If you are an owner of an iPad or iPhone and you have just upgraded to iOS 13, you probably noticed significant improvements to Reminders. You might have also noticed that your reminders no longer sync to your desktop or laptop. This is because the new Reminders app in iOS 13 is not backwards compatible with any macOS before Catalina (which was just released yesterday).
Catalina looks like it is a great upgrade. It is adding a ton of new features such as Sidecar (you can use your iPad as a second monitor), enhanced voice controls, Dark Mode, and many additions to Safari. Additionally, this is the update that killed iTunes (RIP). iTunes has been broken into three stand-alone apps for music, tv and podcasts. As far as macOS updates go, this is a big one.
However, this update is not right (or even allowed) for everyone. The system requirements will prevent many people from updating. After dropping a pretty long list of older Macs in Mojave last year, Catalina leaves compatibility alone with one minor exception. Just about anything that will run Mojave will run Catalina:
- MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
- Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
- iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
Personally I use a 2010 (late) iMac. It pretty much works as good as the day that I got it, so I have never had a reason to get a new computer. Given the durability of mac computers, I think MANY people are going to be in the same boat. Being a tech nerd, I took part in the iOS13 beta program and I learned to love the new Reminders app. It had finally come to age and provided 90% of the features I need for my personal and business task management. However, now the macOS Reminders app in my High Sierra desktop no longer syncs. If you are having the same issue, this is the workaround that I use.
- Open Safari and go to icloud.com and log into your iCloud account. Click the checkbox for ‘Keep me signed in to iCloud’.
- Click on the iCloud version of Reminders
- Go the the address bar in safari, select all the text and drag this to your desktop. This will create an icon for that page on your desktop.
- Drag the icon from your desktop to the right side of your doc (where it allows files and folders).
- Whenever you want to check or edit your reminders, simply click the icon in your dock and the Reminders window will open. The iCloud version of Reminders syncs with the new version of the iOS and iPadOS apps.
2 Comments
Malcolm Burrows
Macbook Catalina is still relatively new and I believe it will still need time to optimize.
Stephen
This is a handy workaround. The problem is the that when adding a Reminder via iCloud online, there is no option to set a date and time for the notification. Therefore, the reminder syncs with your phone, but it will not notify you to do whatever it is you need to be reminded to do. Thanks for posting this!