Tired of watching Reminders pile up hundreds and hundreds of completed tasks? Do you have no use for such an archive? Find out here how to delete all completed tasks in Apple Reminders on a Mac and keep your lists lean.
First, Think of Molly When You Set a Goal
When you set a goal, think of Molly, the (entirely hypothetical) ice cream vendor (“Molly’s Melts!”).
Balancing her free time, customer satisfaction and a comfortable income, Molly set a goal of selling 50 liters (13 gallons) of her delicious ice cream per day.
In the summer, she sets up shop at 9 in the morning—and goes home at 10:30, also in the morning.
In winter, she spends days on the beach without ever selling anything—at ridiculously low prices.
One dark day, it thaws on her: if she worked just another 90 minutes in summer (maybe to sweeten romantic sunsets) and not at all in winter, she’d work far less and make a lot more.
Now, done a lot already in Reminders? Do very little now to clean up:
How to Delete All Completed Tasks in Apple Reminders for Mac
Time needed: 1 minute
To purge Apple Reminders on a Mac from all completed reminders at once:
- Go to the Completed smart list in Apple Reminders for Mac.
“Completed”: See below for showing the Completed smart list.
Just one list: You can also remove completed reminders for a particular list, of course; see below.
Alternative: Instead of Completed, you can also open the All smart list. - Click Clear next to the completed tasks’ count.
No “Clear”: If you do not see Clear or completed tasks for the list, scroll all the way up; if you have no completed tasks (on the current list), Clear will not appear at all.
- Select All Completed from the menu that has appeared.
Delete, but not all: Choose Older than a Month to remove all tasks completed more than 30 days ago; if you have no tasks older than 30 days, the choice will not appear.
- Click Delete.
No undoing: The action, once completed, cannot be undone and the completed reminders once deleted no longer recovered.
if you want to avoid cleaning up altogether, you can delete reminders as you complete them (instead of completing them).
For repeating tasks, Reminders will ask you whether you want to delete just one instance or all; choose Delete This Reminder Only to have Reminders set up a new task on the next due date.
Catch up with the new: How to Catch up and Postpone Fast in Reminders for Mac
Show the Completed Smart List in Apple Reminders
To have Apple Reminders show the Completed smart list on a Mac:
- Select View | Show Smart List | Completed from the menu in Reminders.
Checkmark: If Completed already has a checkmark, do not select it; the list is already visible. - Now select View | Go To | Completed from the menu.
Sidebar: You can also select the Completed list in sidebar, of course.
Delete Completed Reminders for a List
To remove completed tasks for just one list in Apple Reminders on a Mac:
- Open the list whose completed tasks you want to delete.
- Scroll up until you see the number of completed reminders on the top.
- Click Clear.
- Select All Completed or Older than a Month to delete all or older completed reminders.
- Confirm with Delete.
If you have completed all tasks on a list, you can just as well delete the entire list, of course.
Delete Select Completed Reminders
You can also remove individual completed tasks:
- Open the list that holds the completed task.
All in “All”: You can use the All or Completed lists, of course. - Scroll to the very top.
- Click Show next to Completed if present.
Reminders keyboard shortcut: You can press Command Shift H to show or hide completed reminders for a list. - Find the completed reminder you want to clear.
Search: You can also press Command F to focus Reminder search, type the reminder to look for it, then press Command Shift H to show completed results. - Swipe over the reminder from the right to delete it.
With the keyboard: You can also highlight the completed reminder to purge and press Backspace.
How to Delete All Completed Tasks in Apple Reminders for Mac: FAQ
Can I automate deleting completed reminders?
No.
Reminders cannot currently delete completed reminders automatically. You can set up a reminder to, well, delete completed reminders repeatedly, of course.
Will deleted reminders synchronize?
Yes.
Apple Reminders will synchronize deletion of completed reminders to other instances of Reminders on iPhones, iPads and Macs (as well as iCloud.com).
(How to delete all completed tasks in Apple Reminders for Mac tested with macOS Sonoma 14.2; updated February 2024)