4Tasks User Manual

For 4Tasks 0.1.17 (beta), October 2026. Android 13 or later; works on phones, tablets and Samsung DeX.

4Tasks is a private to-do and reminder app. Your lists, tasks and reminders live on your phone. If you want them on other devices, you can sync them with a CalDAV server of your choice. There is no account with us, no advertising, no analytics and no crash reporting. It also works with 4Dictate, so you can add a task, ask what is due, or tick one off by voice.

1. Getting started

The first time you open 4Tasks it offers three buttons:

• Add account connects a CalDAV server so your tasks sync (section 5).
• Get started goes straight to your lists, kept on this phone only, with one list called Default list to begin with. You can add an account later.
• Import a backup reads a backup file you made earlier (section 8).

When Android asks, allow notifications so reminders can reach you. For reminders at the exact minute, also allow Alarms & reminders (section 4).

The main screen has the app name and the open list's name at the top, ⚙ at the top right for Settings (a ⋮ appears beside it when a list is open), and a bar at the bottom with the menu, search, sort and more buttons, and + to add a task.

2. Lists and the drawer

Tap the menu button at the bottom left (☰) to open the drawer. It shows:

• My Tasks, every open task from every list.
• Filters: Today and Recently modified (plus Snoozed, Timer and Notifications while something applies). The + beside Filters makes your own filter.
• Tags, with a + to add one. Tap a tag to see everything carrying it.
• Your lists. Lists kept only on this phone are under Local lists; each sync account has its own heading with its lists under it. The + beside a heading adds a list there (on a sync account it appears once the account has synced); an account with no lists shows Create a list. Tap a heading’s arrow to fold it.

The Search button at the bottom of the drawer finds a list, filter or tag.

A list can have its own name, colour and icon. Open a list's List settings from the ⋮ at the top right, next to ⚙, while you are looking at the list. A tag has Tag settings there and your own filter has Filter settings. You choose which of the drawer's filters and tags are shown in Settings, Look, Navigation drawer, where Customise drawer lets you drag the items into your own order.

3. Tasks

Adding a task

Tap +, type the title, and tap Save or the Done key on the keyboard. (If you turn on Allow multiline titles in Settings, Tasks, Edit screen options, the Enter key makes a new line and Done no longer saves.) The task goes into the list you are looking at, or into your default list (Settings, Tasks, Task defaults) when you are in a filter. Settings, Tasks, Task defaults also sets what a new task starts with: its priority, tags, start and due dates, reminders and repeat. New tasks on top there decides whether a new task goes to the top or the bottom of its list.

The edit screen

Tap a task to open it. You can set:

Field	What it does
Title	The tick box beside it completes the task.
Start date	When you can begin. Tasks that have not started can be hidden from the list (Sort sheet, Show unstarted).
Due date and time	When it is due. Pick a day, or a time of day (morning, afternoon, evening, night, or a time you choose).
Repeat	Every day, week, month or year, or a pattern of your own, counted from the due date or from when you complete it.
Priority	Four levels, shown by the circle's colour.
List	Moves the task to another list. On a server, that moves it there too.
Tags	Labels you can filter by.
Subtasks	Tasks inside the task. Drag them in the list to reorder.
Reminder	Notifies you (section 4).
Description	Notes. Turn on Markdown in Settings, Look, Look and feel to format notes and titles (it is off by default).
Files	Attach files to the task.
Timer	Time how long you work on it.
Dates	The foot of the screen shows when the task was created, changed and completed.

The save button is at the top left; delete is at the top right (only for a task that already exists). By default the back button throws away your changes, after asking if you changed anything. In Settings, Tasks, Edit screen options you can turn on Back button saves task instead (a × then appears to discard). You can rearrange or hide fields there with Customise edit screen.

Completing, sorting and finding

• Tick the box to complete a task. A message offers Undo. Completed tasks wait under a Completed heading, which you can open or close.
• Tasks are grouped under headings such as Due today or No due date, each in a rounded card. Tap a heading's arrow to fold it.
• The sort button (the arrows at the bottom) opens a sheet. Grouping can be none, due date, start date, priority, last modified, created or list. Sorting can be by due date, start date, priority, title, last modified, smart sort or created, or My order for a list you arrange by hand; each can run ascending or descending. Subtasks and completed tasks have a sort of their own. The same sheet has switches for Show unstarted, Show completed, Show completed subtasks and Move completed tasks to bottom.
• The search button finds a task by words in its title, notes, tags, comments or list name.
• The ⋮ menu at the bottom right has Clear Completed, Collapse subtasks, Expand subtasks and Share.

