Syncing iOS Reminders

[misc]

Hi there,

in the FastMail documentation, I found these bit-of-confusing lines:

If you'd like to also use your calendar also for iPhone reminders, you can also enable this in the iPhone Settings app.
Warning: Deleting a Reminders list from your phone will also delete the associated FastMail calendar off the server and your phone.

→ www.fastmail.com/help/clients/iphone.html#calendar

The warning sounds that dangerous, I don’t dare to try it without asking you for some advice. There are mainly two things that I’m not sure about:

1. Why would I want to sync my reminders with FastMail?
Will my reminders with due date show up in the FastMail web calendar? And what will happen to Reminders without any due date? Or is it meant for syncing reminders between iOS/macOS devices only?

2. „Deleting a Reminders list from your phone will also delete the associated FastMail calendar“ – Ehhhh?
I don’t understand that point entirely. What do they mean with „associated calendar“ in that sentence? In iOS, I can’t associate a Reminder list with a calendar. All I could do is snyc a Reminder list with my FastMail calendar account (CalDAV). But with the same account, I can sync multiple calendars (e.g. personal, work etc.). So which one will be deleted if I choose to delete a Reminder list? All of them?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,
Michael

[jhollington]

This can actually all be a bit confusing because of the way that the iOS Calendar and Reminders apps work, but the important thing to keep in mind is that behind the scenes, "Calendars" and "Reminders Lists" are the same things to CalDAV — they're just accessed by two different apps.

Further, in an effort to "simplify" things and make it look like they're distinct, Apple's own apps create "Calendar" and "Reminders Lists" that have properties that make them only show up in the appropriate apps. Unfortunately, if you create a Calendar in the FastMail web interface, it will show up in both places.

In other words:

• Calendars you create in the iOS or macOS Calendars apps will only show up in the "Calendars" apps, and on the FastMail web interface.
• Lists that you create in the iOS or macOS Reminders apps will only show up in the "Reminders" apps, and will not appear in the FastMail web interface.
• Calendars you create from the FastMail web interface will appear in both the Calendars and Reminders app.

So the error message that FastMail is presenting is mostly to cover the third scenario. The iOS Reminders app is also aware of this possibility — if you try and delete a Reminders List that is also a Calendar containing one or more events, the iOS Reminders app will warn you about this and ask for confirmation.

Originally Posted by misc;601190[B

1. Why would I want to sync my reminders with FastMail?[/b]
Will my reminders with due date show up in the FastMail web calendar? And what will happen to Reminders without any due date? Or is it meant for syncing reminders between iOS/macOS devices only?

No, Reminders don't show up in the FastMail web calendar at all, regardless of whether they're on a calendar that includes reminders or not. Further, as noted above, Lists created in the iOS/macOS Reminders apps don't even appear in the FastMail web calendar in the first place.

As you've suggested, the main purpose for this feature is just so that you can sync your Reminders lists between iOS and macOS devices, much as you would if you were using iCloud. It makes sense if you're using FastMail for everything else that you probably would want to sync your Reminders between devices using FastMail as well, rather than enabling that in iCloud just for that one feature.

2. Deleting a Reminders list from your phone will also delete the associated FastMail calendar“ – Ehhhh?
I don’t understand that point entirely. What do they mean with „associated calendar“ in that sentence? In iOS, I can’t associate a Reminder list with a calendar. All I could do is snyc a Reminder list with my FastMail calendar account (CalDAV). But with the same account, I can sync multiple calendars (e.g. personal, work etc.). So which one will be deleted if I choose to delete a Reminder list? All of them?

As noted above, this only applies to Calendars that are created from the FastMail web calendar. These will appear both in your Calendars app and Reminders apps, so if you delete them from one place, you're deleting them from both, as they're the same thing.

If you want to keep your Calendars and Reminders Lists entirely separate, the best thing to do is to create all of them from the appropriate iOS or macOS apps, and then move any events from your original FastMail calendars into one or more of the new Calendars that you've crated from the iOS/macOS side, and then delete the original FastMail calendars.

[misc]

jhollington, thank you so much for your detailed answer! Now things are totally clear to me, all my questions answered.
That's why I love the EMD forums.