How do you recover deleted Reminders on a Mac or iPhone?
By Kayabyte · Last updated 2 November 2026
To recover deleted Reminders, try Edit, Undo (or shake to undo on iPhone) straight away, check completed reminders and other lists, and look at iCloud.com Data Recovery (Restore Calendars and Reminders). Older copies are in Time Machine and iPhone backups. NoteRescue can list the reminders your backups hold that you no longer have, but it cannot put them back into the Reminders app: it exports them as .ics, CSV and Markdown, and you add the ones you need again by hand.
Check these first (free)
- Undo. Edit, Undo on the Mac; on iPhone shake to undo.
- Completed reminders. In a list choose Show Completed. A finished reminder is not deleted.
- Other lists and smart lists. A reminder can sit in a list you moved or shared; check All and Scheduled.
- iCloud.com. Account Settings, Data Recovery, Restore Calendars and Reminders lists dated archives. Restoring replaces them on all your devices and archives the current ones first.
- Other devices. A device that was offline may still show the reminder; write it down before it syncs.
Using a backup by hand
Reminders keeps its data in ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.reminders. A Time Machine copy can be restored to your Desktop, but the file is a database that Reminders does not let you open on its own, and swapping it into place while iCloud is on is risky. On an iPhone the only built-in route is restoring the whole phone from a backup, which replaces everything on it.
A faster way: NoteRescue
NoteRescue reads Reminders in your Time Machine snapshots and iPhone backups and compares them with today. The scan lists each as missing or changed for free, with its list and due date.
Steps with NoteRescue
- Open NoteRescue, allow Full Disk Access and press Scan.
- Open the Calendar and Reminders row, filter to Missing and select the reminders.
- Choose a folder and recover. NoteRescue writes an .ics, a CSV and a Markdown file per list.
- Open the Markdown or CSV file and add the reminders you still need in Reminders by hand.
Calendar and Reminders is USD 19.99; All apps USD 39.99. One item is free as a proof. Download NoteRescue
What cannot come back
- No automatic import. We tested it: opening the .ics file starts Reminders, but nothing is added. NoteRescue says so in the app, and you re-add the reminders yourself.
- Repeat rules are not read: a reminder that repeated comes back as a single reminder.
- Attachments and images on reminders are not in the files.
- We have not yet tested Reminders in an iPhone backup with real reminder data, because the backups we could use hold none. Time Machine snapshots are tested on macOS 26.
- Reminders created and deleted between two backups are in no backup.
Questions
Does Reminders have a Recently Deleted list? We could not confirm one on every version, so we do not rely on it. Use Undo, an iCloud archive or a backup.
Can I import the .ics into Reminders? No, it did not work in our tests; use the CSV or Markdown file and add them again.
Is it worth it for a few reminders? The scan is free, so you can see what your backups hold before paying.
Related guides
- How do you recover deleted Calendar events on a Mac?
- Why does iCloud bring back data after you restore it?
Apple, Mac, iPhone, iCloud, Time Machine, Safari and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. NoteRescue is made by Kayabyte and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc.
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