The reminder will not appear because the item is in a folder that doesn’t support reminders. .....

[Scott Cox]

I just archived my 2017 emails into an archive file as I do each year without incident.  I just realized that my calendar is no longer syncing with my iPhone.  The calendars match up until yesterday.  If I add an appointment on either Outlook 2016 or my iPhone, it no longer appears in the other location.  The selected calendar under "My Calendars" is still "Calendar - iCloud" as it as always been.

I also get an error I’ve never seen before:

“The reminder for “xxxx” will not appear because the item is in a folder that doesn’t support reminders.  Is this ok?"  If I add the appointment anyway, it doesn't appear on this calendar that I see in Outlook.  It's going somewhere else.

I have no idea what this error means nor why the iCloud snyc is failing.  Any help would be appreciated.

I just updated office to the current version using OFFCAT.

I have Win10, Office 2016.

[#2]

One suggestion I found on the web is this:

     Close Outlook.

    Open the iCloud applet, either in the Notification area or Control panel and sign out.

    Sign back in.

But, if I try to log out of iCloud, the message reads

 “If you turn off iCloud Drive, all documents in iCloud will be deleted from this PC.”

This seems pretty dire.  I'm not sure what this will do to my email (this link is working fine) and contacts (which is also fine).

Thoughts?

[#3]

>> “The reminder for “xxxx” will not appear because the item is in a folder that doesn’t support reminders.  Is this ok?" 

This means the data file doesn't support reminders. I'm assuming its referring to the archive file.  If the archive is staying in the profile, right click on the top level (the archive name) and choose properties. The option to enable the data file for reminders is there.

On the icloud issue - if they aren't syncing to the icloud folder, verify the icloud addin is enabled in file, options, addins. If so, sign out of the icloud and sign back in.  When asked to save a local copy as you sign out, say no. When you sign in, you'll probably want to choose the option to choose which folders to sync and untick the archive calendar. 

[#4]

Thanks so much for answering my question.  

There is no option under Properties for all of my archive.pst files to enable reminders.  From what I remember from my research, this went away in Outlook 2016.  At least, this option not there in my primary archive.pst file.   Why is that?

However, in three of my Archive.PST files, I do see the option to “Display reminders and tasks from this folder in the To-Do Bar.”  I'm not sure what that means.  I want it to sent me an appt. alert in an Outlook window and on my iPhone.  Is this the option you're referring to?

Anyway, I checked this for all the files where I could, restarted Outlook, and tried to add an appointment with a reminder.  I still get the same error message.  The only calendar I have selected for display is the iCloud one, but the appointments are being added to the one labeled "Calendar – Archive".  I'm not sure why.   Can you explain this for me?

iCloud issue: Are these the steps you recommend?

1.    Close Outlook
2.    Open the iCloud app.
3.    Log out.
4.    Immediately log back in.
5.    Which folders do I want to sync?  I just want to sync my current calendars and current email and contacts.  How do I tell which file that is? Can it be multiple files?  All of my 5 archive files are pst.  My current folder (labeled with my email address) is an .OST file.  Is that the right one to sync?


Thanks again for helping me out!

Scott

[#5]

>> However, in three of my Archive.PST files, I do see the option to “Display reminders and tasks from this folder in the To-Do Bar.”  I'm not sure what that means.  I want it to sent me an appt. alert in an Outlook window and on my iPhone.  Is this the option you're referring to?

Yes, that is what i'm referring to... but that setting will only trigger reminders in Outlook (for events in the calendars in those data files), not in iCloud. The event needs to be in the icloud calendar to trigger a reminder on your iOS devices. 

>> the appointments are being added to the one labeled "Calendar – Archive".  

Sounds like the data file that calendar is in is set as the default data file for your profile.  If its not the default data file, then you are viewing this data file when you create the events. 

if you want events to sync to icloud, you need to create them in the icloud calendar folder. If you create an event while viewing a mail folder, the event goes into either the calendar in that data file or the default data file calendar (if the data file doesn't have a calendar folder).  It doesn't matter what calendar is visible in the calendar navigation pane - unless you go into the calendar and create the event there, then it goes into the selected calendar. 

