Frequently asked questions

Flow made device inaccessible

See safe mode (device recovery).

Premium no longer working

Verification of premium ownership may fail if there’s a problem communicating with the Google Play Store app, try rebooting the device. See premium page for further information.

Excessive battery usage

The background service responsible for running the flows shouldn’t use much battery. However, editing flows often on the flowchart screen do use more battery. Reset the battery statistics, don’t use the graphical user interface for a while, then check the statistics again.

Also, if your flow has a loop in it, make sure there’s a “When …” block somewhere (see Proceed option), otherwise it will run continuously.

Flow keeps stopping

A flow should only stop if an error occurs, or it’s explicitly stopped. A flow will run until reaching an unconnected dot, so to be kept running all dots should connect to another block. This will, and should, create an infinite loop, if the flow is meant to run indefinitely.

I can’t uninstall Automate

Apps that are enabled as Device administrator can’t be uninstalled until disabled. Disable it in Automate settings or system Device administrator settings.

I can’t install permissions

Automate will install permission contained within it’s own package (apk) if Unknown source is enabled in your phones security settings. If the Install button doesn’t respond in the package installer app, try disabling all screen filter apps used to lower the brightness, as they may interfere with the button.

I can’t restore backup

Corrupt flow

If a flow stops working, with an “Failed to read…” error after you’ve upgraded to a newer Android version, you’ll have to reconfigure all the App start shortcut and Plug-in blocks. This happens when Android has changed its internal data format.

Crash when starting flow

If Automate crashed when starting a flow, try increasing the stack size in settings.

The Automate “running” notification

Showing the “running” notification is an Android requirement keep a background service running, without it Automate would become very unreliable. Disabling notifications for Automate in system Apps settings is not adviced since it will prevent all notifications from showing, including the Notification show block, it may also prevent the Toast show block from displaying “Toast” messages.

The Hide “running” notification option in settings does not work on Android 6.

Why the extensions (add-ons)

See security.