Location (Geofence) Reminders Not Working in iOS 6? Disable Exchange Reminder Sync
January 26, 2013 by Evan Kline 
3 Comments
After a couple of years as a mostly satisfied Android user, I recently switched back to the iPhone (the reasons might someday be the subject of another story). I was eager to try out location-based reminders, which reminded me of a stripped down (but easier) version of Tasker on Android. I liked the idea that I could use Siri to say, “remind me to take out the trash when I get home,” and I’d have a reminder added to my list in the Reminders app. Thanks to geofencing in iOS, that reminder would automatically fire when I pulled into the driveway.
There was one problem – my location-based reminders weren’t actually firing. A Google search for the problem revealed one common solution in the Apple forums. Several users suggested that if you were syncing with an Exchange server, make sure that you were not syncing Tasks. Since Exchange/Outlook didn’t support location-based tasks, Reminders on iOS would be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. That seemed to fit my situation, as I use Outlook at work.
I hopped over into Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars, selected the settings for my work Exchange account…and didn’t find any setting to disable Task sync. After a moment of head scratching, I remembered that Tasks were called “Reminders” in iOS 6, and I did see a setting for that.
Disabling Reminder sync for my Exchange account, and making sure it was enabled for my iCloud account, did the trick. I’m now happily getting location-based reminders on my iPhone. That might not be an ideal situation for those of you who use Outlook tasks, but it worked for me. If you know of another solution, let me know in the comments.
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I know it’s slightly off topic but your comment “…I recently switched back to the iPhone (the reasons might someday be the subject of another story)….”
I so want you to write that post.
I moved from iPhone to Android after 4½ years on iOS, so I’d love to know your story.
Consider that one added to my to-do list.
I had the same problem. I turned on iCloud and reminders in iCloud and it fixed the problem for me.