Bugs in reminder app - iOS 7

Hmm. I think maybe I'm misunderstanding the process you're describing. Can you elaborate on the steps you took?

Sure thing!

1. First, sign in to icloud.com and confirm that all of your reminders exist there. If you're like me, you have to check 2 accounts because of another annoying thing that happened a few years ago, but that's for another forum discussion.

2. On your phone (or ipad), go to settings.

3. Then iCloud

4. About halfway down, you'll see reminders turned on. Turn them off. When you do, you'll have 3 choices: Keep on my iphone, delete from my iphone, or cancel.

5. Select "delete from my iphone".

6. Open reminders and confirm that they're gone, if you'd like. Don't freak out.

7. Reboot phone.

8. Go back to Setting, icloud and turn reminders back on. Make sure you see a message saying something like "turning reminders back on". After I rebooted my phone, this didn't happen right away and I had to turn reminders on and off a couple of times. Don't freak out.

9. Open reminders, and watch your reminders slowly pop back onto the screen. It takes several seconds, maybe longer if you have hundreds, but it's kind of fun to watch.

I hope it works for you! My phone did do one more weird thing yesterday after I tried it the first time, but I hadn't rebooted it. So I repeated the process along with the reboot and so far so good. I'm still on the fence, but about 95% convinced it worked. At least I've stopped shopping for 3rd party apps. Crossing fingers!

Thanks so much! So far, that does seem to have addressed the disappearing and duplication of tasks, which is a huge relief. Now if they can address the general unfriendliness of the new version I will be pleased as punch!

Sounds great! Does that trick change the layout of "Reminders" too ;-)

It's great there is a way of stopping that we all lose half our reminders ... unfortunately the app is still pretty unusable and has never been tested properly. Every first year programming student knows that useability and practical testing are very important steps in app development.

Apple has done a s*** job there!

I would suggest to anybody who uses reminders regularly not to update to iOS7!

- There is no way to add a reminder anywhere else but today or tomorrow.

- The app crashes (for me on iPhone 4) about 6 times per day

- Looking into the future needs endless scrolling for ever end ever and ever and ever and ever ... (same in the app store btw)

- The display jumps around wildly when times are changed in individual reminders (or crashes). Sometimes the list goes: "Today", "Tomorrow" , "Today", "Thursday" . Manual restart of the app is then needed on top of the 6 crashes.

- Switching on or off "show completed" can take 20 - 30 seconds while freezing the whole phone.

- Sometimes when opening the app it just opens the Reminders list - even it was left in the "Scheduled" list

- Moving to or adding in the future is just horrendously difficult (see below)!

- The lists display is now more prominent and important than the Reminders themselves.

- The design is not intuitive at all and switching between lists and days / weeks has become a nightmare.

Why is it so hard to make a simple app that displays tasks that can be checked off? It should just tie in with the calendars too!!!

Say you want to add a task in Reminders in 4 weeks but see first what day would be best. One has to scroll forever to get to 4 weeks ahead because the very practical mini calendar at the bottom of Reminders is gone. So you find the date. Then you have to scroll all the way back to be able to add something because Apple only thinks about today and tomorrow!!!!!!!. And because Reminders now is less reliable than a Windows 3.11 PC you have to scroll all the way back through 28 days to see if it actually worked!!!

Come on Apple - pull your finger out. this is a phone and minicomputer that should make people’s lives easier, be usable and (if possible) look good as well. Apple totally failed on all counts with Reminders and lots of other bits in iOS 7. With a constantly crashing iMac at home and seeing how Apple destructs their own brand I am certainly looking for alternatives now.

Not that Steve Jobs was god - but while he was part of Apple I always knew what the latest product or software version was. We always knew what the latest gadget is and why we should have and buy it. But now? No communication - no showing off visionary ideas - just another iPhone that pretty much does the same than the version before - actually with iOS 7 less than before.

Not impressed at all Apple

Extremely well said. It's like they've lost their guiding hand or something. I like the choice to get Jony Ive involved, but I don't think Jobs would have let this version of IOS7 (and this totally useless Reminders app–a major step down from IOS6) go out the door.

I agree, the app is a bit unfriendly now, but I'm so glad that the fix has addressed your other issues. Still hoping for a better update soon!

