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Help Please Help Me Find A Calendar/Reminder App That Works?

Blue Moon

Blue Moon

Newbie
I'm really hoping someone can help me. Ever since my previous phone was destroyed I haven't had a calendar with a reliable reminder function that actually does its job. Its been hell not having one, I'm constantly stressing out because I'm forgetting things. That phone was my rock that got me through the day.

What I'm looking for:
- Calender with month full grid view
- Ability to make multiple appointments for the same time, that won't conflict (app doesn't force me to have three things at 12:00, 12:01, and 12:02)
- Reminder function with ring tone ability that doesn't stop going off until you've acknowledged it (Very important!)
- Reminder can be set to go off far in advance (hours if needed)
- Reminder does not turn on screen and display appointment information for anyone to read (privacy)
- Reminder does not turn on screen and just leave it on, draining the battery if you've stepped away or can't hear it because of background noise.
- Reminder snooze function for when it goes off while I'm driving

So far I've tried To Do Reminder, acalendar, SolCalendar, and the calendar app that came with my phone and they've all failed me in these areas.

My last phone was an LG Extrovert and was annoyingly simple and basic, but the calendar's reminder function worked really well and did all but that first thing (which I really need).

Please tell me one of you knows a calendar app that can save me? I'm starting to get desperate...
 
I tried it just now, and the notification only went off once then gave up, left my screen on indefinitely to drain the battery, and displayed the name of the appointment on the screen totally ignoring my screen PIN lock. *sob* I miss my basic phone. :(

Thanks for the suggestion EarlyMon (and by the way that's one of my all time favorite shows).

Who the heck is programming these apps? Don't they try and live with them or do any product testing before releasing them?
 
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I use an app called "Calendar Snooze" to give me repeating, snoozeable notifications, and it works with any calendar app (I'm currently using Business Calendar 2, as it happens). You set the reminder times using the calendar app when you create the appointment, but turn the calendar app's own reminders off and let Calendar Snooze do the reminding (if you don't turn them off you will get reminders from both). And you can set the repeat interval and how many repeats you want (including an option to just keep repeating until you do something about it).
 
Interesting... I'll give it a go tomorrow and let you guys know if it helped me. :)

Does it stop notifications from bypassing your PIN/Password and leaving your screen on indefinitely? Leaving the screen running on the S5 drains it pretty quick, even if you turn it way down.

I did notice though the S5 works phenomenally as an MP3 player and lasts for a long time with the screen turned off. I left it running for about 8 hours and it was only lost less than a quarter of its charge. Nice... that's almost as good as my last phone, which was marketed as an MP3 player with a music only mode.
 
With my HTC it doesn't bypass the PIN or turn the screen on.

I do notice that Business Calendar 2 has a repeating notification option. Because I've been using Calendar Snooze to handle notifications I've never even looked at this before, but it's there as a paid option: lets you specify number of repeats and interval between them.
 
I'm trying Business Calendar 2, but its doing that thing where if the reminder alarm goes off and you don't acknowledge it, it never ever warns you about the event again after that first alarm. I'm messing around with the settings to try and see if there's a way to get it to keep setting off an alarm, but if it wants me to manually add multiple reminders to do that I won't bother keeping it. That would be a total shame because this is the nicest calendar app I've seen. :(

It also subverts my PIN code and displays the event so anyone can read it and leaves the screen on indefinitely. I think these particular two problems have to do with the OS or something. There's got to be an app that fixes this problem. An app you can use with other apps like you were saying above. Something that changes the way event notifications work in android so it only says "Event Reminder" but won't display the name of the event or let you turn it off unless you enter the PIN code, password, etc, AND doesn't allow an event notification leave your screen on. This is a pretty obvious problem that I think needs to be addressed (are they fixing it in lollipop?). Maybe even an added repeat event notification that keeps going off every so many minutes (can be adjusted by user) for apps that don't have this feature.

Maybe there's a reminder app that works with calendars that is strictly for reminders and nothing else, that can do all these things?
 