4. Due dates and reminders

Add a reminder to a task with Add reminder on the edit screen. Choose When started, When due, When overdue (a day after it is due, then daily for a week), Randomly, Pick a date and time or Custom… (a time before or after the start or due date, with a repeat). The underlined Ring once sets how insistent it is. New tasks start with When started, When due and When overdue reminders; Settings, Tasks, Task defaults changes that, and Settings, Tasks, Notifications has the options for how reminders arrive:

• Swipe to snooze (off until you turn it on): clear a reminder and it comes back after a time you choose (immediately, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 or 24 hours).
• Quiet hours (off until you turn it on; 10 pm to 10 am to start with): no reminders between the hours you set.
• Bundle notifications (on by default), a completion sound, and voice reminders (off by default) that read the task's name aloud through your phone's own speech engine.
• All day tasks: a task with a date but no time gets its default reminders at the Reminder time you set (6 pm to start with); the Add default reminders switch is on to start with.

The reminder's notification lets you complete or snooze the task.

Exact times

Android only lets an app remind you at the exact minute if you allow Alarms & reminders. Until you do, 4Tasks shows a banner at the top of your list (Allow alarms & reminders, with a Settings button that opens the right Android screen), and the Reminder row on the edit screen says Enable reminders instead of letting you add one. Reminders you already have are still set, but Android may deliver them a few minutes late. Once you allow it, they arrive at the minute.

Reminders also need notifications to be allowed. If they are not, a banner says Enable reminders, with a Settings button.

5. Sync with a CalDAV server

CalDAV is an open standard for tasks and calendars. Nextcloud, SOGo (including mailcow), Radicale, Baikal and many hosts offer it. 4Tasks is built for any standards-following CalDAV server you can sign in to, and has been tried with mailcow (SOGo).

Adding an account

1. Settings, Accounts, Add account, then CalDAV.
2. Type the server's URL. Often the server's address without a path is enough (starting with https://); 4Tasks finds the CalDAV address itself. If your provider gives a longer address, use that.
3. Type your user and password. Tap the eye at the end of the password to check what you typed.
4. Leave Server type on Unknown unless you know better, and tap Sign in.

Your lists appear in the drawer under the account's name. To rename an account or change its password, open it in Settings, Accounts; Display name changes the heading in the drawer. Tip: if your provider offers app passwords (mailcow, Nextcloud and others do), make one just for 4Tasks, limited to CalDAV if you can. Your main password is then never stored on the phone, and you can revoke the app password on its own.

What syncs, and when

Titles, notes, dates and times, repeats, priority, tags, reminders, completion, and the list a task is in all sync, both ways. A change you make on the phone is sent within a few seconds, or at once when you leave the app. 4Tasks also checks the server every time you open it (unless it synced less than 30 seconds ago), when you pull the list down, when you tap the refresh button on a widget, and in the background every 15, 30 or 60 minutes while the phone is online (15 to start with; choose in Settings, Accounts, Sync interval; Android's Data Saver stops the background sync). So a change made on another device reaches this phone within that interval, or as soon as you open the app. A task added by voice goes into your default list unless the request names another list, so set a list on the server as the default (Settings, Tasks, Task defaults) if you want those tasks to sync.

Secure connections only

• The address must be https://. A plain http:// address is refused, with a message saying so.
• By default the server's certificate must be one your phone already trusts (a normal Let’s Encrypt certificate is).
• If you run your own server with a self-signed certificate, turn on Settings, Advanced, Allow self-signed certificates. It is off by default. When you connect, you are shown the certificate's fingerprints and asked to trust that one certificate. Even then, the certificate must carry the name you connected by; a certificate for a different name is always refused. Turning the switch off again forgets every certificate you trusted.

Removing an account

Open the account (Settings, Accounts) and choose Log out. That removes the account's lists and tasks from the phone; what is on the server stays there.

