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iphone 4s calendar alert issue

I tend to put 2 alerts on my calendar events, one for 1 day before and the second one for 1 hour before (or some other on the day of event). I have noticed that when I put in the first alert for 1 day before and then enter the second alert for 1 hour before and click done they have somehow been reversed, the first alert is now 1 hour before and the second alert is 1 day before. I have to click them again and change them to the proper order, this usually take about 3 tries to get them to stay as I want them. I can them save the event and all is good. I was at the Apple store and the staff duplicated this issue so I know I'm not the only one experiencing this nuissance. Has anyone else come across this? I do hope the upcoming update will fix it.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Nov 8, 2011 11:15 AM

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Posted on Dec 5, 2011 12:06 AM

I have the iOS update and this problem is still happening. I was looking for an answer to that problem today in the Support Community when I found what I think will help. There is a Default Alert Times setting. Go to Settings > Mail, Contact, Calendars > scroll to Calendars: Default Alert Times > There are 3 possible defaults (in iOS 5.0.1) Birthdays, Events and All-Day Events. I set my Events default to 1 hour and now when I create an appointment/event my First Alert is automatically 1 hour. I can then set my 2nd alert and it didn't reverse like you described above. I just did one test today, so I still have to monitor it for awhile. So in your case you should be able to set your default to 1 day and just enter your 2nd alert as desired whenever you create an appointment. Of course you change the 1st alert to whatever you want when you create your appointment. It seems to stop the reversal of the alerts though. I was glad to see that. We shouldn't have to do this, but it's better than nothing. Maybe they'll fix it someday. Hope this works for you.

57 replies

Feb 24, 2014 10:58 PM in response to Ghost.Crow

Thanks for the insight. I have tested out your solution and found it to be slightly effective. There seems to be a difference between adding a new event via plus symbol "+" and selecting from Month view. Either way something is weird with the alerts feature.


I assume the alerts feature was made to push the sooner alert first. Something is wrong with the code where the variable that determines the alert time hierarchy is causing the error. Another explanation is that the variable is correct but the code computing the variable has a bug. A third explanation is that the bug is independent from the code computing the variable but affects the alert variable, so causing the variable to be wrong.


After testing out your solution, I propose this tip. Setup the event, alerts and all. Select event and verify alert times. If alerts are incorrect select second alert and reselect the time. Select first alert and reselect time. Depending on how the event was created the alerts will jump back and forth differently. Keep reselecting till alerts are correct. Go back and forth from Day view to Event view to verify alerts. Also by just selecting an alert and going back to the event can make alerts jump, so be careful and double check alert.


I guess Apple just thinks that it's not worth fixing and thinks we all should just do one alert. I've been submitting a request to fix a Maps error for over a year. Nothing's happened. One request to a competitor's map service and the error was fixed.

Apr 18, 2014 9:15 AM in response to Ghost.Crow

I wish this worked for me. No matter what times, days, hours I put in first alert and second alert, whether or not I close the expanded view of hours, the alerts switch order. I found I just can't have two alerts for the same event.....NO MATTER WHAT. This has happened through three system upgrades. It's ridiculous that Apple can't or won't fix this. If it's a hardware issue ----- then FIX it? It's not a **** GM car, but it's starting to feel like they are avoiding a fix.

Apr 18, 2014 12:53 PM in response to sherunswest

The OCD side of me remains very frustrated by the flipping of the alerts just because I want to see the alert that is to occur the longest time out from the event/appointment to be listed first, followed by the alert closest to the event/appointment to appear second. However, I have found that the alerts go off as scheduled no matter which order they end up showing up on the calendar event, so they appear to function correctly in any case. So, while frustrated, it works, so I just accept it. I have bigger issues to focus my attention to.

Jun 14, 2014 2:03 PM in response to sherunswest

I'm laughing, remorsefully. Poor old Apple! They have done so well for so long and now they have just plain become irrelevant. Apparently they can't craft apps as well as the vendors on the app store, that is what I gather here, as I too migrate now away from Apple's apps over to the store where I do hope to find something that actually works. Apple's calendar app is not just poor, it cracks you up laughing it is so (and I at first thought 'uncharacteristically' but now realize it is IN character) bad you have to laugh out loud. Why, you put in a bunch of test appointment to test the alerts and when you are done testing, you can't even edit or delete the events. I have owned an iPhone literally from day one, and only now am planning to try out android. Took me this long!! Oh by the way I might mention how excellent Apple's calendar app has been in the past, before they fixed and improved it! Before there even was a cloud or a notifications center or alerts and banners, You would get a loud noise and an alert that stayed front and center until you took an action. Now, if you miss the audible alert, there is no alert remaining on your screen to remind you, even if you set one. Really, would Apple even let such a poor app into the store? Poor old Apple. Lost the plot I'm afraid.

Aug 29, 2014 1:15 AM in response to sherunswest

Not quite the same, so may report this as a new bunch of bugs.


Firstly - I've set my default alert for events to none. So when I create an event, and even when I click in to 'alert' and select none, once I come out of the event, it creates an alert at 30 minutes before and 10 minutes before the event. I've never used these two as a combination of alerts so I have no idea why it is defaulting to them, and it's impossible to change the default to back to none. I can get rid of it by changing the default to 'at the time of the event', but I dont want an alert at the time of the event. I want no alert.


Secondly - when I snooze an event, it changes the first/second alert time to something screwy like '9 minutes and 33 seconds before the event' or '12 minutes and 28 seconds after the event'. No idea why or how it does this, and again can't seem to get rid of it. Plus if I have a recurring alarm set, it'll keep these weird parameters for every subsequent event.


I just updated my iOS to the latest 7.1.2 but this did nothing to help. Can't imagine it would make any difference, but it's an iPhone 5.


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Apr 10, 2015 9:46 AM in response to sherunswest

UNBELIEVABLE Apple! Really. This has been a problem since 2011 and you STILL have yet to fix it? This is something that would take all of an hour to focus on and fix. You have updated this app several times now through your iOS software updates and just refuse to fix this issue. The fact that you can't even fix your own calendar app just goes to show how greedy and pathetic you are as a company. Meanwhile, you have no qualms releasing and selling us new iPhones each year with the same old bugs for hundreds of dollars.

May 18, 2016 3:51 AM in response to SIGN5L

One more year later!

I wanted to set Alert "1 day before" and second alert "2 hours before".

I've selected Alert 1 day before and it was saved correctly. When I selected second alert 2 hours before, and return to event it was shown swapped:

Alert 2 hours before

Second alert 1 day before.


I've checked how it works on iPad 9.2.1 and noticed that after I set both alerts to the same value, when I changed one, it actually changed both alerts to be the same, e.g.

Alert 1 day before.

Second alert 1 day before.


If you have this issue please send a bug report to Apple at:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

(I am not sure that Apple employees monitor this forum)

iphone 4s calendar alert issue

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