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Reminders app broken on Mac mini M2

I recently bought an Apple Mac mini M2, and it's working great except for the Reminders app. I used the Migration Assistant from a Time Machine backup on a portable SSD.


The Reminders app continues to work fine on my other Apple devices, iPad, Apple Watch, and iPhone. It also works using the Safari browser on the mini in the iCloud.com website, so I know I'm using the correct Apple ID.


Symptoms are:


  • Can’t see any iCloud reminders in Reminders window on Mac
  • Can’t create any new reminder
  • Menu option File / New Reminder is grayed out
  • Menu option File / New List does nothing
  • Menu option File / New Group does nothing
  • Menu option File / Templates displays one Template - “illness”. Create List button is grayed out
  • A new Reminder can be added using Siri on the Mac, but it isn’t displayed on the Mac. It does show up on my iPhone and Apple Watch. This also confirms that I'm using the correct Apple ID.
  • Nothing happens when I click on “+ Add List” on the lower left of the app window


Attempts to correct the problem include:

  • All the steps in If your iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders won’t sync, several times.
  • System re-install


Would a clean install help? I searched the entire SSD for a file with containing "Reminders" and found nothing of interest like a plist to delete, so that seems futile. All the data is on iCloud, right?


Mac mini, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jun 9, 2023 12:59 PM

Reply
5 replies

Jun 10, 2023 1:14 PM in response to Barney-15E

Right, thanks, but I did that. It's one of the steps in the Apple Support document. LINK.


Here's a synopsis of what I've tried so far:

  1. Checked status of Reminders
  2. using latest version of MacOS; Ventura
  3. Signed in with the same Apple ID on all devices
  4. Check the date and time settings on my Mac
  5. Refresh Calendars
  6. I'm not using events in On My Mac, Exchange, or Google
  7. I can't delete completed or overdue reminders on my Mac as none are listed. I did just delete 883 completed reminders using my iPhone (I failed to notice that step before). No completed reminders show up on my iPad or iPhone now.
  8. Restarted my Mac
  9. Opened iCloud.com, cleared the Safari cache
  10. In iCloud.com, opened Mail - oddly the newest mail was from August 2022. The Mail app on the Mac seems fine, as it does on the iPhone and iPad. Then returned to Reminders, which are fine on iCloud.com
  11. Signed out of iCloud.com, and signed back in.
  12. Restarted the Mac. Doing that now, and will update in a bit

Jun 11, 2023 6:31 AM in response to BiknSwans

I think I have another clue as to what's going on.


I created a new user with administrative privileges, and used my Apple ID to access iCloud.


My reminders show up and are working fine with the new user. Clearly something is wrong with my normal user account, but I'm not sure what to do next.


Should I transfer all my Documents folder to the new user? And eventually delete the old user?

Reminders app broken on Mac mini M2

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