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Kylmakalle / apple-reminders-exporter

Export Apple Reminders to JSON on macOS, using Shortcuts.app
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Apple Reminders Exporter

Export Apple Reminders to JSON on macOS, using Shortcuts.app and a bite of Python

See also Apple Notes Exporter

  1. Clone repository (Terminal)
git clone https://github.com/Kylmakalle/apple-reminders-exporter
cd apple-reminders-exporter
  1. Install Export Reminders Shortcut using Link or open "Export Reminders.shortcut" file
  2. Shortucts.app > Settings > Advanced > Allow Sharing Large Amounts of Data
  3. Run make
    1. Shortcuts.app will ask for your approval to save Reminders as Dictionaries (JSON). Click Allow.
    2. If you miss-clicked or something does not work, Go to Export Reminders Shortcut > (i) Shotcut details > Privacy > Reset Privacy and Try again.
  4. Done! You can find JSON files at reminders directory

macOS Shortcut source

Probably, you're here because you don't want to lose your data due to various reasons. Me too. I don't trust .shortcuts format much, that's why you can find visual source of Export Notes.shortcut in shortcut-source.

Shortcut source

Tips & Tricks

  1. Export is not supported for Smart Lists. However, with JSON it should be pretty easy to replicate filters and behaviour for system of your choice.
    1. For some reason, we can't export value of "When Messaging Person". Shortcut execution simply hangs.
  2. It takes about 10 minutes to export 1000 reminders (for me).
  3. Filters for Find Reminders action does not work. If you want to export only specific folders, add second Find Reminders action that will consume Reminders variable from first Find. Here you will be able to successfully filter the Reminders.
  4. Reminders are actually .ics files. However, it looks like some other metadata lies in internal/undocumented databases.

Alternative Approaches

While I think exporting via Shortcuts.app is more-or-less official and should less likely to break in the future, here's what I've found: