Reminders not syncing properly with iCloud and iOS 8

From my experience, the problem is the iCloud doesn't sync correctly when changes are made on the iPhone. The iCloud seems to be programmed to take any changes from the iPhone and treat them as new rather than just updates to an existing item. I have this problem with the Reminders all the time. For example, if I already have a reminder set up and synced, and I make a change on the iPhone, e.g., I set the reminder to complete, I have to wait, select Show Completed, wait, select Hide Completed, and a new, duplicate reminder shows up, so now, I have one reminder, which shows as not completed, and another one as completed. To me, this means the syncing process is not programmed correctly as if the change made on the iPhone caused the item on the iPhone to get a new id and broke the connection with the item on the iCloud. Another possibility is on the iCloud side, it is ignoring the time stamp of the updated item and resulting in two unique items, one on each device. The way I fix this is after doing the above, which results in two items on my iPhone, the first marked as completed and the second marked as incomplete, which is now the one synced with the iCloud, I change the new item again, i.e., mark it as completed, and delete the original item, i.e., the one already previously marked as completed. Then, everything is up-to-date and a new reminder shows up as incomplete for the next month like it should have done in the first place. It is unlikely anything suggested here or elsewhere is going to fix this problem because it is an issue of bad programming, and only the programmers can fix it.

Hi mrbofus,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

From your post I see that you're experiencing issues with iCloud syncing your reminders on your iPhone. To troubleshoot this issue I'd like you to please follow the steps below.

General troubleshooting

• Check the System Status page to make sure there aren't any issues affecting iCloud Bookmarks or Reading List.
• Make sure you've fully enabled iCloud Calendar & Reminders for the client you are using. For more setup and troubleshooting information, see the additional steps for iOS, OS X, Windows, and iCloud.com in this article.
• Check iCloud Help (help.apple.com/icloud) for possible information about the issue you are experiencing.
• Check your settings and preferences, because something may not be set up correctly. For example, having incorrect date and time settings can cause issues that are easily resolved by entering the appropriate settings.

Troubleshooting Reminders on iOS devices

If you're having trouble with Reminders on an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch) and iCloud Calendar, try each of these steps, testing after each to see if the issue is resolved:

• Make sure that you're using iOS 5 or later. If you meet these requirements but your issue continues, try installing the latest version of iOS supported by your device.
• Make sure that your iCloud account is configured correctly in Settings. For instructions on setting up iOS for iCloud, see iCloud Setup. Reminders is a separate data type on iOS. It must be enabled via the Reminders setting in Settings > iCloud.
• Make sure your iOS device is online. Attempt to view www.apple.com. If you can't connect to the Internet, your iCloud Reminders will not update in Calendar. Learn about troubleshooting your Internet connection.
• Open a secure website to test if ports 80 and 443 are accessible. Reminders requires port 443 access to iCloud to push and fetch updates to and from the iCloud Calendar and Reminders servers.
• If recent changes don't appear in Reminders, try forcing a refresh. In iOS 7:
  • Open the Calendar app.
  • Tap the Calendars tab to load the Calendars list.
  • Pull down on the list to refresh both calendar events and reminders.
• If recent changes simply don't appear in Reminders, try forcing a refresh. In iOS 6 and 5:
  • Open the Calendar app.
  • Tap Calendars in the top-left corner to load the Calendars list.
  • Tap the Refresh button in the lower-left of the Calendars list.
• Quit and restart the Reminders app on your iOS device.
  1. In iOS 7, press the Home button.
  2. Press the Home button twice to see preview screens of the apps you have open.
  3. Find the Reminders preview screen and swipe it up and out of preview to quit the application.
• Quit and restart the Reminders app on your iOS device.
  1. In iOS 6 and iOS 5, press the Home button.
  2. Press the Home button twice to open the multitasking menu.
  3. Press and hold the Reminders icon until it jiggles.
  4. Tap the red circle in the upper-left corner to quit the app.
  5. Press the Home button to get back to your Home screen. Wait a minute before reopening the Calendar app.
• Change the Sync settings for your calendars:
  1. In iOS 7 and iOS 6, tap Settings > Reminders.
  2. In iOS 5, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, then scroll down to the bottom to the Reminders section.
  3. Tap Sync. If Sync is set to All Reminders, set it to a specific duration, such as Reminders 1 Month Back. If it's already set to a specific duration, set it to All Reminders.
  4. Wait several minutes and refresh again, as described previously. Then open the Reminders app again.
• Turn iCloud Reminders off and back on:
  1. Tap Settings > iCloud.
  2. Turn off Reminders. Choose to delete data only if your reminders exist at icloud.com/#reminders and on one or more of your devices. Otherwise, choose Keep Data.
  3. Wait a few minutes before turning Reminders back on.
• Restart your iOS device: Hold down the Sleep/Wake button until the red slider appears, then drag the slider. After the device turns off, turn it back on by pressing the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. This may sound simple, but it reinitializes your network and application settings and can frequently resolve issues.

iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Reminders and Tasks

Cheers,

Alex H.

I have exactly the same issue. Reminders do not sync to my iPhone. I have also tried all the troubleshooting steps above. Nothing helps.

I am so tired of this iCloud unreliability. Some thing sync. Others don't. You never know if you content will be there or not, and you have no visibility into what the issue might be.

iPhone 4S - iOS 8.0.2

iPad Air - iOS 8.0.2

MacBook Pro 2013 - OS X 10.10

Exact same problem on iPhone 6 plus iOS 8.1... Nothing worked!

I am experiencing a similar problem of the Apple's stock Reminder app not syncing properly between iOS 8.1 iPad 3 and iOS 8.1 iPhone 5s. At this point, I do all my Reminders entries on the iPhone 5s, then I refresh the iPad 3 stock Calendar app to complete the Reminders sync on the device.

I managed to make it work: I completely deleted my iCloud account on the iPhone and re-add it. After like 10 min of fetching all my data, everything worked as intended 🙂

Try logging into iCloud from your computer, not phone, make sure reminders is on.

Reset iPhone holding home and power buttons together.

Turn on Reminders in iCloud in phone settings.

This worked for me after countless tries. Good luck.

I have a similar problem with Outlook on my PC. Running iOS8.1 on iP6+. Has always worked faultlessly but now the syncing is intermittent and unreliable. If I uncheck and delete the calendar from my default email on the iP6+ and then turn it on again it syncs properly and seems to work normally for a while... then without warning entries fail to sync both ways. If it's not 100% reliable it's not worth having.

I have the same issue. The only thing that worked so far was doing what Bibyfok did... But I don't want to have to do that all the time! And I agree with williamus "If it's not 100% reliable it's not worth having." And to add, if it's not 100% reliable then it's a problem that needs to be fixed!!!

Had the exact same problem. This made it work like a charm. Thanks

Awesome this worked for now.

Signing out of iCloud worked for me for about 3 days and now it's not syncing again..

I'm really tired of thi Apple bullsh1t how fking hard is it to fix this problem? this is really p1ssing me off now

Ok here is what I FINALLY did to get my reminders to sync! On my Mac I went to reminders and there are two options - On my Mac or iCloud - I then created my reminders in the iCloud on the Reminders Tab - as soon as I did that they appeared immediately on my phone. If I want to create a new list then in order to see it on the iPhone when I open up the reminders it defaults to the Reminders tab - if you click Reminders - it will open up the other tabs including your new list! I hope this works for you guys! 😀