Come on, Apple. Prior to upgrading Reminders after install of iOS 13, you should have notified users that they wouldn't be able to use Reminders on their Macs until Catalina is released. I wouldn't have upgraded Reminders had I known.
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
That's a reason to be sure to do our due diligence particularly when any change in functionality might affect our important daily workflow.
If you have a backup of your boot drive made just prior to upgrading Reminders you can boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), erase your hard drive and restore from your backup.
ideoplastos wrote:
John, while I appreciate the snarky reply (shoot, you really got me!), I don't appreciate the assumption that I'm in the Apple message boards or reading every release note like you :) I'm posting here as regular, everyday user and I think many like me, eager to try out the new iOS 13 Reminders functionality will fall into the same trap, regardless of the release note you referenced.
It is hard to miss the screen that comes up when you launch Reminders however.
I didn't do a screen shot of the "Learn More…" text.
John, while I appreciate the snarky reply (shoot, you really got me!), I don't appreciate the assumption that I'm in the Apple message boards or reading every release note like you :) I'm posting here as regular, everyday user and I think many like me, eager to try out the new iOS 13 Reminders functionality will fall into the same trap, regardless of the release note you referenced.
As I said, "prior to upgrading Reminders after install of iOS 13" - clearly meaning on screen, in the app. Two innocuous options were presented on screen, if memory serves: "Upgrade now" and "Upgrade later." "Upgrade now" could/should have come with a more obvious "Don't upgrade now... if you want to keep using Reminders on your Mac!" notification on screen during that tap sequence. Better yet, Apple could have had a Mojave Reminders patch/upgrade ready so we didn't have to wait for Catalina.
Honestly, since the Upgrade Now / Upgrade Later message isn't something that appears every time you launched a different app on the new iOS 13, it should have alerted you that something was up and just maybe you'd like to go online and see what was up with that.
Apple has done too good a job over the years of creating a system that "Just Works" so today people just blithely update and upgrade expecting they'll be getting more "Just Works". Doesn't always work out that way though, does it?
ideoplastos wrote:
John, while I appreciate the snarky reply (shoot, you really got me!), I don't appreciate the assumption that I'm in the Apple message boards or reading every release note like you :)
I depend on a lot of Apple products and services, so there's no doubt I may exercise more due diligence than others. Perhaps that's the reason I recognized their red "Important" note as unusual for them. When announcing new or upgraded products and services, they're typically understated and not nearly as prominent as that one was.
When Apple says something is important, it is.
It's also not the first time an "upgraded" iOS app required complimentary upgrades to their macOS equivalents. The last time Apple did that I think it involved the Notes app. At that time iCloud was still in its infancy, not particularly reliable, and definitely not as accepted as it is now. It's since become much more reliable, and Apple's users have grown to depend on it.
It certainly helps to become knowledgable about how things work though. I consider it a personal responsibility incumbent upon anyone using various tools and other things they depend upon, but I understand not everyone agrees with that. It's probably a personality flaw on my part 🤓
Apple is a victim of its own success here. They cultivated a reputation building products that "just work"... as if by magic. The problem with that is that their users have grown to expect literal magic. I can't blame them.
In the OPs defense, the "important" statement only says,
"To access your upgraded iCloud Reminders on the following devices,
they need to be upgraded to the latest OS."
Well, right now the latest OS is macOS Mojave 10.14.6. It doesn't say,
"they need to be upgraded to macOS Catalina 10.15 or later".
So, I can see the confusion if some sees that message and thinks, well I do have
the latest OS if they have 10.14.6.
dialabrain - agreed, hard to miss. I honestly read that as “you’ll need to perform a software update on your Mac later today” not as “you’ll need to update your Mac once software is release in October.”
dwb - agreed.
I agree wholeheartedly with the OP. I too was burned by this issue. And because since Apple indicated that one could access Reminders on iCloud after upgrading and since I manage them mostly on my phone I took the bait and upgraded them. Then I logged into iCloud only to find that you can only edit the name there (and appearance) - you can't see or change dates, repeat setting, etc. I'm pretty disappointed in how this transition has been handled.
You're right, Apple could have done something to alert its users not to upgrade the iOS Reminders app.
Oh wait, they did.
Apple is not here. You can provide feedback to Apple here: Product Feedback - Apple
FWIW, perhaps one should be knowledgeable about the impact of an upgrade before performing the upgrade.
You could have done better w/ Reminders upgrade...
