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calendar first and second alerts switch on their own

Hi, I've been having this problem for a while with my iPhone 4, wondering if anyone can help.


I've tried looking if there's already a thread for this issue, but couldn't find one -- maybe I'm just not using the correct keywords.


Every time I set my first and second alerts on my calendar appointment and saved them, they seem okay, but 2 minutes later when I go back to the same appointment, the first and second alerts switch on their own, e.g.: I set first alert to go on 2 hours before and second alert to go on 1 hour before the appointment. Save. When I return 2 minutes later, first alert turned to 1 hour before and second alert 2 hours before.


Which is silly, since who needs their second alert to be farther than their actual appointment? Even iphone knows this and cancels the second alert altogether. By the time I've been alerted, I only have an hour to get ready for my next appointment.


Anyone has encoutered this problem and has successfully solved them? I've tried setting my default time zone under setting to local, and even turning off iCloud, to no success.


Any suggestion is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

iPhone 4, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 2, 2012 5:02 PM

Reply
50 replies

Jun 8, 2017 6:39 AM in response to David in Florida

David in Florida wrote:


It's going to be hard to say this without sounding like an arrogant jerk, and I apologize in advance because that's not my intent but ... yes they're functional if you don't make a lot of demands on them. If you want a really functional phone for business as opposed to music, movies, Snapchat, etc., then yes, go shopping for third party apps to take up memory, cost money, and reduce the seamlessness of the phone. My ancient Motorola admittedly wasn't as versatile as an iPhone with third-party apps but what it did it did well without the need to resort to third party apps.

I agree with you, to a point. The apps are basic. That is what they are intended to be. Apple intends/expects you to use third party apps. For most people it's not a matter of "resorting" to third party apps but rather an opportunity to chose what works best for them. Your needs and expectations are not universal, not even across all business people or "power users". (That apparent assumption is really as close as you get to sounding arrogant. ;-) ) There are people, many of them in business, who don't like what they would consider "bloated" apps and would not be happy if Apple went a different direction. I understand you may not agree with Apple's methods here but they appear 1) carefully considered and 2) not terribly likely to change. I could, of course, be completely wrong about #2. You should definitely submit your feedback to Apple here:


http://www.apple.com/feedback


Best of luck.

Jun 6, 2017 10:09 AM in response to row of letters

The fundamental reason it hasn't been fixed is because it isn't a big deal to kids who listen to music playlists, send Snapchats to their friends, Tweet to everyone, and play games on their iPhones..and that's the market Apple is obvioutrying to appeal to. The people it's a problem for are those who actually want to use their iPhones for business-type purposes and would like a robust, intuitive, feature-laden calendar program.

Jun 6, 2017 10:17 AM in response to David in Florida

David in Florida wrote:


The people it's a problem for are those who actually want to use their iPhones for business-type purposes and would like a robust, intuitive, feature-laden calendar program.

Then you should seek out such a program. The pre-installed programs are generally pretty basic. There's almost always a more feature-laden (burdened) program available. The apps that Apple installed are intended as one option. That's why Apple has the App Store and encourages App Development. I'm a huge fan of Fantastical. Week Calendar doesn't have as slick an interface but is handles repeating events better than almost anything else.

Jun 6, 2017 11:45 AM in response to David in Florida

David in Florida wrote:


Thanks, that's actually a good idea. I had hoped Apple would make their phones more functional but I probably should accept defeat and get an app that does what I am looking for instead.

Apple does make there phones functional. The additional software they provide is consumer level, basic. They leave the market open for third party developers to produce the more specialized apps. This means people who want simple, no frills can have it and people who want certain specific features (e.g. complex repeats) can get them. Not everyone wants or needs the same thing. Just because something doesn't meet your needs doesn't mean it isn't usable, even satisfactory, to many other people.


I happen to be fine with the built in calendar most of the time. But, I rarely use repeating alerts. Although I respect and recommend Week Calendar, I don't use it because the interface is to complicated and there are too many options that I don't need. On the other hand, I won't touch the Calendar application on the Mac with a barge poll. Even accidentally opening it makes me cringe.

Jun 7, 2017 7:31 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

It's going to be hard to say this without sounding like an arrogant jerk, and I apologize in advance because that's not my intent but ... yes they're functional if you don't make a lot of demands on them. If you want a really functional phone for business as opposed to music, movies, Snapchat, etc., then yes, go shopping for third party apps to take up memory, cost money, and reduce the seamlessness of the phone. My ancient Motorola admittedly wasn't as versatile as an iPhone with third-party apps but what it did it did well without the need to resort to third party apps.

Jun 29, 2018 1:03 AM in response to Slarty Bartfast

Necro post reply. Still haven't fixed it. Man apple needs to step up their game. Can't even get a bug free calendar app lol so hilarious lol what a great company. Sarcasm intended. But yeah, you hit it spot on. If only they listened to their customers like I've always heard business are supposed to

Nov 3, 2012 4:09 AM in response to row of letters

I have been having this problem since discovering it in January. This is a program glitch and there is no permanent fix although someone suggested entering the alerts in reverse. Have not tested this yet. The problem has been reported to Apple's tech dept back in Feb/March. Don't understnad why they haven't fixed it yet. You can read others' comments about this glitch under "iPhone 4s Calendar alert issue": https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3475735?answerId=18344740022#18344740022

Oct 29, 2013 9:57 AM in response to row of letters

I have been dealing with this issue of alerts being reversed as well.

I like to set 2 alerts for every event also, and they constantly reverse.

I have also updated to IOS 7.0.3.


I found a short term fix but I agree this is really a bug in the IOS.

Go to the default alert times in Settings.

Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendar.

Scroll down to Default Alert Times.


I set Events to NONE

I also set All Day Events to NONE.


The problem seems to be resolvd for now, but not sure why this had to be done.

Feb 24, 2014 7:59 PM in response to row of letters

I have found what appears to be a resolution to this issue, when I add an event and I select the event time, the date time scroller opens up allowing me to select the time of the event.


The issue occurs when I leave this selector expanded and continue to set the event properties. When the time selector is still open and you select the alert times, it swaps the alerts every time. When you collapse the event time selectors before choosing the alert times, the alerts are not switched.


This bug appears to be an issue with the scrolling selector form item if there is more than one open it appears to error out.


If you don't know how to collapse the event time selector, once you have selected the time, click on the date/time that is in red text just above it and it will collapse the selector.


Hopefully this fixes the issue for others, and it is ridiculous that this has gone one for so long, not a good way to keep your customers Apple, my wife was so aggravated at this that she was about to cancel her iPhone.

Jun 9, 2015 1:18 PM in response to Ghost.Crow

I have this problem as well and had already tried all the suggestions

posted even before finding this page; NONE of these

"fixes" works on my iPhone 6. The bottom line, however, is that

regardless of whether Alert 1 and Alert 2 switch the

alert times you have designated, you still get 2 alerts at the

correct times so it doesn't really matter. It is just stupid and annoying

and should have been fixed by now.

calendar first and second alerts switch on their own

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