Reminders App - Can't set Due Date

[higgalls]

Hey,

I upgraded to Mountain Lion today, and firstly I must say that I hate the Reminders app. I liked having everything for my day all in the one app (iCal), but never mind.

Anyway, I am having a big issue with Reminders, and I hope it is just something stupid I am doing wrong.

Basically, when I create a new reminder in the app, I set the name, and then I go to edit it and I cannot find ANY way to set a due date for the reminder. I can set an alarm but not a due date without an alarm.

I notice that the reminders I had previously had before I upgraded to Mountain Lion still have their due dates set and being shown, but I cannot do it for new reminders.

Am I missing something, or are Apple really trying to stop us from setting due dates for Reminders (or what used to be called To-Do's)? To this date, you still can't set a due date on a reminder created in iOS either.

It is just stupid.

 

[VTECaddict]

Yep noticed the same thing.

 

[higgalls]

Yep noticed the same thing.

It sucks. The app is now almost useless as keeping track of things that need to be done for me.

Another weird thing I noticed (I know its a bit off topic), is that it is my brothers birthday tomorrow, and when i look at iCal, it shows his 27th bday as today, and his 28th bday as tomorrow. Both calendar items are referencing the Birthdays calendar formed automatically from the contact card, and there are no mistakes there in the contact card in the Address book.

 

[Weaselboy]

I had not noticed this until I saw your thread. I have some tasks that got imported from iCal (Lion) and in Reminders those items DO have due dates that came over, so the data field is supported.

I tinkered around adding some test items and confirmed your finding that there is no way to add a due date in the Reminders app itself.

What I did find works is adding the Reminder item from another helper app like QuickCal or Fantastical. Using either of these tools does add a due date. Here is my test item.

This is the most lame task management app ever. There is not even a way to sort by due date.

I am just accessing tasks in Fantastical and never even use the Reminders app. Reminders app is just the data store/sync source for me.

 

[higgalls]

I had not noticed this until I saw your thread. I have some tasks that got imported from iCal (Lion) and in Reminders those items DO have due dates that came over, so the data field is supported.

I tinkered around adding some test items and confirmed your finding that there is no way to add a due date in the Reminders app itself.

What I did find works is adding the Reminder item from another helper app like QuickCal or Fantastical. Using either of these tools does add a due date. Here is my test item.

Image

This is the most lame task management app ever. There is not even a way to sort by due date.

Yep - It is similar to what they did with the reminders app for iOS though - the field is definitely supported, but Apple seemed to stop it from working on their end for new tasks. It makes me think they are trying to force everyone to change the way they think about the Reminders app, to now make it less useful.

 

[Gemütlichkeit]

I'm no sure I understand what you mean. I create a reminder then set "Remind me On a day"

To me that's basically a due date right?

 

[higgalls]

I'm no sure I understand what you mean. I create a reminder then set "Remind me On a day"

To me that's basically a due date right?

Nope - that is where you are wrong. Remind me simply means it sets an alarm for you to do something. You used to be able to set a due date, which was separate to the "remind me" alarms.

The good thing about it was that when you saw the list of tasks, you could see what dates things were due, and they were then sorted by date. If you simply set alarms using the "Remind Me" function, then you can't see squat, and can't sort by the alarm.

Hope that clarifies it a bit - it is quite a big difference.

 

[Weaselboy]

Yep - It is similar to what they did with the reminders app for iOS though - the field is definitely supported, but Apple seemed to stop it from working on their end for new tasks. It makes me think they are trying to force everyone to change the way they think about the Reminders app, to now make it less useful.

Yep.. the iOS app sucks too. I have been using BusyToDo on iOS. Simple tasks app and it syncs to Reminders.

 

[sigbiz]

Another stupidity - the reminder periods

I have some tasks I need to do quarterly. I cannot set this - you can have 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month or 1 year. It would have been the easiest programming in the world to have 1 dial for numbers and 1 for days/week/months/years.

The due date thing is very annoying. Most of all I don't understand what the logic is in putting out an incomplete app. Surely the logic they apply to the hardware should be used - do it right or do not do it all.

I use the Producteev free version - and I guess I will continue to have to. Its not perfect but it is very flexible.

 

[hafr]

Reminders is the bastard child of Notes and Calendar. If you don't add a date, it's like a stripped down version of Notes. If you add a date, it's like a stripped down version of Calendar.

Either remove it and add the possibility to make selected Notes visible in the notifications centre, or to go back to the way it worked in Lion.

 

[haravikk]

I've found the removal from iCal to be annoying; I can kind of understand the reasoning, and there could be advantages to separating them out, but not in its current form at all.

I'd much rather see Reminders as its own app, but still be able to see and manage them from iCal as well. Or give us the option to dock apps together into hybrid apps, that'd be massively over-engineered, but awesome

 

[rorschach]

Create a new reminder and then drag it onto a date on the mini calendar in the bottom left. That will set a due date.

Then if you show the info popover you can edit the date and time manually.

Or use AppleScript and do something like:

tell application "Reminders"
	set duedate to (current date) + (2 * days)
	make new reminder with properties {name:"Test", due date:duedate}
end tell

 

[Weaselboy]

Create a new reminder and then drag it onto a date on the mini calendar in the bottom left. That will set a due date.

