VPNs, Tasker Killers, and Memory Optimizers

If you are using a VPN, Task Killer, or Memory Management tool, be sure to add Tasker and SharpTools to that application's whitelist.

Task Killers and Memory Management tools often function by killing or force-stopping other applications to recover memory from them. While these tools were helpful on ancient versions of Android, the modern Android operating system has a quality set of memory management features which are designed to use various heuristics to determine which applications should have memory recovered from them.

Unfortunately, the third party Task Killers and Memory Management tools on the Google Play store are often not as sophisticated as the Google developer memory management tools and will cause issues with other applications -- especially those which run background tasks or otherwise help automate your life.

Similarly, many third party VPN tools available from the Google Play store also have additional firewall or network restriction features in them which can cause issues with other applications. If you choose to continue to use these VPN applications, be sure to use an application which allows the whitelisting of other applications.