This hidden Shizuku upgrade solves the app's most annoying background bug

If I had to compile a list of essential third-party Android apps, Shizuku would be near, if not at, the very top. It serves an often-overlooked but important purpose: providing other apps with access to otherwise inaccessible APIs, enabling them to perform powerful tasks.

If you aren’t familiar with Shizuku’s game, it powers apps like Canta, my preferred Android uninstallation app that easily rids phones of preinstalled bloatware. Then there’s Adaptive Theme, which automatically switches between light and dark themes based on ambient light conditions. I have a good dozen apps on my phone that rely on Shizuku to function.

Despite its helpful nature, Shizuku has one major flaw: it struggles to stay active in the background on my phone and won’t automatically restart after a reboot. Given how many apps I’ve installed that depend on it, this is an obvious problem — or, at least, it was.

So, how did I fix one of Shizuku’s more annoying problems? How do I get it to restart automatically after every crash and reboot? The solution is far easier than you might think.

Shizuku is brilliant, but this fork is even better

When I initially researched this topic, I thought I might have to use an automation app like Tasker and write a complicated recipe to jolt Shizuku back to life when required. Thankfully, while this is an option, it’s by no means the only one available.

Thanks to Shizuku’s open-source nature, any developer can take a peek under its hood and fork it — essentially reimagine the software by adding features or tweaking existing options. Incredibly, if you visit Rikka Apps’ Shizuku GitHub page — the official and original version of this software — you’ll find that it’s been forked more than 3,000 times. That’s 3,000 revisions, tweaks, and modified versions of a single app!

One of these forks, specifically the version modified by thedjchi, is the focus of this fix. This particular Shizuku fork offers a slate of useful additional features absent from the original app. It includes a “Stealth Mode” that hides Shizuku’s presence from more security-conscious apps. Then there’s additional support for Google TV, so I can run Shizuku-reliant apps in my lounge if I really want to.

However, the most important features of this Shizuku fork are its ability to start Shizuku on boot and keep it alive in the event of a crash. More specifically, its Watchdog feature runs a background service that automatically restarts Shizuku if it encounters an issue. It’s brilliant and has already resuscitated the app on my phone more times than I can count.

The fork goes one step further, too. If you really want to go the Tasker or MacroDroid route, it presents intents for use with these automation apps. This lets users start and stop Shizuku with various triggers and conditions, providing even more user control.

How to make Shizuku run on boot and restart after crashing

So, how does one use this Shizuku fork to keep the service running in the background? Well, it’s quite simple once you’ve checked off these two prerequisites:

• Since you’re reading an article about Shizuku, I’ll assume you know how to enable Developer Options on Android. This hidden settings menu is important since Shizuku needs Wireless Debugging to initialize itself on Android without a desktop. If you aren’t sure how to enable Developer Options, follow this guide.
• Now, since the Shizuku fork is hosted on GitHub, you could simply download it via a browser. However, you’ll have to manually return to the GitHub page for updates. To make my life easier, I use Obtanium to install it and keep it updated. My colleague Yash Wate has a guide to installing apps using Obtanium that’s well worth the read.

Finally, once the fork is installed, you’ll need to get it up and running as you would the official Shizuku build. This process includes:

1. Open the Shizuku app, then tap Start via Wireless debugging.
2. Tap Pair device with pairing code, then enter the code provided. You should be able to tap the notification at the top of the screen and enter the code there.
3. Next, head back to Shizuku and tap Start.
4. Shizuku will initiate itself and, once complete, confirm that it’s running.
5. Now, tap the settings cog icon at the top right of the Shizuku fork’s screen.
6. Toggle on Start on boot and Watchdog — these two settings will ensure Shizuku runs after you restart your phone and after it crashes for any reason.

Shizuku will now issue a notification if the app has crashed and attempt to restart it. For the most part, this requires no user intervention. However, you might need to give it a little nudge in the notification options provided. Either way, this process certainly beats manually starting Shizuku from its app interface each time.

Shizuku is an Android app I simply cannot live without. It enables the features of so many other useful apps on my phone that, when it crashes or fails to start, means missing out on automatic theme switching, powerful firewall smarts, easy debloating, and so much more. Keeping it alive means keeping these apps’ features on hand at all times.

I’m not sure whether or when the official Shizuku build will add the features its fork introduced — I certainly hope it will — but this example is another reason supporting open-source projects is so important.