6. Voice, with 4Dictate

4Dictate is our dictation app. With both installed you can speak to your tasks. In 4Dictate, ⚙ → Connected apps lists the apps it can ask; make sure 4Tasks is allowed there. Then start a command (its 🤖 button or key) and say, for example:

• “Remind me tomorrow at 3 to get back to Sandra about her reservation.” Adds a task due tomorrow at 3 pm, with a reminder.
• “What’s due tomorrow?” Shows what is due, in a notification.
• “Mark the Sandra task done.” Completes the one open task whose title contains those words. A repeating task moves to its next date instead of staying done.
• “What lists do I have?”

You can name a list (“add milk to Shopping”); without one the task goes into your default list. A list that does not exist, or a read-only one, is refused, and the answer names your lists.

Short and long requests

Short requests: press the command button and speak; it stops when you pause. Longer requests, or if you think as you talk: in dictation mode, start with “4Dictate,” then say what you want, and press stop when you are done. Nothing is typed; the request is handled as a command, and changes are confirmed in the same way.

You stay in charge

• Before 4Dictate adds or completes anything, it asks you to confirm on its own screen. Nothing changes until you press Do it (no answer in 90 seconds counts as Cancel). Asking what is due does not need a confirmation.
• The answer to a question shows on 4Dictate's pad and is kept in a notification, so you can read it again.
• If no task contains the words you said, but exactly one task sounds like them (“the sounder task” for “Sandra”), 4Tasks does nothing yet and 4Dictate asks “Did you mean …?” with that task. You press Do it or Cancel. If several tasks contain your words, or several sound like them, it tells you which (up to five) and does nothing; if none do, it lists up to five of your open tasks.
• A reminder needs a time. A reminder time that has already passed is refused unless you asked for it.
• Nothing can delete. There is no way for another app to delete a task or a list.

7. Apps allowed to use 4Tasks

Voice works through 4Link, a small door that lets other apps on this phone add, read and complete your tasks. It never opens by itself, and 4Link itself sends nothing over the internet. What 4Dictate does with your spoken words (to choose a function it may send them to its tidy-up service, even if tidy-up is off) is described in 4Dictate's privacy policy.

• Our own apps (such as 4Dictate) are recognised by their signing certificate.
• Any other app must ask first. A screen then shows the app's name, package and certificate fingerprint, and each thing it asks to do (Read, Add, Change), with what it would send. Everything it asks for starts ticked; untick what you do not want, then press Allow ticked, or Refuse.
• Settings, Accounts, Apps allowed to use 4Tasks lists the apps you have allowed, what each may do, and when it last did something. Press Remove beside an app to stop allowing it (it asks first); the entry also goes if the app is uninstalled or re-signed. Our own apps are not listed.
• The same screen shows a call log, newest first: when, which app (its package name), which function, and the result. 4Tasks keeps the last 500 calls and the screen shows the newest 100. Calls that were refused are listed too. It never records the details of a task.

8. Backup and restore

Settings, Backups:

• Backup folder: where backup files go. A warning appears if it is inside the app's own storage, because Android deletes that if you uninstall 4Tasks. Pick a folder of your own.
• Backup now writes a file straight away.
• Automatic backups (on by default) write a file about once a day, around midnight, and keep the seven before it. Files from Backup now are never deleted automatically.
• Import backup reads a file back in. You can do the same from Import a backup when you first open the app.

Backup files never contain your sync passwords. After you restore, a sync account comes back and asks you to sign in again. 4Tasks does not use Android’s own cloud backup or phone-to-phone transfer, so a backup file is the way to move your tasks to a new phone. A synced server is another.

9. Widgets and shortcuts

Settings, Look, Widget settings lists the widgets you already have (tap one for its settings) and, if your launcher allows it, Add shortcut to home screen and Add widget to home screen. You can also add the widget from your launcher's widget list. A New task tile can be added to Android's quick settings.

• A widget shows a list on your home screen. Its buttons choose the list, refresh (sync now, and redraw), open the widget's settings and add a task. On a very narrow widget the refresh button is left out. Tap a task to open it, tick the box to complete it. Each widget has its own settings: Filter (which list), Theme, header Colour, Opacity, spacing, font size, and what each row shows.
• By default a widget follows your wallpaper colours, whatever the app's own switch says. If you choose a colour for a widget, its header uses that colour.
• A shortcut opens a chosen list straight from the home screen.

