Work-around for Zombie Proximitask Reminders


The most annoying part of this is when you go into the Proximitask app to find the reminder that was just in the notification and it’s nowhere to be found.  To reveal it, you have to find the completed reminder in the Reminders app and uncheck its radio button, force quit Proximitask, and then reopen it.  It then re-appears and you can delete it by swiping left and tapping the red delete button, and go back and mark it as completed in the Reminders app.  This seems to fix things at first, but you soon find out that the reminder will rise from the dead and pop up again at some point! I played around with trying to remedy this situation and remove the zombie reminder for good.  So here’s how to permanently stop those zombie reminders without having to delete completed reminders from the Reminders app.  The idea here is based on what I discovered, which is:

If you delete a reminder in Proximitask and then create a new reminder, the deleted Proximitask reminder stays deleted (whether it already exists in the Reminders app or you create a new one there as well).

First, to get this to work and not be too obtrusive, I added a dummy beacon in which I add a dummy reminder to, anytime I delete a reminder and don’t have a real new one to create.  I also keep a dummy reminder in the Reminders app for this purpose:

  • Add a new dummy beacon to Proximitask by swiping left until you see the Add New Beacon button.  Tap it and fill out the details with bogus info.
  • Create a “Dummy” reminder in the Reminders app tucked away on a list you don’t check very often.

When you complete a task that Proximitask has reminded you of:

  1. Before marking the task as completed in the Reminders app, delete the reminder in Proximitask by swiping left and tapping the red delete button.
  2. If you don’t have a new real task to create, add the existing dummy task (from the Reminders app you created above) to the dummy beacon.
  3. Mark the completed task as completed in the Reminders app.

When I add a new task to Proximitask:

  1. First check the dummy beacon in Proximitask and if the dummy task is there, delete it (so you can later re-add it when you complete another task).
  2. Create your new task in Proximitask as normal.

By always creating a Proximitask reminder after deleting one (pre-existing in the Reminders app or not), you will no longer get those iBeacon-based reminders for completed tasks.  It takes some extra steps, but is worth it if you value reliable beacon-based reminders.

I had discovered this work-around through much trial and error quite some time ago.  Since the things I had tried didn’t always work, I gave this solution some time & usage to be sure it was reliable.  So if you enjoy iBeacon reminders as much as I do, this tip should solve your problem of recurring zombie reminders.  Note, I reported this zombie bug to the Proximitask developers some time ago, but the app is apparently no longer supported.

So you might ask “Why?”.  Why bother with this extra effort when there are other apps that offer beacon-based reminders? My response is this: Proximitask adds value you can’t get from any other beacon-based reminder app.  None of the other beacon-based reminder apps integrate with Apple’s Reminders app (which you can script and integrate with IFTTT), so despite Proximitask no longer being provided to new users or supported to existing users, it’s still the best option for those who like not only beacon-based reminders that are integrated into existing functionality, but also to have all their reminders in one place.  I use both applescripts and IFTTT to create reminders, which is not supported by any other reminders app.

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