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Melkizadech's avatar
Melkizadech
Copper Contributor
Jan 21, 2021

To-do Task Reminders Not Always Working

I love using Microsoft To-Do to set up tasks and routines, but often the reminders do not always work. Example: I have a routine set to remind me to give my puppies their morning snack everyday at 6:...
AlanGlan's avatar
AlanGlan
Copper Contributor
Jul 15, 2021
I'm having the same issue, only on a new Android phone I purchased. I went through every single Android setting I can think of related to battery, background/background data, notifications themselves etc etc. It never happened until I switched to this new Android phone. If I add a task with a reminder, in Outlook on my PC, the reminder will go off in Outlook there, but not in Microsoft To Do on my new Android phone. The fix I've found so far? It's adding the tasks to Microsoft To Do directly, and on the Android phone itself. This seems to fire off reminders correctly on the phone, and Outlook reminders in Outlook on the PC as well. But I have to add the tasks in To Do *on the phone*. Adding them to To Do on the PC, or in the Office365 web site, doesn't help. Weird.
JFranz88's avatar
JFranz88
Copper Contributor
Jul 15, 2021
I've tried creating my reminders in To Do, directly on the iPhone / iOS. Again, completely unpredictable and mixed results. Sometimes I get reminder... sometimes not. Definitely less chance to get the subsequent reminders if it is a repeating To Do (e.g. daily or weekly). I've tried to completely delete the task(s) and recreate them in To Do, but still mixed results. What good are mixed results if you are trying to remind yourself to, for example, take your medicine at specific times each day? I've now had to abort and completely switch to a competing product. I'm seriously considering canceling my 365 subscription. The other "big" options out there have a bit less in features, but are essentially free and actually work.
  • AlanGlan's avatar
    AlanGlan
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 15, 2021

    JFranz88 I understand, completely.  Can I ask you what you ended up considering and what you used?  I don't think the fix I listed works; I am getting random notifications on my new Android phone.  I think it must be related to Android, as on my old Android phone it worked perfectly.  But then again, you said you're having this issue on your iPhone, so maybe that's not correct either.  Just so incredibly frustrating.  To Do is part of the Office365 suite, and yet it doesn't work.  It seems Microsoft just abandoned task management development, several years ago.  It's awful.  

    • JFranz88's avatar
      JFranz88
      Copper Contributor
      Jul 16, 2021
      I switched to google tasks. However, I never miss a reminder with G Tasks. It works well with iOS notifications. If I accidentally "dismiss" a notification, it doesn't send my tasks into an unrecoverable tailspin. It simply picks up with the next scheduled reminder of that task. If I go into the G Tasks app itself and mark a number of tasks as completed, that is also reflected on my main notification screen - they just stay in sync, period.
      I do prefer To Do's integrated My Day and Planned views - Google Tasks does not seem to have this (I need to look at each list individually which is annoying). I would also prefer the desktop application (outlook) integration... if only it worked.
      But, bottom line, I'll choose notifications, synchronization, and reliability over the other supposed bells and whistles. Again I'll ask myself, why am I paying for 365?
      • ssdshanky's avatar
        ssdshanky
        Copper Contributor
        Oct 26, 2021
        Thanks!! Since Chrome is running in the background most of the time anyway I'll give G Tasks a try.
    • Melkizadech's avatar
      Melkizadech
      Copper Contributor
      Jul 16, 2021

      AlanGlan I still have not found an answer on how to correct it, but I'm glad to know that I am not the only one experiencing this issue. I have started using Samsung Reminders and so far it works like it is supposed to. I like To-Do better, but not if I can't rely on my reminders working.

       

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