10. Settings

Tap ⚙ at the top right of the main screen. Settings has six tabs. The first three are columns of cards, and each card opens the page it names; Backups, Advanced and About are pages of their own:

Tab	Cards
Accounts	Local lists, each account you have added, Add account, Sync interval, Apps allowed to use 4Tasks.
Tasks	Task defaults, Task list options (font size, spacing, chips, per-list sorting), Edit screen options, Date and time, Notifications.
Look	Look and feel, Navigation drawer, Widget settings.
Backups	Backup folder, Backup now, Automatic backups, Import backup (section 8).
Advanced	See below.
About	The version, who makes 4Tasks, and its links (section 14).

Advanced has the attachment folder, the self-signed certificates switch (section 5), task-count badges on the app icon, Astrid manual sorting (an older manual sort mode, kept for anyone who uses it), and the buttons that reset your preferences or delete your task data (both ask first).

11. Colour and theme

Settings, Look, Look and feel:

• Wallpaper colour (on by default): the app takes its colours from your wallpaper, like 4Dictate and 4Zones. Switch it off to choose a colour yourself, or to use the plain palette (sky blue; navy in dark mode). The switch appears only if your phone supports wallpaper colour.
• Theme: Light, Black, Dark, Wallpaper (dark, with your wallpaper showing through), Day/Night (changes by time of day) or System default (the default).
• Markdown in titles and descriptions, Open last viewed list (or always open a list you choose), and the language (Android’s per-app language setting).

12. Troubleshooting

What you see	What to do
Reminders come late	Allow Alarms & reminders for 4Tasks (the banner on your list takes you there). Also see Settings, Tasks, Notifications, Troubleshooting for battery optimisation.
No reminders at all	Allow notifications for 4Tasks in Android settings (a banner on your list, Enable reminders, takes you there). Check Quiet hours are not on (Settings, Tasks, Notifications shows a card while they are).
Invalid username or password	The server refused the sign-in. Check the password with the eye button. With an app password, make sure it is allowed for CalDAV, and use your full user name (often your email address).
Could not connect	Check the address and that you are online.
Plain http:// connections are not allowed	Use an https:// address. 4Tasks never sends your password unencrypted.
This phone does not trust the server’s certificate	Fix the server’s certificate, or, if it is your own server, turn on Allow self-signed certificates (section 5).
The server’s certificate does not carry the name you connected by	Connect by a name the certificate has, or reissue the certificate with that name. This is never overridden.
A change made on another device does not arrive until I open 4Tasks	Opening 4Tasks, pulling the list down or tapping the widget's refresh button always syncs. In the background Android decides when an app that is not on screen may use the network, and some phones hold it back for apps they think are idle: in Android settings, Apps, 4Tasks, Battery, choose Unrestricted, and choose a shorter Sync interval (Settings, Accounts).
A task added by voice did not reach the server	It went into your default list. Make a server list your default (Settings, Tasks, Task defaults).
An app cannot use 4Tasks	Check Settings, Accounts, Apps allowed to use 4Tasks. An app other than ours has to ask to be allowed, from its own screen, and then appears there; if you removed it, it has to ask again.

13. Privacy

• Your tasks stay on your phone. If you connect a CalDAV account, they go straight to the server you typed in and nowhere else, over an encrypted connection.
• No account with us, no advertising, no analytics, no crash reporting, no tracking.
• Your sync password is stored encrypted on the phone and is left out of backup files.
• 4Tasks does not ask for your location, contacts, camera, microphone or storage. What it does ask for: notifications and, if you allow it, Alarms & reminders (to remind you at the right time), to set reminders again after a restart, to wake the phone and vibrate to show one, and to use the network, only to sync with the server you add.

The full policy is at mr-biz.uk/4tasks/privacy.

14. About, licence and source

4Tasks is free software under the GNU General Public Licence v3 (the 4Link library inside it is under Apache-2.0). It is based on Tasks.org by Todoroo (Astrid) and the Tasks.org contributors, and is a separate app that is not made or supported by the Tasks.org project. The source code is at github.com/mr-bizzy/4tasks.

Settings, About shows, from the top:

• 4Tasks with its version and build number, and who makes it: John Paul Bizeray, trading as Mr-Bizzy, United Kingdom.
• Website (mr-biz.uk), User manual (this page), Privacy policy and Support, which opens your email app with a message to [email protected].
• Based on Tasks.org, a link to the original code.
• Open source: 4Tasks' own source code, the full text of the GNU General Public Licence v3, and the notices and licences of the libraries it uses.
• Apps allowed to use 4Tasks (section 7).

Questions and bug reports: [email protected].