Never did think ios6 Reminders was all that great, though it did sync with Outlook and I was able to get by. ios7 Reminders was a disaster for me. I had avoided a Tasks app because it seemed to add yet another layer for something to go wrong with. I did look around and decided to start using Remember The Milk. Along with MilkSync I can sync my Outlook Tasks to the internet, and then to my phone. The Remember The Milk app is SO much more user friendly than the ios Reminders app. A benefit I didn't realize I'd get is being able to alter my tasks online, and have those changes reflected on my phone and my PC. Great for traveling, for example. It was a bit of a hassle getting my Reminders from iCloud to a separate folder on my PC, so that I could start syncing with Remember The Milk. Things seem to be working for me with the new app, which I'm liking more and more. Too bad the ios7 Reminders app is so crappy. The silver lining is that I've found something that makes my iPhone much more usable from a Tasks/Reminders standpoint. You do have to pay $25 a year for unlimited syncing. But think it's going to be well worth it.

hi mtxdoc

How did you get reminders into a folder on your PC? Is there a way to convert reminders so they are useable for another app?

This "Reminders" issue is driving me crazy. Instead of reminding me I am actually losing things because the app overwrites and deletes entries randomly.

It is so unbeleivable!

If you don't mind sharing if there is a trick not having to retype 100+ entries :-)

My reminders, came about as a result of the Outlook Task being migrated to the iPhone. In iOS6 they were actually called Tasks. I don't create them too offten from my mobile device, but it is from there that I use them the most. If I cannot find them when I need them, then they are useless. I keep certain data there that I need on the go. I love the iPhone so much, I have moved to a different device. If I have to transfer, translate, and relearn, I might as well go all the way

I'm sorry to report that the fix I detailed above did NOT fix the problem. It seemed to for a couple of days, but I've noticed it overwriting tasks several times since then. I've tried repeating the process, rebooting each time, but it seems to accomplish nothing. SO frustrating!

I wish this forum would let me edit the post above - I don't want people to see it and waste their time trying it.

Back to the drawing table. Maybe I'll try toodledo next... 😟

OK, I'm ready to give up on the Reminders app. It's getting worse, not better. I tried Remember the Milk, but it doesn't do notifications without paying for it. Anyone know of a free app that has all the features of Reminders, plus notifications? Toodledo costs $2, and I don't want to pay for something that ultimately may not work for me.

Wunderlist is free. Doesn't support Siri though, which is a deal breaker for me.

Yeah, I have the same problems with editing a reminder with longer notes on iPhone 4S & ios7. It's also broken on iPad too, in a different way. Scrolling doesn't work, the note snaps back to the top, so editing at the bottom on iPad is impossible.

Also, "Show Completed" acts stupid in Schedule view If I have two reminders due yesterday but not marked complete, they don't show until Show Completed is selected.

Also, if I try to edit the 2nd of those 2 longer reminders, scrolling is again busted, I can't get to the little "circle-I" to edit. I have to swipe left to edit.

I thought the ios6 reminders app was pretty good. All in all, I'd say ios7 is one step forward, two steps back. It seems to be the "Windows Vista" of ios. Many random gratuitous changes that broke lots of working software for no good reason.

Unhappy.

Just installed iOS 7.0.3.

Although not mentioned in the release notes, this update fixes the two Reminder problems I mentioned above. After searching for a task, selecting the task now allows you to edit it, though it requires more screen tapping than it did in iOS 6 and is much slower to respond than iOS 6. Selecting a task from the daily pulldown screen also allows edits to the Reminder selected.

The other problems with editing the notes area have not been fixed. In other words, at least you can now search for and read the information in the notes area of Reminders, but you still cannot edit it - at least for notes that are longer than one screen.

Downloading the ios 7.0.3 update has not resolved the problems (nor was it expected to, as the update notes didn't mention the reminders app at all). If you're unhappy, make sure you let Apple know. Here's a link to their feedback form: http://www.apple.com/feedback/. I agree with the comments above. This new reminders app is completely unreliable and at this point, unusable. I have lost tons of reminders and the app shuts down constantly. It's awful.

Someone asked for some alternatives. I have tried a bunch of 3rd party apps and the only thing that I've found that functions in a remotely similar way has been the app entitled RE.minders. It let's you set alarms and check things off once you've completed them. You can even set reminders to bug you every single minute if you want (a feature that even the old reminders app didn't offer). I don't love the design of RE.minders, but it does what I need it to do. Has anyone else found anything that functions similarly to the ios6 app?