Nice find!

 

[hafr]

Create a new reminder and then drag it onto a date on the mini calendar in the bottom left. That will set a due date.

Image

Then if you show the info popover you can edit the date and time manually.

Or use AppleScript and do something like:

tell application "Reminders"
	set duedate to (current date) + (2 * days)
	make new reminder with properties {name:"Test", due date:duedate}
end tell

It seems to do same thing as just ticking "remind me on a day", only a different way of doing it. At least I see no difference in either Reminders or Fantastical depending on which way I do it...

 

[VTECaddict]

Create a new reminder and then drag it onto a date on the mini calendar in the bottom left. That will set a due date.

Image

Then if you show the info popover you can edit the date and time manually.

Or use AppleScript and do something like:

tell application "Reminders"
	set duedate to (current date) + (2 * days)
	make new reminder with properties {name:"Test", due date:duedate}
end tell

drag and drop not working for me.

 

[Ledgem]

Is "remind me on a day" really so different from the due date? They're separate fields, but you can still see the date on the reminder.

Not asking a rhetorical question - I used the due date feature in iCal fairly heavily to prioritize things. As long as I can see a set date on items, it seems like it should work well enough.

My only complaint (that I'll write in to Apple about) is that there's no overall list and/or lists do not show how many tasks are remaining on each one. I currently have seven lists, and while I can probably cut it down, I hate to think that I'd have to go through each one to see if there's anything left to do on them. I mean, that's kind of the point of the application - you write things down to remind you to do them. Doesn't do much good if you have to remember that you have stuff sitting on the lists to be done!

 

[Weaselboy]

Is "remind me on a day" really so different from the due date? They're separate fields, but you can still see the date on the reminder.

From tinkering around a bit, it appears they both will show red as past due in Reminders, but a "remind me" results in a popup notification and a "due date" does not. I don't really want alarms and popups, I just want a list with a due date.

 

[Ledgem]

From tinkering around a bit, it appears they both will show red as past due in Reminders, but a "remind me" results in a popup notification and a "due date" does not. I don't really want alarms and popups, I just want a list with a due date.

I don't care for alarms and popups, either. But hey, looking on the bright side... that's all the more incentive to get things done before the due date

 

[Weaselboy]

I don't care for alarms and popups, either. But hey, looking on the bright side... that's all the more incentive to get things done before the due date

Nah... I just keep everything on a list, then shuffle it around every couple days to make me feel like I am getting things done.

 

[2square]

i've just happened on this thread out of curiosity, it wasn't something i noticed before.

upon looking, it seems reminders creates and sets a 'due date' field once the time and date of the task set in 'remind me' has passed.

why exactly, i don't know...

 

[hafr]

From tinkering around a bit, it appears they both will show red as past due in Reminders, but a "remind me" results in a popup notification and a "due date" does not. I don't really want alarms and popups, I just want a list with a due date.

The drag and drop-way of doing it that was explained earlier gives me an alarm though, just as ticking "remind me on a day" does.

 

[Weaselboy]

i've just happened on this thread out of curiosity, it wasn't something i noticed before.

upon looking, it seems reminders creates and sets a 'due date' field once the time and date of the task set in 'remind me' has passed.

why exactly, i don't know...

That is interesting. So if you set a reminder and it passes, it changes the panel to show a due date like in my screen cap?

The drag and drop-way of doing it that was explained earlier gives me an alarm though, just as ticking "remind me on a day" does.

Ah... well that does not help then I guess. I'm still just using Quickcal to Fantastical to create events with due dates as a workaround.

 

[2square]

That is interesting. So if you set a reminder and it passes, it changes the panel to show a due date like in my screen cap?

yes, somewhat.

though on setting a test task, it's seems sporadic, i don't quite understand the full criteria of when it creates a due date field.

setting a repeat or end date doesn't seem to change anything with regard to the due date appearing, i've several tasks with remind me times passed, some display the due date, some don't.

on unticking the due date on a task, the repeat and end fields disappear, only to reappear if you tick the due date box.

if you leave the due date unticked, and then untick the remind me, then retick it, the repeat option reappears, with the due date ticking itself.

then, if you untick the due date, it'll disappear completely, to be left with the original remind me and repeat options.

this is looking like a bug.

 

[rorschach]

It seems to do same thing as just ticking "remind me on a day", only a different way of doing it. At least I see no difference in either Reminders or Fantastical depending on which way I do it...

Ah, you're right.

Well that Applescript should work. I agree with others that I think it's a bug. The support is definitely there.

 

[higgalls]

Ah, you're right.

Well that Applescript should work. I agree with others that I think it's a bug. The support is definitely there.

But is it really a bug? The same 'bug' exists on iOS 5, and has never been fixed. Try creating a Reminder on iOS 5, and then set a due date - you can't. It will show due dates that have already been set elsewhere though.

If they haven't fixed it in all the iOS 5 updates they have done, do you think they will fix it in Mountain Lion?? I hope so... I truly do, but I am doubtful.