Cannot copy/paste Reminders list items on macOS Sonoma

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Cannot copy/paste Reminders list items on macOS Sonoma

I'm running the latest version of Sonoma on my M2 MacBook Air. The Reminders app is consistently inconsistent (!!) in allowing me to simply copy one or more individual reminders from one list and then paste them into another list. It works sometimes, but almost never.

Steps to reproduce:

Create a list in Reminders, populate it with several items.
Create another list in Reminders.
Select 2 or more items in list 1 and choose cmd-C, (or Edit > Copy).
Attempt to paste the copied items from list 1 into list 2.
Or, attempt to drag and drop items from list 1 into list 2.

Expected result: Selected items from list 1 are copied (or perhaps moved, in the case of drag and drop) into list 2.

Actual result: Nothing happens*.

*The Reminders app does allow me to paste multiple items as text within a SINGLE list item in the second list, (see screenshots below), but not as a series of discreet list items. This is extremely frustrating, as it represents a failure at the most basic level of the app: It should be able to copy/paste objects in its own native format between two lists!

Original copied items:

The only consistent paste behavior results not in individual list items, but rather as multiple paragraphs of text in a single list item:

Exploring this bug, I have found one workaround: If I paste the copied Reminders list items into a Note - in the Notes app, and then format it as a bulleted list, and then copy that bulleted list to the clipboard, I can consistently successfully paste that bulleted list of items back in the Reminders app, and it creates SEPARATE LIST ITEMS (the expected behavior!)

What's so frustrating about this is that it demonstrates that the Reminders app CAN perform this basic functionality, but not with data from its own lists! While the workaround is in interesting, round-tripping through Notes is an unacceptable hassle.

I'm just curious if anyone else is experiencing this bug, or if anyone can share a Reminders-native method for accomplishing this (super basic) functionality.

MacBook Air, macOS 14.1

Posted on Nov 26, 2023 7:03 AM

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Answer 1

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jlachoff Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 26, 2023 8:29 AM in response to jlachoff

After my support call, Apple Support sent me a URL by email to the following helpful User Guide article, "Move reminders on Mac - Apple Support", which, ironically, DOES explain how to do EXACTLY what I want to do:

"Move copies of reminders: Select one or more reminders, choose Edit > Copy, select the list in the sidebar where you want to add the copies, then choose Edit > Paste."

Note that this requires the user to paste items into a selected List in the list of lists - not directly into a list!

Even though the support tech I spoke with didn't recognize that the article they shared had the solution while they had me on the phone, they did share the link, which was ultimately helpful. Had I not taken the time to read it, I would not have found the solution. And in any case, the official way of doing what I needed to do was definitely not direct, discoverable or intuitive - it should not require almost an hour on the phone with Apple Support to discover such a basic feature (!!).

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Answer 2

jlachoff Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 26, 2023 8:03 AM in response to jlachoff

I spoke with Apple Support, they claimed that this is the "expected behavior". They were able to show me how to successfully MOVE items from one list to another, by drag and dropping items from one list into other lists in the left panel, but in my use case, the goal is not to move list items, but to copy them. (I tried holding down the Option key, in the hopes that the same interaction pattern used in the Finder would work here - but it doesn't.)

If it's helpful, I discovered that if I immediately undo the move, (by typing CMD-Z or by selecting Edit > Undo), it actually DOESN'T remove the moved items from the target list - but it does restore them to the original list! While this is exactly the result I need, it is completely unintuitive, difficult to discover, and in and of itself, the workaround represents a failure of the "undo" command, which is another bug... oy.

We also took a moment to explore whether this is possible to accomplish on iOS. It is not. You can select multiple items and move them to other lists, but you cannot copy them, and paste copies to other lists on iOS.

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Cannot copy/paste Reminders list items on macOS Sonoma

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