Location-based reminders on iPhone: how to set them up

To set a location-based reminder on iPhone, open the Reminders app, tap a reminder, tap Location, and choose a place: arriving home, getting into your car, or a custom address where you pick "arriving" or "leaving." For it to actually fire, Reminders needs your precise location, which is a setting many guides leave out.

Location reminders are one of the most useful things on the iPhone and one of the least used. A reminder to drop off the UPS return is no good at 9 a.m. on your desk. It's very good the moment you walk out the front door with the box by your keys. Below is the whole setup, the triggers Apple gives you, and what to check when one doesn't go off. I make a reminders app, Notif, and I'll say where it fits at the end, but everything here works with Apple's free Reminders app on its own.

Before you start: two settings

Location reminders lean on Location Services, and Apple's guide to adding details in Reminders is specific about what they need: "you must allow Reminders to use your precise location." Do this once and you won't have to think about it again.

1. Open Settings, tap Privacy & Security, then Location Services
2. Make sure Location Services is on at the top
3. Scroll down and tap Reminders
4. Choose While Using the App
5. Turn on Precise Location

The second setting is optional but worth it: your home and work addresses. Apple's Reminders support page says to add them to your own card in Contacts so Siri can set location reminders for you. Open Contacts, tap My Card at the top, tap Edit, add your home and work addresses, and tap Done.

A note on the "updated reminders in iCloud" part. Apple says all the Reminders features in its guide are available when you use updated reminders in iCloud, and that some aren't available with other accounts. If your lists live in an Exchange or Google account, some of what follows may not be there.

How to set a location reminder, step by step

1. Open the Reminders app and tap the reminder you want, or make a new one
2. Tap the info button next to it to open its details
3. Turn on or tap Location
4. Pick one of the suggested options, or tap Custom
5. For a custom place, search for an address or a business name and select it
6. Choose Arriving or Leaving
7. Drag the edge of the circle on the map to make the area bigger or smaller
8. Go back to the details and tap Done

That's it. The reminder now has no time at all; it waits until your iPhone crosses that circle.

If the buttons on your iPhone are labelled a little differently, look for the location icon in the reminder's details.

The triggers you can choose

Apple describes the choice as "where you want to be reminded—for example, when you arrive home or get into a car with a Bluetooth connection to your iPhone." In practice that gives you a handful of options:

| Trigger | When it fires | Good for | |---|---|---| | Arriving at a place | As you enter the circle | "Pick up the prescription" at the pharmacy, "return the library books" at the library | | Leaving a place | As you exit the circle | "Drop off the UPS return" as you leave home, "bring the gym bag" as you leave work | | Home | When you get home | "Check the mail," "take the bins out" | | Getting into the car | When your iPhone connects to the car over Bluetooth | Errands on the way, "fill up the tank" |

A few things worth knowing about picking one:

• Leaving is often better than arriving. "Buy milk" when you arrive home is too late; you're already home. "Buy milk" when you leave work catches you while you can still stop
• The circle matters. A small circle around a store means you have to walk in. A larger one catches you as you drive past. For anything you might pass on the way, make it bigger than you think
• The car triggers need Bluetooth. If your car connects through a cable only, or doesn't connect at all, getting in and out won't fire

The fastest way: ask Siri

You don't need to open the app for most of these. Apple's support page gives examples like "Remind me when I get home to check the mail" and "Remind me when I leave here to stop by the grocery store." The word "here" uses your current location, which is handy at a friend's house or in a parking lot.

"Home" and "work" only work once those addresses are on your card in Contacts, which is why that setting is worth the minute it takes. Apple also notes that Siri uses Location Services when your reminder needs your location, so the same precise location setting applies.

When to use a location instead of a time

A reminder at a time asks you to guess where you'll be. A location reminder skips the guess. Some tasks only make sense in one place:

• Errands: pick up the dry cleaning, return the UPS package, grab stamps at the post office
• Things you need to bring: the passport renewal form to the post office, the permission slip to school, the charger to the office
• Things at home: take the chicken out of the freezer, water the plants, call Mom once you're back and can talk
• Things at work: ask about the dentist cleaning forms, print the boarding pass

And some don't. "Pay the Apple Card bill" is about a date, not a place; a location would only fire if you happened to be somewhere. Give that a date and a time. A good rule: if you can do it anywhere, use a time; if you can only do it somewhere, use a place.

