting also and nothing yet. Since it disappeared right after uninstalling I assume that app was the culprit.
To verify I reinstalled it and gonna see if the problem comes back. I'll let you know!
I recommend people having this issue and having apps that do stuff related to the lock screen do uninstall them one by one and see if it helps.
If you find one like I (hopefully) did, list it here and we can together understand this problem and hopefully make app developers or Google change how things work so this can't happen.
Cheers
It started a few days after installing Lollipop on my rooted Nexus 5, which I did about 2 weeks ago using Nexus Root Toolkit to flash back the stock recovery, I had TWRP, and then installing the OTA the normal way. This way I got to keep all apps+data.
When it happened the first time I tried rebooting but same thing happened over and over for hours. First after about 3 hours it stopped and everything worked fine, very strange indeed. Then it took about 2 days and started happening again.
I got tired of it and thought it had something to do with me not factory resetting the device (wiping cache+user data) after installing Lollipop so I did that. After only a day I started getting the same issue again. I tried wiping the cache directly, same problem. I could only do a few actions (eg. opening drawer and uninstalling an app) before getting a black screen. I started searching and found this thread and realized it might be some app causing it. Since several people blamed Tasked I uninstalled that and rebooted, didn't help. It could still be Tasker for some people I think depending on what rules you have set up. The next suspicious app I had was No Lock Screen, com.futonredemption.nokeyguard, (I'm not allowed to link) which I uninstalled. After that I haven't gotten the black screen again, tried rebooting also and nothing yet. Since it disappeared right after uninstalling I assume that app was the culprit.
To verify I reinstalled it and gonna see if the problem comes back. I'll let you know!
I recommend people having this issue and having apps that do stuff related to the lock screen do uninstall them one by one and see if it helps.
If you find one like I (hopefully) did, list it here and we can together understand this problem and hopefully make app developers or Google change how things work so this can't happen.
Cheers
I 100% agree with ripern. It appears to be anything that enables/disables the lockscreen
Hey guys,
I had the same problem and deactivated tasker and secure settings. Since then I haven't been getting the black screen. I emailed Corey the author of Secure Settings about it and he adviced me to do that:
You can do this by:
Opening Secure Settings
Go to the Preferences
Click the "Pattern Unlock Method [4.1+]" option
Choose "Lock Settings (Experimental)"
So far it is working for me with tasker and secure settings enabled. I have them disabling the lockscreen as soon I get in my home network.
So if you have a similar setup and want to try go ahead. I will report back our findings to secure settings.
Edit: Alright, please just forget what I wrote. The black screen is back...
I had the same problem and deactivated tasker and secure settings. Since then I haven't been getting the black screen. I emailed Corey the author of Secure Settings about it and he adviced me to do that:
You can do this by:
Opening Secure Settings
Go to the Preferences
Click the "Pattern Unlock Method [4.1+]" option
Choose "Lock Settings (Experimental)"
So far it is working for me with tasker and secure settings enabled. I have them disabling the lockscreen as soon I get in my home network.
So if you have a similar setup and want to try go ahead. I will report back our findings to secure settings.
Edit: Alright, please just forget what I wrote. The black screen is back...
Last edited:
onthecouchagain
Well-known member
- Aug 12, 2010
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Yeah, this black screen thing sort of sucks. Happens randomly about once a week. Can't make heads or tails of it. It seems to happen the most when I just hit the Home button or App Switcher button.
Some interesting observations here. I have been experiencing the same issue, the now BSOD of Android Lollipop it would seem. 
First off just want to vent a little bit about my Lollipop experience in general. I’ve ran 4 Android devices dating back to 4.1 and have been happy with all of them, most recently my Nexus 5 which I have loved since day 1. Kitkat was rock solid. I also found that my Tasker location profiles for disabling/enabling PIN for lock screen was pretty much bullet proof on my N5/4.4 combo, definitely the greatest success I’ve had with that Tasker profile.
Right off, my lock screen profile never worked properly when I upgraded to Lollipop. Not long after I began experiencing issues – started with Hangouts scrambling the order of my hangouts and SMS messages, randomly on every open, then Bluetooth issues, cutting in and out, reboots during phone calls.. ridiculous. I finally got fed up and decided to factory reset, instead rooting the phone with NR Toolkit, so a fresh image nonetheless. I tried to be as systematic as possible bringing apps back into the fold. I thought I actually had the lock screen working (think it worked once) but no dice. As some of you suspected (at least with the BSODs) I was thinking NOVA… for the lock screen issues I was thinking maybe Swiftkey since it changes the keyboard but I can’t seem to really prove that either caused either of these issues.