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Well as I said I use Calendar Snooze to handle my reminders, and that certainly does repeat and doesn't keep the screen on.

Actually I think some of your issues must be something to do with your phone's setup rather than Android generally or the specific calendar apps. I've just been experimenting with BC2's alerts rather than Calendar Snooze and for me they do not turn the screen on, do not bypass the PIN code, and they also do repeat if I have set them to do so (BC2's reminder settings, set whether you want repeats, interval and how many repeats - it didn't let me set more than 50 repeats though ;)). So for me those aspects work fine, so I wonder why they didn't for you?

Displaying the name of the event is a feature of every calendar/reminder I've seen. Generally people want to see what it is a reminder for so they can decide quickly what to do. But if it leaves the screen locked that shouldn't be a problem, and if you don't have the pop-up alert enabled then you don't see the name unless you pull down the notifications.

What phone do you have? I'm beginning to wonder whether there isn't something in the phone's settings, or maybe another app, that is telling it to bypass the PIN and keep the screen on when you have notifications present. Also check your lockscreen app's settings I guess.
 
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You may be right about this being a phone setting for my Galaxy S5, but I can't find any information on how to change any settings or a way to configure calendar event notifications. PLEASE tell me someone knows a way to fix this??

If this can never be fixed I'll end up having to get rid of the phone (give it to a family member and have it reset then the number changed so they can set it up as their own phone on our family plan.) The main reason why I got this phone was because I need a good phone for organizing my day. This phone is causing me a very big problem.
 
Given that you've identified this as probably phone-specific, I'm going to move this to the SGS5 forum for you - hopefully someone there has the answer.
 
Well..... technically I still don't know, but go ahead if you think it'll help. I hope someone can help me there.
 
Blue Moon said:
Well..... technically I still don't know, but go ahead if you think it'll help.
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I think that between Business Calendar, Calengoo and the calendar alarm that Hadron mentioned, you had a fair representation of what to try - so let's see if it's an S5 thing.

If you get no traction here, drop me a line or hit the report button and it can be cheerfully moved back, no problem.
 
Well I figured out the screen problem.... I have NO idea how but somehow the screen auto shut off was at 10 minutes! How... I mean, I don't even know how that happened. :mad:

Anyway, two problems are still unresolved. Event reminders of any kind from any application ignore my PIN # security and display the private event's name right on the screen for anyone to see. Once in a while I might leave my phone behind on a desk or a counter. How would you feel if you came back into a room and everyone was laughing at you because your phone told the whole room you had an embarrassing medical appointment that day? That would really suck. Do other people have this trouble with other android phones? You should have to enter your security PIN #, Password, etc before being able to see the appointment right? I'm using To Do Reminder to hold me over, until I can find a calendar app which I desperately need, but this one is not only displaying the event name but letting you make changes to the appointment through the event alert window without having to enter a PIN. That's just stupid! Someone could completely turn off that appointment without having to enter the PIN.

Second Problem is events only go off once but it seems to be limited to individual calendar/scheduling apps.
 
Okay
Hadron said:
Well as I said I use Calendar Snooze to handle my reminders, and that certainly does repeat and doesn't keep the screen on.

Actually I think some of your issues must be something to do with your phone's setup rather than Android generally or the specific calendar apps. I've just been experimenting with BC2's alerts rather than Calendar Snooze and for me they do not turn the screen on, do not bypass the PIN code, and they also do repeat if I have set them to do so (BC2's reminder settings, set whether you want repeats, interval and how many repeats - it didn't let me set more than 50 repeats though ;)). So for me those aspects work fine, so I wonder why they didn't for you?

Displaying the name of the event is a feature of every calendar/reminder I've seen. Generally people want to see what it is a reminder for so they can decide quickly what to do. But if it leaves the screen locked that shouldn't be a problem, and if you don't have the pop-up alert enabled then you don't see the name unless you pull down the notifications.

