Calendar/Reminder Notifications Late

Question

Calendar/Reminder Notifications Late

I have an issue on my MBP where calendar and reminder notifications don't show up at the proper time. I'm not quite sure when this started, but it is consistent and is especially bad on recurring events.

The problem occurs when the screensaver(*) has been manually activated via hot-corner and the screensaver is active at the time the event notification should have occurred. The notification fails to display until the time of the next notification for a calendar or reminder event that occurs when the screensaver is NOT active, then ALL notifications that have not been displayed due to the screensaver being active at the time of the notification all show up at once.

I have missed several events because of this. Often, the event showing up on my iPhone saves me, but if I have my phone muted, I miss the event. Needless to say, when the calendar is on my Mac only, and not an iCloud calendar, I always get the notification late!

Note:

(*) In the above, I explicitly reference "screensaver" but I have found that the problem also occurs if you (a) manually put the display to sleep via a hot corner; (b) manually start the screensaver via a hot corner; (c) manually put the computer to sleep via the Apple menu; (d) switch users via fast user switching. Bottom line: It appears that if the display is not active when a calendar or reminder event notification should occur, it never gets displayed until the time of the next event to display.

Relevant settings are:

Reminders: Alerts & Badge Icon are set; all other options are cleared

Calendar: Alerts & Badge Icon & Play Sound are set; all other options are cleared

DND: All clear except DND when mirroring (not mirroring when having issues)

Screen Saver: Sliding tiles, Start after 5 mins, Show with clock

Upper Left Hot Corner: Either, Start Screen Saver OR Put Display To Sleep

Security & Privacy: Require password 5 seconds after screen saver begins

macOS 10.12.6

Things I've tried:

Deleting reoccurring events and adding them back

Deleting calendar and recreating reoccurring events

Any thoughts? This is driving me nuts!

Thanks!

HU

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Nov 24, 2017 8:29 PM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

64,604 points

Nov 25, 2017 7:47 AM in response to Remarks by Hacker Uno

See these articles Set notifications for reminders - Apple Support

If the wrong date or time is displayed in some apps on your Mac - Apple Support

When the date and time format is set incorrectly, it might still look correct in the analog clock and calendar displayed in the Date & Time pane of System Preferences, but you might see the wrong date or time in places like these:

The Date Modified, Date Created, or Last Opened values of files displayed in the Finder
The dates of messages in Mail
Dates or times displayed in Calendar
Other apps that display dates or times.

Date and time formats are user account-specific, so one user account might see the correct date modified on a file, while another user on the same might see an incorrect date modified on the same file.

If you have changed date and time settings the impact will come on calendar , reminder and its notifications also .

Also in system preferences Date and time the box set date and time automatically must be checked ( correct country and continent must be set ) , in time zone the box set time zone automatically using current location must be checked , in security and privacy > Privacy > location and services > the box enable location services must be checked .

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2017 12:02 PM in response to tygb

Hi,

I have verified the time is correct -- and time and timezone settings are correct in the events.

This has been working correctly until rather recently, and most of the events are recurring events that have been on my calendar for literally years.

I am beginning to think that this may have began after a recent reboot. Before that, the last time I would have rebooted would have been the last macOS security update. In fact, uptime shows my MBP has been up about a month, so the more I think about it, I'm wondering if that is the cause. I am going to reboot to see if that fixes anything.

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Answer 3

Nov 28, 2017 10:22 AM in response to tygb

I have been through all the troubleshooting. I have deleted and recreated calendars. I have verified time is correct. I have rebooted and have all the latest macOS X patches installed. I have experimented with various notification settings. I have experimented with various energy settings.

The more experimenting I have done, the more certain I am as to the problem: If a notification alert occurs when the screensaver is active or the display is asleep, the alert does not get displayed until the next alert occurs, at which time all the non-displayed alerts are shown.

I am not certain what has triggered this problem, but it is completely reproducible.

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