Apple had a problem with iCloud and one of my reminder lists are gone. Talked to the highest at Apple responsible for this and it was their fault but the lost reminder list is not their iCloud backup.
I still have it on my Apple Watch, though.
The problem: Only the 5 first words or so of each reminder are displayed on the Watch. My reminders consist of a lot of text, so this is useless for me.
The Watch isn't connected to Bluetooth or Wifi and if I would connect it, that whole preserved reminder list would disappear (it's what happened on my iPad).
Do you guys have any idea how I could get my reminder list back? I don't need to save it digitally, it's sufficient if I can write down the text on a piece of paper.
I had the idea to let siri read the reminders, but it needs internet for that - which I can not turn on.
All ideas, hints and tricks are GREATLY appreciated, as I really need this list for work. It has 60 elements that are of high importance to me. Thanks so much!
Apple had a problem with iCloud and one of my reminder lists are gone. Talked to the highest at Apple responsible for this and it was their fault but the lost reminder list is not their iCloud backup.
I still have it on my Apple Watch, though.
The problem: Only the 5 first words or so of each reminder are displayed on the Watch. My reminders consist of a lot of text, so this is useless for me.
The Watch isn't connected to Bluetooth or Wifi and if I would connect it, that whole preserved reminder list would disappear (it's what happened on my iPad).
Do you guys have any idea how I could get my reminder list back? I don't need to save it digitally, it's sufficient if I can write down the text on a piece of paper.
I had the idea to let siri read the reminders, but it needs internet for that - which I can not turn on.
All ideas, hints and tricks are GREATLY appreciated, as I really need this list for work. It has 60 elements that are of high importance to me. Thanks so much!
The problem: Only the 5 first words or so of each reminder are displayed on the Watch. My reminders consist of a lot of text, so this is useless for me.
Maybe I'm not following, but can't you tap the reminder to view the entire thing? I can only see the first few words on the main screen too, but it will show the full text after tapping it. (Just did a test with 50 words in the title and 50 words in the notes...it showed all 100 words after tapping it.)
Apple was extremely unprofessional in this case. They weren't polite at all, told me they would call me back after a developer would look into it, but never got back to me. Even after me sending four emails to the guy who was responsible for my case (he gave me his email just for that).
I managed to get one or two more words by setting the text size of the Watch to something smaller. Not ideal of course.
I'm still having hopes to let Siri read it. The thing is, I need internet for Siri. So I thought I could disable Reminders in iCloud on the Watch (so it doesn't sync the reminders = delete them). This way I could get Siri activated. The problem is that I apparently can't disable iCloud Reminders without internet.
Now I'm trying to figure out a way how to do this. Also maybe by only turning on Wifi or Bluetooth, separately. I have the Wifi router where I am. Do you know if the Watch wether the Watch will sync over Bluetooth, or Wifi? Which one could I turn on without the Watch syncing with the phone?
I'm also thinking about what I could change in the Apple Watch app on the iPhone. Maybe the solution is there somewhere.
Another thing I've been thinking of is that there's a new and an old "Reminders" system. This list might be part of the old system and therefore doesn't appear. I've read that new and old versions of Reminders aren't compatible. So maybe that list is lurking somewhere, still existing, but I just can't see it because my devices are updated.
Maybe I'm not following, but can't you tap the reminder to view the entire thing? I can only see the first few words on the main screen too, but it will show the full text after tapping it. (Just did a test with 50 words in the title and 50 words in the notes...it showed all 100 words after tapping it.)
It seems crazy, but it looks like I can not. Do you have watchOS 9 by any chance? I've read that only version 9 can do that. I have version 8 and can't upgrade I think because my 1st gen iPhone SE can only run iOS 15 but not iOS 16 anymore. But I may be wrong about this.
Also maybe by only turning on Wifi or Bluetooth, separately. I have the Wifi router where I am. Do you know if the Watch wether the Watch will sync over Bluetooth, or Wifi? Which one could I turn on without the Watch syncing with the phone?
I am not really certain, also I'm on the latest OS so not sure if/what might have changed from watchos8.
I've never really experimented with this but I think there are folks out here who disable BT on their phone while doing a watchOS update ... and talking out loud, BT is far slower than wifi, so turning wifi off might not sync everything to iCloud as it has to go through the phone, some sync might occur only while AW is on wifi???
if you were just turning on BT, but your phone's wifi is turned off (and I think there's an option to turn off cell data) - would the reminders sync back to the phone? or would the phone delete the ones on AW? I don't know.
I am fairly certain that when turning wifi on it will sync to iCloud ...
I am not really certain, also I'm on the latest OS so not sure if/what might have changed from watchos8.
I've never really experimented with this but I think there are folks out here who disable BT on their phone while doing a watchOS update ... and talking out loud, BT is far slower than wifi, so turning wifi off might not sync everything to iCloud as it has to go through the phone, some sync might occur only while AW is on wifi???
if you were just turning on BT, but your phone's wifi is turned off (and I think there's an option to turn off cell data) - would the reminders sync back to the phone? or would the phone delete the ones on AW? I don't know.
I am fairly certain that when turning wifi on it will sync to iCloud ...
If the watch syncs with iCloud it will sadly delete the reminders, I’m 99% sure about it.
What happened was that I was working in my Mac when suddenly one of my reminder lists disappeared right in front of my eyes.
I thought I had accidentally pressed something on the keyboard to delete that list so I instantly pressed CMD Z to undo, even multiple times, but nothing happened.
At that point I knew something was wrong so I instantly disconnected all my devices from the internet.
On my iPad I was too slow. On my watch and iPhone they were preserved. Later when I was trying to fix it, I connected my phone to the internet and in that second the list disappeared.