What phone do you have? I'm beginning to wonder whether there isn't something in the phone's settings, or maybe another app, that is telling it to bypass the PIN and keep the screen on when you have notifications present. Also check your lockscreen app's settings I guess.
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By pop-up alert are you referring to the reminder that goes off repeatedly until you answer it, as a whole or something specific within that process? Like the window that pops up to remind you? I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about. I don't see a setting for a pop-up reminder. I've been trying to figure out what you were talking about, but I give up. Please be patient with me if this is a stupid question. I'm definitely not used to this interface. Its so foreign to me! I'm usually good on computers but Android has been kicking my butt. I don't seem to be clicking with it like I do with windows.
 
In Business Calendar 2's settings, select Reminder > General > Reminder Mode. Options are notification, pop-up and none.

Pop-up pops a little box over the screen when it goes off (as noted, without bypassing pin on my device), whereas with notification only mode you don't see the appointment name until you pull the notification down.
 
Okay my head hurts from wrestling with this, but the original calendar app on my phone seems to be fighting with Business Calendar 2. When I set a date and reminder on the new app, the old calender adds it too, and adds a reminder with a pop up of its own, and Business Calendar doesn't even make a sound even though I gave it its own ring tone. I can't figure out how to separate the two and have business calendar 2 still work. If I delete the event from the original calendar, it's deleted from BC2. If I uncheck my gmail in BC2, then I can't add events. How do I get the original calendar app to stop butting in?
 
Blue Moon said:
Okay my head hurts from wrestling with this, but the original calendar app on my phone seems to be fighting with Business Calendar 2. When I set a date and reminder on the new app, the old calender adds it too, and adds a reminder with a pop up of its own, and Business Calendar doesn't even make a sound even though I gave it its own ring tone. I can't figure out how to separate the two and have business calendar 2 still work. If I delete the event from the original calendar, it's deleted from BC2. If I uncheck my gmail in BC2, then I can't add events. How do I get the original calendar app to stop butting in?
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Likely both calendars are just syncing to your Google account, so that's why they appeared tied together.

Turn off ALL notifications in your other calendar. That ought to put a good start on the problem.

Go to your main phone settings, Apps, All, and look for your calendar. Remember I don't have your phone, so only take this fwiw because this part of Android varies - but - your calendar may have a master turn off switch in there for notifications. Might not. Worth checking.

For peace of mind, see what storage your calendar is taking. I expect it's minimal and the real storage that both calendars are using for the most part are in a hidden calendar data app (or database). I think that's not uncommon.
 
Blue Moon said:
Okay my head hurts from wrestling with this, but the original calendar app on my phone seems to be fighting with Business Calendar 2. When I set a date and reminder on the new app, the old calender adds it too, and adds a reminder with a pop up of its own, and Business Calendar doesn't even make a sound even though I gave it its own ring tone. I can't figure out how to separate the two and have business calendar 2 still work. If I delete the event from the original calendar, it's deleted from BC2. If I uncheck my gmail in BC2, then I can't add events. How do I get the original calendar app to stop butting in?
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Personally, I would TurnOFF or uninstall the stock calendar app. At a minimum turn off notifications from it.
____________________________________
Verizon Galaxy S5, KK 4.4.4, ART
MyPhoneExplorer saves your tailbone
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns WiFi & Data ON
 
AZgl1500 said:
Personally, I would TurnOFF or uninstall the stock calendar app. At a minimum turn off notifications from it.
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I advocate caution on that as general advice - uninstalling the stock calendar.

We had another thread recently where someone did that and it created severe side effects. Again, because Android is a family with many variations on what goes on under the hood.

The ability to delete a stock app comes with root - always freeze an app rather than delete. You can unfreeze in a jiffy if it's an issue but restacking fallen dominoes from a delete is a pain in the keister. :D
 
Good point, on my stock Verizon S5, I just "turn off" stuff I don't want. Only remember once having to turn it back on. That was Google Services o_O
 
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