Replacement for Reminders App

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It seems that the Reminders App can no longer be trusted in iOS13, nor presumably in Catalina.

I have relied on this app for some time. I have appointments in that which are not stored anywhere else. I already had to recreate a couple which were deleted or closed since updating.

I need to transcribe these into a spreadsheet or something as a backup before I update my last two devices.

Can anyone please suggest an application which is as reliable as Reminders used to be?

I tried Things3 but that doesn’t seem to accept repeated appointments, which defeats the object.

The new version of Reminders takes up so much space listing the parameters of the repeats it is not clear to read.

Why did Apple take a brilliant reliable app and ruin it?

I can cope with the Mail app and App Store being more difficult to use for no sensible reason but what they have done to Reminders is unforgivable.


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Can I suggest Calendar for appointments? That is, after all, what Calendar is designed to support. You can have repeating appointments, plus the calendar can show on your  Watch as a complication and sync to your Mac as well.

As for Reminders, I use it to track THINGS, not events, and it is brilliant at that. Even repeating things, like a daily reminder to read something, or take out the trash weekly, or what I just remembered I need to buy the next time I am at a store. But I don't use it for appointments and events which have a duration. That's when I use Calendar.
 
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A fair point thanks.

I might give that try


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Never used Reminders but rely utterly on alerts from Calendar to keep me on track. I like the way you can programme several alerts - ie one week, 2 hours, etc and that you get a countdown every 15 minutes in the last hour (replicated on all Apple devices).
 

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@Nighthowk4 Exactly what issues are you having with Reminders? I probably don't use it as extensively as you di but I suspect I use it in similar ways and haven't been having issues. I keep many events in Calendar but use Reminders for events tha I need to be reminded of that aren't going to occur for some time.

There are times at work, for example, where get notch of a meeting a month or more in advance of when it happens. I need to be nagged about that meeting because there are things that have to be done in advance. Those go into the reminder app so it can nag me every day without having that event clutter Calander for more than a month. I ut a single entry into Calandar for the day/time of the event so I don't schedule things that conflict.
 

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I keep many events in Calendar but use Reminders for events tha I need to be reminded of that aren't going to occur for some time.

Maybe I'm showing my age, but I still keep one of those paper calendars on my desk, the kind with the big box and small date on it. I just write in appointments and reminders as needed. Old fashioned I know, but it works for me. ;D
 
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I am having repeating events getting closed completely when I tick them to say they are completed today, instead of moving to the next day.


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@Nighthawk4, that's curious. I have three reminders like that and all work properly. One is daily, one is weekly and one is every 6 days. Each repopulates to the next schedule when I click the complete button. Did you maybe have an ending date on the repeat?
 
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I don’t think they had end dates.

Even more strange is I lost my Dentist appointment. I managed to find it eventually in Things3 on an iPad that has not been updated yet.

I am beginning to wonder if it is Things3 that is deleting entries rather than Reminders.

Time for a backup of my Reminders entries and then some more experimenting with Reminders.

Of course, if I update my two remaining devices I will be forced to put Catalina on my MB Air and iMac. Tried that - not keen on Catalina yet.


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Hmmm. I have a repeating "Take out the Trash" reminder for Mondays that I found was marked as completed when I was reviewing my list this past weekend and had to un-complete it. I thought I made a mistake, though darned if I know how. Now I wonder if there is a problem with the app. I don't have Things in use here.
 
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Life, here is how I set up a weekly repeating Reminder to take out the trash at 8 AM every Friday. Note that it is set to expire "Never." That is the key to an endlessly repeating task.

Screen Shot 2020-01-02 at 7.20.03 PM.png

That looks like this in Reminders (macOS Catalina):

Screen Shot 2020-01-02 at 7.23.10 PM.png

And when I click the circle to say the task is complete it shows this:

Screen Shot 2020-01-02 at 7.23.41 PM.png

Which indicates that it has been set to be due next Friday, as set up.

Hope that helps. If it's not working for you, it's not the app, it's something in your setup.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the orange filler in the circle does NOT mean that the task for next week is complete, just that as soon as I checked the circle, the date changed to next week. Next time I open Reminders, the circle will be un-filled. Didn't mean that to be confusing.
 
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Jake, I have it set up as repeating just fine. It is set for every other Monday @ 3p (recycling being on the alternate week). I just don't why, on this past Sunday, that Monday was already acknowledged as done. I assumed that I accidentally tapped the "dot" button at some point beforehand, but I don't recall doing so nor when that even could have happened. It's not implausible that I did this, but after reading the discussion here, I wonder if there's a bug in Catalina or iOS 13 that accidentally triggered it.
 
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Doubt a bug. I use both, have never had that happen. I have five repeating Reminders synced to my iPhone from the Mac.
 
M

MBAmtloin

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i laughed loudly when i saw this!
would n't the smell remind you?

we have one week glass pick up, the next week paper
so i have 2 decals on the bin were one is facing out, that gets picked up that week.
then i reverse both respectively.
 
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i laughed loudly when i saw this!
would n't the smell remind you?

we have one week glass pick up, the next week paper
so i have 2 decals on the bin were one is facing out, that gets picked up that week.
then i reverse both respectively.

I laughed out loud when you said that your recycling stinks. Normally, the fact that the recycling container is busting at the seams would be evidence enough that "this" is the week for recycling, but there are periods where we use much more or much less than usual. We don't have recycling containers based on type so it's all or nothing every other week.
 

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