OmniFocus makes backups automatically! Reverting to an OmniFocus for Mac database backup - Support - The Omni Group
I’ve never attempted a revert, so I guess I’m still overly trusting.
I don’t understand why this doesn’t solve the problem. With this method aren’t we, under most circumstances, “protected” by having a way to restore Reminders?
Restore your reminders on iCloud.com
You can restore your reminders and reminder lists (together with your calendars and events) from an earlier version that was automatically archived in iCloud.
If you have shared reminder lists, all sharing information is removed when you restore them. You have to share your reminder lists again, and ask other people to reinvite you to share their reminder lists.
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If you don’t have shared reminder lists, go to the next step.If you do have shared reminder lists, write down which ones you’re sharing, who you invited to share each one, and whether each participant can view and edit or only view. Also note which reminder lists other people are sharing with you.
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On iCloud.com, click
in the toolbar, then click Data Recovery. -
Click Restore Calendars and Reminders.Available versions are listed by the date and time they were archived.
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To the right of the version you want to restore, click Restore.There may be more versions than can be displayed. Scroll to see them all.
5.Note:* Wait until iCloud finishes restoring your reminder lists before you change them. During the restore process, any changes you make aren’t saved.
- If you had shared reminder lists, reshare them and ask other people to reinvite you to share their reminder lists and calendars. See Share a reminder list on iCloud.com.
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Per @kevindern terrifying story, this method was not possible due to some failure on Apple’s side. In the end it is about backup ownership and responsibility. Either you rely on iCloud never failing, or you perform your backup strategy due dilligences yourself. That’s normal and needs to be considered for all the apps and data we use, but in the case of Reminders it is not easy to do your own backups.
Note to add that I am not stating that @kevindern did anything wrong by himself! If Apple says they are doing backups… then they are doing backups and it’s their fault these backups cannot be restored.
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I presume then that, like Apple, third-party apps have backup schemes, and at the end of the day, any of them could fail. That said, I get the impression, perhaps wrong, that while it is challenging to do personal backups of Apple Reminders, it is easier to back up third-party to-do apps like OF and Things. This assumes that the databases for OF and Things are more readily available and accessible on the Mac hard drive so that those databases can be included on external backup drives and BackBlaze.
Am I thinking correctly about this?
That’s my take.
I tried Apple notes a while back and ran a backup for testing purposes using Time Machine. It worked, but then 2 mins later it reverted to the way it was just prior to the backup. I suspect due to syncing with the cloud/other devices.
It was a huge hassle to back things up and restore them in a manner that made sense. I didn’t have similar issues w third party apps.
The Apple stuff seems cryptic and hidden.
I’m trying not to overreact based on this thread.
That said, I have ALL my to-dos in Reminders, including all of my work tasks related to critical projects. Reminders has worked perfectly with no issues (something I cannot say about Notes, which is why I do a monthly export of Notes to DT) up to this point. But there is no export option in Reminders.
The thought of losing all of my tasks in Reminders and not being able to restore from a backup is, to put it mildly, concerning. I hate the thought of moving back to a third-party solution (e.g., OF or Things), but losing my tasks would be worse. I’m just weighing the actual risks versus an emotional fear-based overreaction. 
Thoughts on this?
I wouldn’t switch over this. It’s really unusual. My advice to ya when Notes gave you trouble:
Time for me to tell my Notes story. Yes it isn’t Reminders, but the same suspicions apply! My notes are shared across my desk iMac, iPhone, and travel MBP via iCloud. The iMac and iPhone are running 24/7. Anyway, one day I went to my Notes and a whole bunch of them (in this case notes about various wines) were gone! Thanks to synchronization in the cloud, they were missing on both my iMac and my iPhone. Deleted notes are supposed to be recoverable, according to Apple, but they had completely vanished with no recovery possible! There is supposed to be a Deleted Notes folder in Notes that appears when you delete a note, but this did not happen.
Then I got the idea. I shut off WiFi in my home and started up my MBP. Because it couldn’t synchronize with WiFi unavailable, the notes appeared! I copied them to “On My Mac”, turned WiFi back on, and then copied the notes back to iCloud. This also restored them on my phone and iMac. If I hadn’t shut off the home WiFi and did the copying those notes would have been completely lost.
