What if Outlook Reminders Have Stopped Working?

There are many tenable excuses for missing important meetings or being late for appointments—your car broke down, you caught the flu, or even your dog ate your laptop! However, Microsoft Outlook reminders not popping up shouldn’t be one of them!

If you are struggling with Outlook reminders, we wrote this article just for you. It does not matter—whether your reminders are giving you a silent treatment or they are dropping by at random times of the day—we are going to fix the issue together. 

First, we discuss why you may be having these problems, and then, of course, we give you the easiest and fastest solutions.

Why Are Outlook Reminders Not Popping Up?

Before we go any further, you need to know: there are many reasons why your reminders are not popping up. Sometimes, the problem might be as a result of different factors working together.

As such, we need to start by showing you why Outlook reminders might suddenly stop working and the symptoms to look out for:

• Date and time settings are incorrect

If your system clock is off, it will likely affect your reminders. This might be the reason why you do not see these reminders at all, or sometimes they appear at the wrong time. 

• Recent software updates

Did you recently give Outlook or Windows an update? That might be the reason your Outlook Calendar reminders are not popping up. While updates might fix issues, they can also come with compatibility problems.

Read more: Windows Update Troubleshooter: Fixing Windows Update Issues

• Delivery location set to None

Outlook’s delivery location setting describes where to put your reminders on the screen. If for some reason you set this to None (maybe someone used your computer), it might be the reason you keep complaining, “My Outlook reminders are not working!”

• Outlook is not running

As funny as it sounds, the problem might be that you completely closed Outlook, or it’s not set to start automatically with Windows. This is important because Outlook needs to be running—at least in the background—for your Outlook Calendar reminders to pop up.

• Corrupted Outlook profile

If your Outlook profile is corrupted, it can cause many problems, and Outlook Calendar reminders not popping up should be the least of your worries. 

You might be dealing with even more issues—slow performance, vanishing emails, and error messages popping up left and right when you’re trying to send or receive messages. These can be a result of incompatible software or other technical gremlins lurking in your computer. 

• Disabled reminders

Here’s a wild thought—have you checked if your reminders are actually turned on? Well, it sounds way too obvious, right? But trust me, sometimes it’s these ridiculously simple things.

Maybe you turned them off during a busy day and forgot, or maybe Outlook itself had a glitch and turned off the reminders. 

• Conflicting add-ins: 

Add-ins are “technically” supposed to make Outlook better but can sometimes cause compatibility issues. Of course, Outlook meeting reminders not popping up is one of them. These conflicts might be caused by add-in bugs, which could interfere with regular Outlook functions.

• Oversized Outlook Data File

Microsoft Outlook is just like the filing cabinet in your office. If you continue to stuff the cabinet with files, there will come a time when it will be so full that the drawers won’t take any new files. 

The same applies when your Outlook Data File (.pst or .ost) has too many items in it. 

As this file grows, Outlook starts struggling to keep up—everything slows down, including your reminder system. 

Might find interesting: How to Download All Emails from Server in Outlook

How To Fix Outlook Reminders Not Popping Up?

Now that we’ve identified potential causes, how do you fix the issue with your Outlook reminders not working? The very first thing is to ensure that reminders are actually enabled in your Outlook settings.

Fix 1: Enable reminders in Outlook

It might not sound like the tech fix you are looking for, but simple solutions are sometimes the best. The process may vary slightly depending on your version of Outlook:

Enable reminders in Outlook 2016

• Go to File > Options > Advanced.
• Under Reminders, make sure the box next to Show reminders is checked.

Enable reminders in Outlook 2010

• Click on File > Options > Calendar.
• Under Calendar options, ensure Default reminders is checked.

Enable reminders in Outlook 2007

• Go to Tools > Options > Preferences tab.
• Click Calendar Options and make sure Default reminder is checked.

With all that done, set a reminder in Outlook and see if things are back to normal.

Fix 2: Clear existing reminders

Still experiencing issues? Maybe you have too many reminders piling up. You should try deleting your old reminders; that way, you can create space for new ones:

• In Outlook, go to View > Reminders Window.
• Select all Outlook reminders in the list.
• Click Dismiss All.

If you can’t see any reminders, create a calendar event or a task to check if the problem is resolved. In case the problem remains, try the following:

• Press the Windows key + R to bring up the Run box.
• Type the following into the box and click OK or hit the Enter key:

outlook /cleanreminders

• If that doesn’t work, reopen the Run box and try this instead, not forgetting to hit the Enter key as well:

outlook /resetfolders

Both commands basically do the same thing—clearing reminders so you can start afresh. This should resolve the issue.

Fix 3: Check date and time settings

We already established that Microsoft Outlook works with your computer’s time. To fix the problem, you can right-click on the clock in the taskbar and select Adjust date and time.

Ensure the Set time automatically setting is turned on. Also confirm that your time zone is correct.

Fix 4: Modify the Windows Registry key

The Windows Registry is a database that contains configuration settings that control many Microsoft applications, including Microsoft Outlook. 

This database contains some keys that can impact how Outlook manages reminders in different ways, such as enabling, disabling, or customizing reminder behavior. If, for some reason, you changed something here, there is a high possibility this might be the culprit. 

• Press the Windows key + R, type “regedit,” and press Enter.

• Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Options\Reminders

• If the Reminders key doesn’t exist, right-click on Options, select New > Key, and name it “Reminders.”“

• Right-click in the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it “ReminderSound.”

• Double-click ReminderSound and set its value to 1.

Important read: Simple Guide on How to Clear Outlook Cache

Fix 5: Create a new Outlook profile

When you have damaged configuration files or broken registry links, your Outlook profile may become corrupted.

Creating a new Outlook profile solves this problem:

• Close Outlook.
• Open Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles.
• Click Add to create a new profile.

• Follow the prompts to set up your email account.
• Set the new profile as the default.

Fix 6: Update Outlook and Windows

Keeping Windows up to date can resolve many issues, including situations where Outlook Calendar reminders are not popping up.

• For Outlook, go to File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now.
• For Windows, go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates.

Fix 7: Disable and re-enable add-ins

To troubleshoot issues with add-ins, you need to disable add-ins one at a time in the Add-Ins window, then try to set a reminder. After that, re-install the add-ins one at a time and see which one is causing the problems.

• In Outlook, go to File > Options > Add-Ins.

• At the bottom, select COM Add-ins from the dropdown and click Go.

• Uncheck all add-ins and click OK.
• Restart Outlook and check if reminders work.
• If they do, re-enable add-ins one by one to identify the problematic one.

Fix 8: Repair the Outlook Data File

Repairing Outlook can be your last option if everything else fails. This process can fix various issues, including the problems you are having with your reminders.

• Close Microsoft Outlook.
• Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
• Run the application SCANPST.EXE.

• Click on Browse and select your Outlook Data File (.pst).

• Initiate the scan by clicking Start.
• If errors are detected, select Repair to fix them.

Outlook Reminders Not Popping Up: Fixed

At this point, your Outlook reminders should be functioning correctly again. You do not have to deal with missed meetings or late appointments.

But don’t lose hope just yet—if, regrettably, you are still unable to solve the problem—there is one last option. How about you do a clean reinstall of Outlook? If that sounds far-fetched, you may want to contact Microsoft Support for assistance.

By the way, if this helped you, drop a comment. Did any of these solutions work, or did you find a trick that helped that we forgot to mention? Drop your comments, and we will be glad to have them. More importantly, other users can also benefit from your feedback!

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