Control Aeroplane Mode with Tasker on Android 4.2.x

Since Android 4.2 Android no longer allows access to the aeroplane mode and what radios to turn off during aeroplane mode.

This was a real problem for me since I use Tasker to turn off 3G radio at home automatically to save battery since coverage is very poor in our house. When I say turn off 3G radio I mean not only the 3G data but the whole mobile radio which means that I cannot receive phone calls or text messages. As soon as I leave my home WiFi the phone automatically activates the 3G radio. This is a great way to save battery in areas with poor mobile reception. It prevents the phone from raising the power to try to get in contact with the base stations.

This worked fine before Android 4.2 but Tasker cannot handle that any more because of a change in Android 4.2.

The Solution
Luckily there is a nice little program that can take care of this problem.
To get it to work we need this:

• A rooted phone. It will not work on a non rooted phone since Secure Settings has to be installed in a non standard location.
• Tasker installed
• Secure Settings installed

When creating a task in Tasker you can now once again select what radios to disable when aeroplane mode is activated. Here is how to do it.

1. Open Tasker
2. Go to the task tab
3. Create a new task
4. Click the + sign to add a new action to the task
5. Click the plugin option
6. Click Secure Settings
7. Click edit button next to the label "Configuration"
8. Scroll down to the helper functions
9. Select Airplane Mode Radios
10. Tick the radios you want to disable when aeroplane mode is activated
11. Click the save button in the lower left corner(it looks like a floppy drive)
12. Repeat 4-8
13. Click Airplane mode
14. Tick the radio button for "on"
15. Click the save button
16. Now test the action by clicking the play button in the lower right corner
17. Watch the aeroplane mode icon showing up and the WiFi still staying active(if fyou selected to only turn off the radio in step 10)

Now you can use this task in any profile.

I hope this will help somebody trying to find out how to change these settings from Tasker.