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Well, that doesn’t make me feel much better! 
Ironically, I’m copying your response to Notes for future reference in case I need it to restore my Notes. How is that for convoluted thinking? 
I’d consider moving my notes to Obsidian, but dealing with attachments, especially on mobile, is a pain.
Woooooof this thread hurt to read.
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For all I have read about how you work with Notes and methodically export to Devonthink, I would say that you are very safe regarding Notes, as you can recover your knowledge from Devon (in case of an Apple Notes disaster) or an offline backup (in case of a physical disaster with your machine).
Regarding Reminders… well it depends on your aversion to risk. Cultured Code publishes this information on how you can backup your Things database and although it is in SQLite format (so it’s trickier to move to another todo app) it’s a unique file that you could backup to an external disk and recover in a new Things installation. Omnifocus even has periodic reminders to backup your tasks.
One could argue that a problem with iCloud Reminders is remote, and it is, yet here we are all in this thread.
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I also moved to Reminders a few months ago just try it out, and this thread make me a bit nervous 
. I have been playing with the “reminders-cli” app to do some integration with Alfred and it might also be possible to backup (or at least) export reminders with some scripting. I do not know if it will export all details, but at least it’s something.
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Do you have an iPhone or iPad? If so are Reminders synced to it?
If yes then you may be able to Restore your iPhone or iPad to a prior iCloud backup. If you do that then the Reminders should be as of that prior date/time.
One would need to know if the iPhone/iPad iCloud backup will back up Reminders. It might not anything already in iCloud. The claim is that it will back up “your most important data” but doesn’t specify what that is. If you back up the iPhone/iPad to a Mac then it backs up "all of the data ".
Exactly. It’s the opacity of the details about syncing and backing up via Apple’s systems that makes me nervous.
Years ago (probably about 4 years), I tried to help a client restore a colossally screwed up situation — I can’t recall if it was Apple Notes or Contacts or Reminders. She had an iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I tried what I thought was a logical sequence of taking all but one device offline, fixing the data, then bringing them back online one at a time to sync. It always looked like the fixed data worked, but then it would revert to the old, corrupted data from the last backup. Then I tried wiping the data from devices before taking them offline. Still no dice.
Finally a long call to Apple tech support got me through the correct sequence to prevent the old backup data from poisoning the sync, but it required tech support changing something on their end.
In short, I love iCloud sync when it works. But if it fails, you are at the utter mercy of Apple’s own backups and they don’t seem to be taking it seriously enough. What @kevindern experienced is not acceptable.
At least, not for critical data — which for me is my to-do system, since it is also a planning tool. I will stick with OmniFocus. I once had to restore a OF database, and I got immediate support and was up and running with minimal data loss.
It seems like they could, at minimum, allow people to export, all at once, a PDF that contains all of the their reminder lists with their individual entries. It’s not so useful for backup, but at least they could get at their data! You can do this on a Mac, but only list one at a time. Tedious. Same for notes — you can’t select more than one note and get a pdf that contains all of the info; it only contains the first note in the selection. Sigh.
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Bmosbacker, I share your initial thoughts. I reloaded OF v.3 and will run them concurrently for awhile. OF v4 beta is too buggy for my taste.
I’ve just checked my iMazing backup of my phone and reminders are not backed up by that - however Notes are.
I had not thought to run them concurrently for a while; that is a good idea. How did you get your tasks from Reminders to OF? I have 304 tasks in Reminders and many of them have recurring dates (some daily, some weekly, monthly, etc.).
I did not have that many — so, I took the time to retype them in. 
Even if I had 304, I would still retype them. OF can import from Reminders but then it removes them. Also, you will still have to review each one to make sure the repeating aspect is correct.
I would just take a project at a time. Type each reminder one after another. Go back and add the repeating aspects. Do this over several days.
Eventually, I will have to decide which system to keep as it is a hassle working both concurrently. YMMV. Keep us posted on your progress.