Date and time suggestions not working in Reminders app

On all my iOS devices, the date and time suggestions in the Reminders app are broken. I used to be able to add a reminder by typing something like "Call Dad Thursday 21:00" and it would correctly suggest scheduling the reminder at that date and time – I could select that suggestion below, and the day and time would disappear from the reminder text itself (i.e., it would read just "Call Dad" and be correctly scheduled).


This no longer works. Now, if I type "Call Dad Thursday 21:00" it only suggests Today and the current time. This is the case no matter the day and time I type. If I just set the reminder without selecting the incorrectly suggested scheduling, the reminder reads “Call Dad Thursday 21:00" without any scheduled time.


This is on my iPad Pro and iPhone 13 Pro, both running iOS 15.2 and it’s maybe an iOS 15 bug?

iPhone 13 Pro

Posted on Dec 27, 2021 9:03 AM

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Posted on Jan 15, 2022 11:29 AM

ANSWER: You (now?) need to click on the small keyboard icon at the bottom right of the reminder! This then opens a suggested date/time window where you can confirm the suggested date. Not at all intuitive that the keyboard icon would do this, but so it is. Funny, I spent a half hour w apple support to no avail. Then I asked my teenager. Done.

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Jan 15, 2022 11:29 AM in response to AbbysDadBoston

ANSWER: You (now?) need to click on the small keyboard icon at the bottom right of the reminder! This then opens a suggested date/time window where you can confirm the suggested date. Not at all intuitive that the keyboard icon would do this, but so it is. Funny, I spent a half hour w apple support to no avail. Then I asked my teenager. Done.

Dec 28, 2021 5:54 PM in response to ddrogin

ddrogin,


Thanks for sharing those additional details with us. 


Are you manually adding this reminder in the Reminders app, or are you using another method? We ask because in iOS 15.2, the date might default to "Today" until you select another day and time using the methods we've advised above. When was the last time this worked as expected for you?


Does it work if you use Siri to set the reminder? If you have Hey Siri enabled, for instance, you can try saying, "Hey Siri, remind me to call Dad on Thursday at 21:00." This method should schedule the reminder for you at the designated day and time.


Keep in mind that "Siri uses Location Services when your reminder needs to use your location. Siri availability, features, and commands vary by language, country, and region," as stated in:

Use Reminders on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


Have a great rest of your day or evening.

Dec 29, 2021 8:50 AM in response to Erin_B11

Thanks for following up. If I use Siri, everything works properly and in fact I use this method frequently, but especially in work settings it's not always possible to speak aloud to the device.


The problem occurs when manually adding the reminder directly in the Reminders app. The (helpful!) way it used to work was: in the Reminders app I'd tap New Reminder and then type something like, "Call Dad Thursday 21:00" and the Suggested Time that appeared below would be (for instance) 12/30/21 21:00. And, "Thursday 21:00" was highlighted in blue. I would tap the suggested time below (12/30/21 21:00) and the reminder would be correctly scheduled at that time. And, the blue "Thursday 21:00" would disappear from the reminder text itself, so that the reminder was correctly entered as "Call Dad" and be scheduled for 12/30/21. Easy and effective!


Now this no longer works. Now, when I tap New Reminder and enter "Call Dad Thursday 21:00," the suggested time below is instead the current day and time. "Thursday 21:00" is highlighted in blue as before, but only the current day/time is suggested (see attached image). And tapping that blue text (Thursday 21:00) does nothing. In fact, the text turning blue suggests that it's a prompt to select that time, but the only option to choose a time is either the suggested current day/time, or the extended manual process – that is, the highlighted blue text is meaningless. So, instead of the nice, quick method above, I now write "Call Dad" and then (1) tap the calendar icon and then (2) tap "Date & Time" and then (3) tap on the desired day and then (4) tap on the Time button and then (5) choose a time. I understand I can set a reminder correctly this way or with Siri, but there used to be a much more user-friendly and smoothly working process that did not require five extra steps and that now no longer works.


I believe the Reminders app worked as I expected until very recently, so I would guess until the iOS 15.2 update. I am not 100% sure about this, though, and it may be that it stopped working correctly a little earlier.

Dec 28, 2021 10:00 AM in response to Erin_B11

Thanks. I understand how to manually enter the date and time. The issue is that an excellent functionality that used to work no longer does: I used to type “Call Dad Thursday 21:00” and the automatically suggested day and time would correspond to that. Now, that does not work – it only ever suggests the current day and time.

Dec 28, 2021 9:30 AM in response to ddrogin

Hello ddrogin,


Thank you for posting in the Apple Support Communities. We're here to assist with reminders.


As it turns out, when manually creating a new reminder, the date might default to "Today" until you select another day and time. To change the date and time, you'll tap on the calendar icon, then choose when you want to be reminded. Additionally, you can tap on the information icon (i) to open the details of an existing reminder, then change the date and time.


Feel free to review the user guide below for additional information:

Add reminders on iPhone


Alternatively, check to see if you can create your reminder using Siri, instead. Check out the section "Add a reminder with Siri" in the support article below for the steps.

Use Reminders on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.

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Date and time suggestions not working in Reminders app

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