Now it's left on my watch but I hadn’t realised you can’t read them entirely.
It seems crazy, but it looks like I can not. Do you have watchOS 9 by any chance? I've read that only version 9 can do that. I have version 8 and can't upgrade I think because my 1st gen iPhone SE can only run iOS 15 but not iOS 16 anymore. But I may be wrong about this.
Did you try going to AppleID.apple.com and downloading your iCloud files? Depending on when your phone was last backed up, the file just might be there.
They weren't polite at all, told me they would call me back after a developer would look into it, but never got back to me. Even after me sending four emails to the guy who was responsible for my case (he gave me his email just for that).
Did you try going to AppleID.apple.com and downloading your iCloud files? Depending on when your phone was last backed up, the file just might be there.
That’s what I did but they told me there was nothing they could do. At least they could have answered me. They were very unprofessional and didn’t even really look into the case and for example didn’t even suggest what Robert has suggested above.
But I’ll be persistent and open a new case this time (they told me they closed my old case).
Sorry if already covered (quick scanned the thread)...
Yeah, not going to get anything from iCloud as current (since 2012?) Reminders no longer backup in iCloud. It's all in a SQL database these days vs using CalDAV.
Might be a lost cause at this point as guessing Reminders have lots of UID information embedded in them, including the reference to the list it's from. Once the list disappeared, UID is invalid, and any new list with same name will have a different UID.
If have a Mac, might try to unpair the Watch, to force a backup. Then backup the phone to Mac. Then get something like iMazing and export the backup: might be able to locate the Watch backup and extract data from it.
Going forward, might look into using Shortcuts to "backup" Reminders periodically. For example, as simple as attached. Or for each Reminder, save the fields into a csv file.
Sorry if already covered (quick scanned the thread)...
Yeah, not going to get anything from iCloud as current (since 2012?) Reminders no longer backup in iCloud. It's all in a SQL database these days vs using CalDAV.
Might be a lost cause at this point as guessing Reminders have lots of UID information embedded in them, including the reference to the list it's from. Once the list disappeared, UID is invalid, and any new list with same name will have a different UID.
If have a Mac, might try to unpair the Watch, to force a backup. Then backup the phone to Mac. Then get something like iMazing and export the backup: might be able to locate the Watch backup and extract data from it.
Going forward, might look into using Shortcuts to "backup" Reminders periodically. For example, as simple as attached. Or for each Reminder, save the fields into a csv file.
Do you know where Apple Watch backups are stored by any chance? Are they stored on a Mac? I might have it in this case. I was also wondering if I could find the backup data somewhere in the user library. This way I could perhaps skip the step with iMazing, etc.?
Do you know where Apple Watch backups are stored by any chance? Are they stored on a Mac? I might have it in this case. I was also wondering if I could find the backup data somewhere in the user library. This way I could perhaps skip the step with iMazing, etc.?
And backups to/via Mac are somewhat "unreadable" as there are lots of folders named "AA", "HG", "AL", "P0", etc. with files that are not named things like "Remindersdb.sql" and so forth.
With a tool like iMazing, they have the ability to navigate backups. But looks like that might not be an option as well.
Think I found where AW backups go in an iPhone backup, and not seeing anything that is usable. Data is binary and get the idea that since Reminders are synced via iPhone (though cellular models might do OTA from iCloud), no need to backup Reminders from Watch as not the source data. Have the same situation with iOS backup: anything synced/downloaded from Mac/iCloud/App Store/etc is not backed up.
Folder in an iMazing export is
iphonenamehere/HomeDomain/Library/DeviceRegistry/unique-id/NanoPreferencesSync/Backup/Files
And backups to/via Mac are somewhat "unreadable" as there are lots of folders named "AA", "HG", "AL", "P0", etc. with files that are not named things like "Remindersdb.sql" and so forth.
With a tool like iMazing, they have the ability to navigate backups. But looks like that might not be an option as well.
Think I found where AW backups go in an iPhone backup, and not seeing anything that is usable. Data is binary and get the idea that since Reminders are synced via iPhone (though cellular models might do OTA from iCloud), no need to backup Reminders from Watch as not the source data. Have the same situation with iOS backup: anything synced/downloaded from Mac/iCloud/App Store/etc is not backed up.
Folder in an iMazing export is
iphonenamehere/HomeDomain/Library/DeviceRegistry/unique-id/NanoPreferencesSync/Backup/Files
Thanks. I had found some files on my Mac but they were practically unreadable (I could find some of my reminders, but it was a mess and many were missing. And even one single reminder was literally all over the place).
Well, they finally gave me an answer after ignoring me four times for four weeks, so yeah lol. And the answer was very unprofessional, the person didn't even think of some of the suggestions given here and it felt like they're not even interested in solving my issue.
I now managed to download my data from appleid.apple.com (I had to wait for days, they do this to "make sure it's you") and now that I could finally download it I in fact can not because I'd have to download it from a computer.
I don't have a Computer where I am, however. And I won't have access to one for the next month. Apple is becoming more and more silly. It would be absolutely no problem for me to download the data to my iPhone or iPad.
I tried using the "use desktop version"-feature of Safari, but it still won't work. Can anyone think of a way how I could still download this? Maybe faking my phone being a PC? I downloaded one of these Tor-browsers just for this, because I think that's what they do, but it didn't work. Maybe I just downloaded a bad Tor browser and I should try another one. But wow, they're making it complicated …
Thanks. I had found some files on my Mac but they were practically unreadable (I could find some of my reminders, but it was a mess and many were missing. And even one single reminder was literally all over the place).
