iOS 5: deleting Completed Reminders list

This problem is still plaguing me. I use about 38 different lists in reminders as part of my GTD (Getting Things Done) system. Reoccurring reminders are checked off then hidden in their respective lists. However, I have to delete all completed ones individually at the end of the day... and I have multiple reoccurring reminders daily. If I forget to go in and delete them then they pile up and become too overwhelming to delete individually. So frustrated. You'd think with this issue being discussed on an Apple forum that they'd get a clue and fix it. 🙈

Definitely! Even the simplest free reminder apps that I can download give me the option to delete completed tasks, but I don't want to clutter up my system with something that isn't seamless with Siri and iCloud and sharing. I want to keep using the provided app!

I know this is an old thread, but it still pops up high on the Google search results for "clear out reminders". This can easily be done now by logging into iCloud, clicking on the Reminders applet, and then clicking the expand triangle next to the Completed reminders. An option will appear to delete all completed Reminders, just click on that, and all your completed reminders are deleted.

Some other solutions can be found at:

https://www.jordanmerrick.com/posts/deleting-completed-icloud-reminders-on-ios/ iOS one-click to delete completed reminders solution using the Workflow app (requires some setup)

http://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/04/cleaning-out-old-reminders/ Mac schedulable solution using an AppleScript

I've also found this cumbersome. There should at least be an edit button to remove multiple items as well as the option to clear all competed.

A button to delete completed would be nice. Here is what I do for my grocery list. Once I have checked everything off and the list is "completed" I select the icon on the upper left to see all of your list and just delete the list for Grocery, or whatever list you have completed. Now if you want to just delete the completed items than deleting them one by one can take some time. Hopefully they update this app in the next iOS update. I highly doubt they will though.

I figured out how to do this if you also have a desktop comptuer:

1. Make sure you've got iCloud set up and that you're syncing Reminders with iCloud (under Settings>Mail Contacts and Calendars)
2. Log in at www.iCloud.com from a computer
3. Click on the Calendar button
4. You'll see a reminders area on the right
5. You can multiselect reminders there that have been completed and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. They all go away, and that deletion will sync to your iPhone.

If you do not see your completed reminders go into the Preferences and turn off the hide functions.

Then as per above, multi-select and delete (just had to do this myself).

P.S. how annoying, you can't post images directly into the edit field, need to save them to your computer first; how primitive.

Busby,

Where is that preferences window that you screen-capped? In iTunes? At iCloud.com? Thanks!

Greg

Your iCloud calendar preferences, should be a button on your upper right when you are looking at the Calendar screen.

Gotta love how Apple trumpets that you no longer need a computer to use an iOS 5 device, and yet there are dozens of BASIC, OBVIOUS functions you still need your computer to do — most of them functions Palm OS had knocked 10+ years ago.

This has got to be the most MORONIC oversight in functionality in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. How does s*** like this happen?

This is your brain...A Reminders App with bulk delete functionality of completed tasks.

This is your brain on drugs...The current Reminder App.

Great advice! Thanks.

Guys, see here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4710

mbaltozer, you're missing the point.

It should not be necessary to use a completely different device running a completely different app to perform a simple function like quickly deleting (or mass-deleting) finished To-Dos.

This is basic, obvious functionality that was available on mobile OSes 10 years ago, and is available in the iOS Mail app, so there's just no good reason for there to be so many steps for such simple functionality.

It makes sense to bury "delete" in the Contacts app — you don't often delete contacts. But Reminders are usually things you need only once, and even with the repeating reminders, you don't need the old ones hanging around.

So pointing us to a KB article about how to use a completely separate app on a completely separate device doesn't address the problem.

And, by the way, your suggestion works only in Lion. So that "solution" isn't valid for the vast majority of iOS users, and isn't even valid for Mac users unless they've recently upgraded their OS or recently bought a new Mac.

Great point, 100 Watt Walrus. Similar to ShawnieD's response above, solutions thus far are not user friendly. I'd still like to see in-app native funcationality for managing to-do items as well as entire lists.