Those are the steps to follow to fix sync issues. 

>> I just want to sync my current calendars and current email and contacts.  How do I tell which file that is? Can it be multiple files?  All of my 5 archive files are pst.  My current folder (labeled with my email address) is an .OST file.  Is that the right one to sync?

You'll probably want to sync the ost file (but it should have 0 to few events in it, since you previously configured icloud) - the icloud dialog will list all calendar, contact, and task folders it finds in the profile. But... if you have a copy of the icloud items in outlook and choose to sync all, you'll end up with duplicates (or more).

As an FYI, if the ost file belongs to an imap account, use icloud. If it belongs to Outlook.com or Exchange, don't use icloud with it - those accounts can sync with the phone directly and the icloud will suck everything out of the mailbox. 

[#6]

"If you want events to sync to icloud, you need to create them in the icloud calendar folder. If you create an event while viewing a mail folder, the event goes into either the calendar in that data file or the default data file calendar (if the data file doesn't have a calendar folder).  It doesn't matter what calendar is visible in the calendar navigation pane - unless you go into the calendar and create the event there, then it goes into the selected calendar. "

I'm viewing the icloud calendar folder when i create the event in that very calendar that gives the error message and now doesn't sync with icloud.  The selected calendar under "My Calendars" is "Calendar-iCloud."  The "Calendar-Archives" is listed, but not selected.  What am I doing wrong? Isn't the selected calendar the default or do i choose that "default" somewhere else? And do I need to sign off of the iCloud app and sign back on as I listed above?

FYI: I have a desktop version of Outlook.  So I only sync my email address labeled folder (the ost file) to get mail, contacts and appointments and avoid duplicates, right?

[#7]

Under my profiles, "Archives" is selected as my default.  Do I want to choose "iCloud" or "email name.net" (the .ost files) as my default?

Thanks again.

[#8]

Short version: I'd set the ost as default since you use icloud.

Long version: When you set an imap data file as default, it creates default calendar, contacts, tasks folders labeled 'this computer only'. If anything happens to the ost file, you lose anything in those folders. Typically, with icloud enabled, you shouldn't have much in those folders, but it depends on your habits... icloud doesn't scan the folders and move contents to the icloud after the initial setup. 

If your habit is to go to the icloud calendar, tasks, or contacts folder to create new items, then the risk of data loss is low and setting the ost to default will be fine.

If you typically use the new item button from the mail folders to create contacts, events, or tasks, you need to use the move to folder command to move them to icloud folders instead of save and close or move them to the icloud folder later. if you don't anything in the 'this computer only' folders will be lost if something happens to the data file. 

[#9]

I changed to the OST file as a default.  I can create an appointment in the calendar in front of me, but I still get the same error “The reminder for “xxxx” will not appear because the item is in a folder that doesn’t support reminders.  Is this ok?”  It also does not sync with my iPhone.

Outlook also added yet another calendar option under “My Calendars” called “Calendar (This computer only) – email@comcast.net.” 

I closed Outlook.  I then signed out of iCloud and back in.  All items seem to have copied back into Outlook.  I opened Outlook and I have selected Calendar – iCloud.  I can still create an appointment here but it still doesn’t sync with my phone and I get the same reminder error message.  Again, my default data file is file name@comcast.net.ost and not name@icloud.com.ost, in case i misunderstood you.

What did I do wrong? 

[#10]

Hello Diane,

Got time to help?

[#11 · Accepted solution]

Solved it. It was an Add-in issue. See here:

https://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/194051-Reminder-for-%93xxxx%94-will-not-appear-beca...

[#12]

April 11, 2018;

same problems for me, and the "best answer link" does NOT link to anything at this time.

I do need the answer.

Thank you

RAH

[#13]

Hi,

The link does not work. Can you please post solution or new link?

Thanks,

Cemil

[#14]

@Scott Cox The supplied link does not function. Please repeat your solution to this problem. We are many searching for an answer.

Thanks, Marko