Calendar Notifications Rarely Sync Properly via iCloud Across Multiple Apple Devices.

I just got off the phone with an Apple Desktop Support supervisor.

She was able to reproduce the issue and told me this may be "expected behavior". She told me that responding to calendar notifications may not sync as they are not part of Apple Continuity. However, she is not sure. She is reaching out to Apple Engineering about this.

With that in mind, she was not able to tell me why clearing the notification on one device typically clears the same notification in any combination of my other four Apple devices (iPhone 8 Plus, iPad Air 2, iMac and two Apple Watches).

In other words, if Notifications are not part of Apple Continuity, this should not work at all. So why, then, does it sometimes?

One way or the other, there appears to be a bug in either Calendar, Notifications, Apple Continuity and/or iCloud.

I should hear back in about four business days. Thank you for your time. I will keep you posted.

It has been several days since I went through all my settings based on links to the documents you provided. Thank you.

I have also spent the last several days testing Calendar Notification Syncing on ALL my affected devices (iPhone 8 Plus, iPad Air 2, iMac and Apple Watch) nothing has changed.

Rarely does clearing the notification also clear all the notifications on AlL my devices. Typically, it may clear the same notification on one or two of them and frequently it clears none of them on the other devices.

Another odd thing. I have no issue receiving Calendar Notifications on any of my Apple devices. The problem is syncing the clearing of them.

I have been left with the assumption this is just another Apple design flaw.

Thanks.

I went through the documents and, with few exceptions, everything checked out.

For the few things that I did edit, per the links you provided, I should know the results very soon. Perhaps within a few hours.

I will let you know the results. Thank you.

Nick,

Last night, I responded to two Calendar notifications from my iPhone. And they both worked. The same Calendar notifications on my iPad, iMac and Apple Watch all disappeared...

...But tonight, I decided to try responding to the same notifications (they run every day) from my iPad. The only device the same notification disappeared from was my Mac and left the same notifications on my iPhone and Apple Watch, remained unchanged.

Tomorrow I will try responding from my Mac. Then later from my Apple Watch and then from my iPhone again.

This is consistent with the problem I have reported all along. Rarely does Calendar notification syncing work properly. Normally it works on one or two devices, if at all. I have tried everything in the documents and have learned that with Apple software, not to hold my breath.

Thank you for you help. It does appear that this, once again, is poorly designed Apple software and has become more and more typical in my experiences using it.

Yesterday (4/17/20) I spent, about two hours on the phone with Apple iOS Support. The two people I spoke with were unable to diagnose the issue. All they could do is take notes. I got a case number and, later, sent them the screen shots I submitted to you earlier.

The first agent told me that she “guaranteed” that if I cleared ALL Calendar notifications from Notification Center by first pressing the “X” and then press “Clear” (as she said “a two-step process”) the notifications would clear from all my connected Apple Devices. She was wrong. First, when I respond to a notification on either my iPad or iPhone from the Notification Center, there is NO “X” for individual notifications. My only choices are to swipe or press on the notification. If I press it, of course, it opens Calendar. If I swipe to the right, it also opens Calendar. If I swipe to the left, I am presented with three options, Manage, View or Clear. Pressing Clear, which by the way is what I have always done fails. It very rarely clears the redundant notifications on all my other Apple devices.

I am on the phone with Apple support for a third time as I am writing this. This time with Mac Desktop Support. I will keep you posted.