Today I had a BSOD which seemed to happen right after a tasker profile enabled. Not sure if any of you are doing this but I started to put a Popup in my tasker profile to tell me when it was trying to enable or re-enable my PIN code. Seemed like right after I clicked to dismiss the popup it went to the black screen of death. My PIN enable/disable profiles are WiFi based but I also use Cell near to turn on and off my WiFi. It does seem logical that Google’s “Smart” screen lock could be conflicting with Secure Settings and/or Tasker. I am using the Secure Settings BETA but it has not seemed to help. Tried the Pattern lock as well (Root required) to no avail.
My BSOD haven’t been super frequent – maybe 2 – 3 times a week so it’s not killing me but I may still disable Tasker to find out. PIN disable/enable is the main thing I use Tasker for.
All in all, very disappointing and I am considering investigating how to get back to KitKat.
Appreciate everyone’s input here in tracking down this problem. Hopefully it will get some traction soon either on Google’s or the DEVs side.
First off just want to vent a little bit about my Lollipop experience in general. I’ve ran 4 Android devices dating back to 4.1 and have been happy with all of them, most recently my Nexus 5 which I have loved since day 1. Kitkat was rock solid. I also found that my Tasker location profiles for disabling/enabling PIN for lock screen was pretty much bullet proof on my N5/4.4 combo, definitely the greatest success I’ve had with that Tasker profile.
Right off, my lock screen profile never worked properly when I upgraded to Lollipop. Not long after I began experiencing issues – started with Hangouts scrambling the order of my hangouts and SMS messages, randomly on every open, then Bluetooth issues, cutting in and out, reboots during phone calls.. ridiculous. I finally got fed up and decided to factory reset, instead rooting the phone with NR Toolkit, so a fresh image nonetheless. I tried to be as systematic as possible bringing apps back into the fold. I thought I actually had the lock screen working (think it worked once) but no dice. As some of you suspected (at least with the BSODs) I was thinking NOVA… for the lock screen issues I was thinking maybe Swiftkey since it changes the keyboard but I can’t seem to really prove that either caused either of these issues.
Today I had a BSOD which seemed to happen right after a tasker profile enabled. Not sure if any of you are doing this but I started to put a Popup in my tasker profile to tell me when it was trying to enable or re-enable my PIN code. Seemed like right after I clicked to dismiss the popup it went to the black screen of death. My PIN enable/disable profiles are WiFi based but I also use Cell near to turn on and off my WiFi. It does seem logical that Google’s “Smart” screen lock could be conflicting with Secure Settings and/or Tasker. I am using the Secure Settings BETA but it has not seemed to help. Tried the Pattern lock as well (Root required) to no avail.
My BSOD haven’t been super frequent – maybe 2 – 3 times a week so it’s not killing me but I may still disable Tasker to find out. PIN disable/enable is the main thing I use Tasker for.
All in all, very disappointing and I am considering investigating how to get back to KitKat.
Appreciate everyone’s input here in tracking down this problem. Hopefully it will get some traction soon either on Google’s or the DEVs side.
Just did a factory reset - restoring data now. Tasker/SecureSettings are a must have for me - and if Google is telling me I cant use them, surely sets android back a bit. Am hoping all of these issues are resolved in 5.0.1 when it comes around for nexus 5. The BSODs are an embarrassment and am sure an OS dev would consider them as such - so, 5.0.1 should address it. (And yes, share the exact same view on how solid kitkat/nexus5/tasker profiles have been - and loved them - lollipop is so far a massive disappointment from a stability perspective.)
So now it's been 9 days since my problem post. Since I reinstalled No Lock Screen I suspected to get the black screen again and after about 1.5-2 days I did. I was sort of happy to see it since it proved something. Then I uninstalled No Lock Screen (again). Seeing it's now been another 7 days I can say with 99.99% certainty that No Lock Screen was the cause of the black screen for me.
I hope everyone else here will also find which app(s) is causing this in your specific case. I'll report this to the author to see if he/she can do something about it. Otherwise hopefully Google will.
Good Luck!
Can confirm that Lollipop 5.0.1 does not resolve the issue. On my n5 this happens exclusively using Textra, and I actually thought it was a problem with their app until I contacted them and they'd never heard of it. After poking around I came across this forum / thread, so clearly it isn't just them. I wish someone would come up with a fix; it's beyond annoying to have to power cycle my phone multiple times a day! It's strange that I only started having trouble the last week or so, since I installed Lollipop around 4 weeks ago.
Have you tried uninstalling Textra and wait 2 days? Otherwise check which apps you have installed since the problem started. Especially be suspicious towards apps that have screen lock permissions.
I haven't tried yet, no... I hate to get rid of it because I really like Textra and this is the first I've had any trouble with it, but I guess I'll have to download another messaging app and see if it does better. Although another SMS app is likely to have screen lock permissions as well, right? Seems like it always happens when using the quick reply and I read the message but don't send a response.
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