Missing Subtasks in Reminders: Seeking Solutions

[purdnost]

Upon noticing the absence of subtasks in several of my Reminders sublists recently, I observed that this issue seemed arbitrary, occurring alongside fully intact sublists. Since these are recurring reminders, I typically only review them when prompted, making it challenging to pinpoint when the subtasks vanished. Reflecting on recent changes, I recall updating to iOS 17.3, toggling Advanced Data Protection off and on while troubleshooting an iCloud.com problem, and syncing my reminders to my MacBook Pro.

I was intrigued to find Advanced Data Recovery tools on iCloud.com, which offered saved instances of Reminders and Calendar that could be restored. However, these instances only extended back about a week. Although I attempted to restore the oldest instance, there was no change in my Reminders app. Subsequent attempts with the second oldest instance yielded the same result. After trying four or five instances, with only a few remaining, I've concluded that this approach is futile. Moreover, each restoration attempt replaces the old backup with a new one, diminishing my options.

Given the importance of these missing reminders, I'm left wondering if there are any alternative solutions to recover them. Recalling them all manually will be time-consuming and prone to errors. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[benguild]

This bug from my experience is due to having too many iCloud devices syncing from different states… some of which are staler than others. I don't know what causes it actually, but you may have fewer problems by disabling Reminders sync on most of your devices if it's not needed.

The only workaround I've found to recover the data is not for the faint of heart— it's using a SQLite DB reader to go into the SQLite files buried deep within the Library and to find the "orphaned" tasks.

The good news is that, if you can figure that out (proceed at your own risk, and most likely open and use a COPY of the DB file not the actual one) … your data should still be there if it's the same bug I ran into.

 

[purdnost]

This bug from my experience is due to having too many iCloud devices syncing from different states… some of which are staler than others. I don't know what causes it actually, but you may have fewer problems by disabling Reminders sync on most of your devices if it's not needed.

The only workaround I've found to recover the data is not for the faint of heart— it's using a SQLite DB reader to go into the SQLite files buried deep within the Library and to find the "orphaned" tasks.

The good news is that, if you can figure that out (proceed at your own risk, and most likely open and use a COPY of the DB file not the actual one) … your data should still be there if it's the same bug I ran into.

Thanks for your response. I have iCloud sync enabled for Reminders on my iPhone and iPad, and recently on my MacBook Pro, but only for a few minutes.

I actually have SQL experience, so I would be interested in taking a stab at what you suggested. Would you be able to provide the steps?

I spent last evening migrating to Todoist for recurring reminders and still not settled on whether I want to use Simplenote or Obsidian for my “scratch pad.”

 

[NoBoMac]

Wild guess here as I don't use subtasks in Reminders...

Deleting subtasks vs marking as completed, be it intentional or accidental? I'm guessing subtasks work same as "regular" Reminders.

"Basic" recurring Reminders have one instance in the database. When you mark a Reminder as completed, a clone of the master is made and left behind while the master Reminder moves on to the next occurrence date. If you swipe/delete a recurring Reminder, it's gone. So by extension, can see subtasks working similarly.

 

[benguild]

Thanks for your response. I have iCloud sync enabled for Reminders on my iPhone and iPad, and recently on my MacBook Pro, but only for a few minutes.

I actually have SQL experience, so I would be interested in taking a stab at what you suggested. Would you be able to provide the steps?

I spent last evening migrating to Todoist for recurring reminders and still not settled on whether I want to use Simplenote or Obsidian for my “scratch pad.”

The steps are mainly just to find the SQLite file, which is buried somewhere in the Library (Google it), make a copy somewhere else temporarily, and browse that temporary copy to recover your missing data if it's there. YMMV and proceed at your own risk, but as long as you're browsing a copy not the original you probably won't cause any issue.

 

[purdnost]

The steps are mainly just to find the SQLite file, which is buried somewhere in the Library (Google it), make a copy somewhere else temporarily, and browse that temporary copy to recover your missing data if it's there. YMMV and proceed at your own risk, but as long as you're browsing a copy not the original you probably won't cause any issue.

I was able to get it figured out and import all my bookmarks. I was signed out of iCloud on my laptop and needed to sign back in for that files to re-populate. Was pleasantly surprised to find every reminder I ever created, including deleted.

 

[jagooch]

I'm glad that you found them! Another reason subtasks "disappear" is because they do not inherit the scheduled of the parent task. I found this out the hard way when I noticed a recurring parent task had no subtasks, when I knew that I had created them.

The work around is to assign a schedule to each subtask and the parent task.

Yes, this is lame in my opinion. It convinced me to go find another task manager that had a better subtask implementation.