How can I get my reminders to make a sound or vibrate?

Ok. Maybe I’m reading the question wrong or i missed the previous solution but if you want to leave a reminder/notification that has a sound alert...

settings/notifications/reminders

You see the Allow Notifications? Click it ON

Right below that you see the word “Sounds” with a ”>” beside it ........click that “>”

Choose a sound that you want to use...Ring tones are generally louder and more persistent than those on the Sound list. I use Sencha from ringtones.

Call up Siri to test....

“remind me in one minute to jump up and down”.

You might want to try one of the dedicated medicine reminder apps. For taking more than one or two regular medications, I've found them to work much better than reminders. The one I like right now is called "Round".

I use Reminders with an iPad under iOS 10 to remind me to take medication, so it is important to me. However, sometimes it simply stops giving sound alerts: it can go days, even a couple of weeks beeping nicely each time I must take a tablet, and then just not make any more sound, even though the event is shown in the Reminders list and the Reminders iicon sports a red alert badge.

Sometimes editing the event will reactvate the sound, yet at other times the event has to be deleted and reentered.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having issues. I use a number of repeating reminders, as well as repeating alarms on my iPhone, which also translate to my watch. I use an iPad Mini as well, but if I am using it when the reminder comes up, and I have Reminders synced with iCloud, they have always worked. The repeating alarms use days of the week to repeat, and some are just a couple of days a week. You may wish to remove the repeating reminders and add them back again. Since it seems the behavior is intermittent, it may be difficult to diagnose an actual cause.

Setting up a reminder in Reminders with sound is no problem. The thing is that after an indeterminate number of good reminders, Reminders then decides not to make the sound any more. Sometimes, editing the reminder will reactivate the sound, at least temporarily, but at other times the only remedy is to delete the reminder and to re-enter it as a new reminder with sound.

It's all a bit hit and miss and can't be relied upon.

I've had the same problem for years. If I REALLY want to be reminded of something, I have to use the alarm app in the control center. I've often wondered why the reminders app never makes a noise but just puts a text reminder on the screen that only reminds me when I happen to look at my phone. From reading this thread, I see that Reminders is SUPPOSED to make noise and does for some people, so what we have here is a long-standing bug that needs to be addressed. Believe me, I have Settings >> Notifications >> Reminders properly configured. I'm running the latest iOS on an iPhone 7 Plus.

So it's not the case that maybe the iPhone isn't the device for some of us because we have this wild, unreasonable urge that Reminders actually REMIND us with actual sound. Instead, this is apparently a bug that has persisted for YEARS. I know of two significant bugs in Excel that have existed since at least 2003. That blows my mind, BUT I definitely expect more from Apple. Apple is supposed to "just work". This sort of long-standing bug is an unacceptable, shameful embarrassment to Apple.

Fix it. Now.

Derve777 wrote:

Same issue here. Maybe people who never used android don't have a point of reference, but most of the convenience I enjoyed on my Galaxy is either non existent in apple or you have to find an inferior work around. I have experienced the same issue with the Reminders.

I constantly use Reminders and have them set to notify me at certain times and locations. Setting a time and configuring Reminders in Notifications always provides me with a screen and sound notification, as well as a vibration as configured. Not sure what your issue may be. As Idris said, Seems your desire for customization of your OS is important to you, and Apple's iOS does not provide that. It is the security of the closed Apple system that many prefer. Good luck with your choices, and hope you find what works best for you. At some point it is possible the iPhone will no longer provide me with what I need, but until that time, I appreciate the security and its ability to support my needs for home, and the integration with my Apple watch. I especially appreciate what I can do with it for my work.

I am having the same problem. The only reminders that actually come through are the ones I set on my email calendar. No new ones come through at all. Whether I set them using Siri or manually type them in. I am not sure what else to do.

Stephen McNutt wrote:

Fix it. Now.

No one here can do that. Submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

The suggestions that perhaps an iPhone wasn't the appropriate tool were directed at people who posted a laundry list of why they hated their iPhones.

As Reminders work fine for most people, it's going to be very challenging to figure out what each person's problems is. And, it's more than likely that not everyone in the thread has the same root cause.

I am in the same boat, was an Android user then switched to iPhone. I did the “tasks” in my calendar in my Android Samsung and it used to make a sound so it would notify me! But my iPhone is not making the sound, even though the sound is on. I checked in settings>notifications>reminders and I checked in settings>Sounds&Haptics>Reminders but it still only vibrates.

Yes, very difficult to diagnose—I've tried for several months with no success. And, indeed, the only "solution" seems to be to delete and reenter the troublesome events.

Thanks for the reply, anyway.

Yes, that looks like the only real solution at the moment. I can't find Round in the Apple Store (but I'm in Spain, so that might be why), but am trying another called Pill Monitor.