Reminders behaving erratically

I’m having trouble with reminders. They never seem to go off when I set them. Sometimes they never happen, and sometimes, they go off at random times. This happens when I set them to go off once and display a notification, or when I set them to run a script at a certain time. I thought it had to do with whether DT3 was open or not when the reminder was supposed to go off, but this morning, the reminder below was set to go off while DT3 was open and running, and nothing happened. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Other reminders set to run programs at 8am are running at 2:14pm and other random times, even when DT3 is open all day. What is supposed to happen when DT3 is not active during the time when a reminder is set to go off? Is it supposed to go off as soon as DT3 becomes active again, or is it supposed to skip? Are reminders known to be buggy? Is there possibly something I am setting incorrectly? My clock on my mac is correctly set to the right time.

One time reminders (“Once”) are never automatically removed due to requests, e.g. to sort items by due date. The handling of notifications depends on System Preferences > Notification Center > DEVONthink 3.

I checked my notifications, and they are set correctly to appear. Do you have any idea why a reminder set as the one above wouldn’t go off, or is this likely to be a bug? Also, some of my reminders do run the script they are supposed to run, but they don’t run it at the time the reminder is set for, and I can’t figure out why. Should I submit a bug report?

See above, such reminders never go off.

A screenshot of the reminder would be useful. In addition, was the computer awake and DEVONthink 3 running?

The script is a repeating reminder that is supposed to run at 6am. It sometimes goes off and sometimes doesn’t. I am usually on my computer by 5am, though not everyday and DT3 is always open when I am on my computer. It often goes off around 2:30 or 2:50pm, and sometimes in the morning, and sometimes it seems to run twice in one day and other days does not run. I haven’t quite figured out if those correlate to the days when I am not on my computer at 6am.

Here is the reminder screenshot:

For reference, the script is the one discussed here, but I don’t think it matters.

What is the expected behavior if DT3 is closed when during the time the reminder is set to? Is the script expected to run when DT3 opens next, or will it not run until the next reminder time? Is this also true of “once” reminders? If DT3 is closed during the reminder set time, then the script will never run, even when DT3 is later opened? I think this is true, but I just want to confirm.

Overdue reminders will be performed the next time DEVONthink is opened.

My issue with reminders has been resolved and led to a new question. I have reminders set on certain items that run an external script to move those items into a new group early in the morning (6am). At around 7am, I open DT3 and click on the group, expecting to see all of the items that should be populated there by the reminders. However, the reminders don’t ‘activate’ or run the scripts until I do something else in DT3, such as create a new item, or add a group. Just clicking around through groups and looking at things doesn’t work. It is mildly annoying to have to make and delete a new note to see my morning list, so I thought I would ask if there is any way to get the scripts/reminders to run in the morning in some other way. What would a script look like that asks DT3 to check for all outstanding reminders and ‘run’ them? Is there already something in DT3 that does this? Thanks

Could you please post a screenshot of the reminder plus the code of the script? Thank you. In addition, what exactly is the purpose of those reminders? Maybe it’s easier to achieve this using smart groups or rules.

Sure. I can explain, but it is an imperfect system that I am using because it (mostly) works for me and I haven’t had a chance to optimize it. I make a note for each ToDo item anywhere in the database leading it with ‘%T’. These items live in groups relevant to the task, but I also have a catch all group ‘___TO DO’ to add random ToDo items as needed. I have a smart group that gathers all of the ‘%T’ items as a list of all the things I might do, and from there I label some of the tasks green, which are gathered in another smart group of things I will do Today. The ‘Today’ smart group also picks up items labeled orange, which I use to indicate items that are moved onto my Today list via reminders. These often (but not always) originate from a group ‘Tickler’ which is tagged ‘Tickler’. Items with the tag ‘Tickler’ do not show up in my ‘Today’ smart group. The reminder runs an external script that will make an item show up in my Today list by (1) moving it out of the group ‘Tickler’ and into ‘__TO DO’, (2) labeling it orange, and (3) removing the tag ‘Tickler’. Except, I didn’t know how to remove a specific tag from an item or remove all tags, I only knew how to set tags, so I change the tags of the item to a dummy tag (I was going to figure this out when I had time).

The reminders are often put on ToDo items that I want to show up in my Today list on a certain date if I haven’t gotten to them yet, or they are put on recurring items (I have a similar script for recurring items that duplicates a task in ‘__TO DO’ rather than moving it there). They are generally set to go off at 6am. I check my smart list first thing in the morning, but the reminders don’t run until I change a file or do something in DT.

Here is screenshot of the reminder:
Screen Shot 2020-01-12 at 12.49.34 AM

And here is the code:

on performReminder(theRecord)
tell application id “DNtp”
set theDatabase to open database “~/Databases/Main.dtBase2”
set theGroup to ( get record at “/__TO DO”) in theDatabase
set newRecord to move record theRecord to theGroup
set reminder of newRecord to {}
set label of theRecord to 5
set the tags of newRecord to “__TODO TAGS”
end tell
end performReminder

I’m confused.

The code you have in the Reminder would be executed on the 16th at 6am, i.e., when the alarm goes off. Is that as intended and this is just a future example?

Yes, this is just a future example. I have many of these. This is a general problem that I have with reminders that I set regularly. When I get up tomorrow, there will be some reminders that I have set to go off tomorrow at 6am, and when I open my Today group at 8am, the script will not have run yet. It will not run until I do something active, like create a new file. Just clicking on the smart group or viewing various groups inside DT3 is not enough to make it run the reminders.

What does your smart group look like?

Here are some screenshots. I actually also gather things labeled red and yellow so I can prioritize tasks by changing the label. The orange tasks are things that have been populated based on reminders running my script.
Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 10.21.14 AM

Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 10.21.50 AM