How do I delete categories in the Reminders application? (on any platform...)

So, about 6 months ago my wife and I started using the shopping list in reminders and, hey, it's really handy. Great. Love it. Except...


I created one category for the bulk market we go to only rarely, and now, every time I create an item that goes in that category, Reminders creates a new category with the same name.


When I try to delete them, though, the categories are all greyed out and swiping left doesn't work any more on iOS and right clicking on MacOS only shows a "Rename" option. I've tried deleting all completed items and emptying the reminders trash.


Apple support has a page on adding new reminders sections and how to rename sections but nothing on deleting old sections...


I wouldn't mind having the old sections if it didn't keep creating duplicates...


We are currently using iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and MacOS 15.4.

Posted on Apr 13, 2025 5:35 AM

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May 16, 2025 1:34 AM in response to leroydouglas

Kind of a mess here...

Mac:

  • open a list in Reminders
  • right click on any category and choose "Abschnitte bearbeiten..."
  • click "show empty categories" (or whatever it might be called in english) to show all categories
  • go back, right click the categorie you like to delete and choose delete ("Löschen", sorry, apps are in german.




Iphone:

  • click 3 dots in circle
  • choose column view
  • click 3 dots
  • choose "delete"


Apr 13, 2025 7:19 AM in response to porkchop_d_clown

porkchop_d_clown wrote:

So, about 6 months ago my wife and I started using the shopping list in reminders and, hey, it's really handy. Great. Love it. Except...

I created one category for the bulk market we go to only rarely, and now, every time I create an item that goes in that category, Reminders creates a new category with the same name.

When I try to delete them, though, the categories are all greyed out and swiping left doesn't work any more on iOS and right clicking on MacOS only shows a "Rename" option. I've tried deleting all completed items and emptying the reminders trash.

Apple support has a page on adding new reminders sections and how to rename sections but nothing on deleting old sections...

I wouldn't mind having the old sections if it didn't keep creating duplicates...

We are currently using iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and MacOS 15.4.


I created a test category.. Control click—>Delete (?)





ref: Reminders User Guide for Mac


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How do I delete categories in the Reminders application? (on any platform...)

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