If a task has both a deadline and a place, I'd keep the date and time as the main reminder and add a second, separate reminder with the location as the nudge. That way the deadline still fires if you never go there.

Why location reminders sometimes don't fire

Most "my location reminder didn't work" cases come down to a short list. Check them in this order.

1. Precise Location is off for Reminders. This is the big one. Without it, Apple's guide is clear that you won't receive location-based reminders. Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Reminders, While Using the App, Precise Location on
2. Location Services is off entirely. Same screen, the switch at the top. Some people turn it off to save battery and forget
3. Reminders notifications are off or held back. Location reminders arrive as notifications, so the same rules apply as for any other reminder: notifications allowed for Reminders, no Scheduled Summary holding them, no Focus silencing them. I went through all of those in why Apple Reminders don't remind you
4. The circle was too small. If you only drove past, a tight circle around one building may not have been crossed. Make it bigger
5. The wrong trigger. "Arriving" set on a place you were already at won't fire until you leave and come back
6. The car isn't on Bluetooth. For the car triggers, check that your iPhone shows the car as connected under Settings > Bluetooth

Location Services uses GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cell towers to work out where you are, according to Apple's page on turning Location Services on or off. In a dense city or deep inside a building, it can take a moment to notice you've arrived. Don't use a location reminder for anything where a minute's delay matters; give that a time.

Location reminders and your privacy

A location reminder means Reminders knows where you go, at least for the places you've set. Apple's Location Services page explains the choices: Never, Ask Next Time Or When I Share, While Using the App and Always, plus a Precise Location switch for each app. For Reminders, Apple asks for While Using the App with Precise Location on.

Two things to keep in mind if you share lists with family or roommates:

• A shared list shows what's on the reminder. If you add a location to a reminder on a shared list, the people on that list can see that reminder. If the place itself is private, keep that reminder on a list only you use. I wrote about shared lists in how to share a reminders list with your family

If you'd rather someone using your phone couldn't read a reminder at all, that's a different problem from location, and I covered it in private reminders on iPhone.

A few setups that work well

If you want somewhere to start, these are the location reminders I'd set up first:

1. Leaving home: anything that has to leave the house with you. Put the thing by the door the night before, and set the reminder for when you leave
2. Arriving at work: the one question you keep forgetting to ask someone
3. Getting into the car: the errand you'd otherwise drive straight past
4. Arriving home: the call you can't make on the train, like calling Mom
5. Leaving work: the stop on the way back, like the pharmacy

Five reminders, each tied to a moment you already pass through every day. That's most of the benefit.

Where Notif fits

Everything above is Apple Reminders, free and already on your iPhone. Notif is the app I built for what comes after a reminder fires, when you know what you need to do but still have to figure out how.

Notif is a reminders app for iPhone and iPad that syncs with Apple Reminders. It writes to its own list, never yours, so your existing lists and their location reminders are untouched. You can say a note to Siri and it lands, without opening anything, and there's a Lock Screen widget for quick capture. Notif asks once who "Mom" is, then remembers.

Notif is free, with one Insight a day, seven a week, and no account required. Notif Pro is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel any time. If that sounds useful, it's on the App Store: get Notif

Questions

How do I set a location-based reminder on iPhone?

Open the Reminders app, tap a reminder, then tap Location and choose a place, such as arriving home or getting into your car. For a custom place, choose whether to be reminded when you arrive or leave, and drag the circle to set how big the area is

Why didn't my location reminder go off?

The most common reason is that Reminders doesn't have your precise location. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, tap Reminders, choose While Using the App, and turn on Precise Location. Also check that Location Services itself is on and that Reminders notifications aren't turned off or silenced by a Focus

Can Siri set a reminder for when I get home?

Yes. Say something like "Remind me when I get home to check the mail." Apple says to add your home and work addresses to your own card in Contacts so Siri knows where home and work are

Can a reminder go off when I get in my car?

Yes, if your car connects to your iPhone over Bluetooth. In the reminder's location options, choose getting into the car, and the reminder fires when your iPhone connects to it

Can I change how big the reminder area is?

Yes. When you set a custom location, Apple lets you set the perimeter of the reminder area by dragging the edge of the circle on the map. Make it larger if you want to be reminded as you pass by, smaller if you need to be inside