Q: location based reminders not working iOS 7

Hi WWJD53,

Have you tried to launch Reminders, press the Home button to put it in the background, and leave it in the background (not swiping it out of the App Switcher)?

Also, could you confirm that you have the following?

- The general switch under Settings > General > Background App Refresh set to ON

AND

- The Reminders switch under Settings > General > Background App Refresh set to ON

Siri has no problem reminding me of anything as long as the reminder is based around "home".  But if If I'm driving past the grocery store I normally use and tell Siri to "remind me at this location to buy groceries" she repeats back the reminder she'll do this the next time I'm here.  But it never happens. 

That said, if I stop the car and manually create a reminder, click the button for it to "Remind me at a location", then select "This Location" it will work.  This is really dumb...Location Services knows where I am and is supposed to remind me even if I'm in motion.

FWIW, location reminders worked just fine in iOS 6.  Not all things shiny and new are better :-(

Also not working for me.  Even with Background App Refresh on, App still running in the background.  Reminders isnt' working with location based reminders.  Seems to be clearly a bug that needs to be addressed.  The reminders will even randomly go off when I'm no where near the location I set it to.  I hope they fix this soon.

Hi tariq.r.khan,

Do you have WiFi OFF by any chance?

No, it's on.  Timed reminders still work as well.

THAT MAKES TWO OF US! (That bug is fixed soon)

Clearly, if this is an intentional change in location based reminders and not a bug, it is a huge step backward and is not working for me as a user/consumer. I have followed the instructions and still don't get notifications when I ask to be reminded to perform a task when leaving an address at which I am not connected to wifi. Ex. I'm at a meeting and ask Siri to "Remind me to call the office when I leave here." Siri and I both confirm, and the reminder just doesn't take place.

In addition, if I have to keep the native Reminders app open constantly, I might as well begin looking at third party apps which offer location aware reminders. Perhaps one of them will work with some consistency and more robustly.  Please fix this, Apple!

Abbybelle,

I too have been frustrated with the shortcomings of the notifications app. I've been using "Location Minder" for a while now and find it works well. Yes, it and Location Services need to be running in the background, but it is far more versatile than the reminders app. It might be worth a try until the Reminders App gets improved.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the recommendation, btcompute.  I'll take a look!

Thank you!! It worked!!

I think it has something to do with the Mac. The setting to enable location based reminders keeps getting unchecked on my Mac, and every time I make a location based reminder on my phone, I get a pop up asking if I want to enable it. I'm assuming that if I enable it before I get to the location, it will work. Obviously this is useless. Hopefully Apple fixes this.

Try using the words "arrive at" eg. "remind me to buy groceries when I arrive at *insert location*" This worked for me. Up till then, Siri ignored the location.

That doesn't work any better, iconista.  Sometimes it will work, and always has, but it takes about a mile past the location for it to remind me.

these solutions are what external sites are telling us to turn off to save the battery.

I've turned background refresh back on, but only for reminders, hoping that the location alarm will work again, so long as the battery still has enough power to operate the phone.

All,

I figured out the solution!!!  My iPhone 5s location-based reminders were never working until I discovered this ingenious fix... I set a reminder on my obsolete but still reliable Nokia phone, reminding me when I get close to my destination to create a new time-based reminder on the iPhone in Reminders, and set it to trigger roughly when I think I'll arrive (in 5 minutes or so).  I then get a reminder from my iPhone at almost the right time... it works beautifully, I'm amazed no one thought of this before!  (Sarcasm courtesy of my frustration that my first iPhone is so much buggier than other phones I've had... this feature just doesn't work on my phone).