Privacy & permissions
Which Apps Have Access to Mac Reminders?
Find every app reading your Mac Reminders database, see what data is exposed, and revoke access from apps you don't use for tasks.
Reminders is the quiet permission category on macOS. Most users never grant it. But if you’ve used a third-party task app like Things, Todoist, or TickTick that imports from Apple Reminders — or set up a Shortcuts workflow that touches Reminders — you’ve granted access to apps that can read your full task list.
Here’s what the permission actually does, who legitimately needs it, and how to keep the list short.
What Reminders permission grants
When an app has Reminders access on macOS 14 Sonoma or 15 Sequoia, it can:
- Read every reminder across every list (iCloud, Exchange, on My Mac)
- Read titles, notes, due dates, locations, priorities, completed status
- Read smart lists and groups
- Write new reminders or edit existing ones if granted write access
It does not automatically:
- Touch Calendar (separate permission)
- Touch Notes (separate permission)
- Read other apps’ files
Reminders has a similar gradient to Calendar in macOS 14 Sonoma+: Full Access vs. Add Only vs. None. Add Only lets an app create reminders without reading existing ones — useful for things that just want to drop tasks in.
Where to find the list
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Reminders. Each app on the list has a control. Tap each to choose Full Access, Add Only, or None.
If the list is empty or short, that’s normal. Reminders is one of the less-requested permissions because the system Reminders app is good enough for most users without third-party clients.
Who legitimately needs Reminders access
A short list:
- Task managers — Things, Todoist, TickTick, OmniFocus, GoodTask, Reminders Menu Bar
- Calendar clients with task views — Fantastical, BusyCal, Notion Calendar
- Email apps with task creation — Mimestream, Spark, Airmail
- Note-taking apps — Bear, Obsidian (with relevant plugins), Drafts
- Shortcuts workflows that file tasks
- Time-tracking tools that turn reminders into time entries
Outside those, the legitimate reasons thin out fast. A photo editor doesn’t need Reminders. A music player doesn’t. Anything generic should be a flag.
Why the data matters
Your reminders include:
- Task titles (often things like “Pay rent,” “Pick up prescription,” “Email John about layoff”)
- Notes (sometimes account numbers, addresses, sensitive context)
- Due dates and locations (where you’ll be when you do this)
- Smart list rules (tags and patterns you’ve set up)
The notes field gets people. Reminders is often used for capturing context-rich one-off things, and people put in details they’d hesitate to put on a public list. Anyone with full access reads it all.
When Add Only is the right choice
Many integrations are write-only — they want to drop tasks into your Reminders without reading what’s there. Examples:
- A web clipper that turns articles into “read later” reminders
- A text expander shortcut that adds a reminder
- A workflow that files tickets as reminders
For these, Add Only is sufficient. Set the app to Add Only and the privacy footprint drops dramatically — the app can still do its job but can’t read everything you’ve ever put in Reminders.
How to revoke
In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Reminders, click the row for the app and choose None. The app may need to relaunch.
If the app was relying on read access and you flip it off, the relevant feature stops working until you grant again. macOS reprompts cleanly the next time the app tries.
Exchange and shared lists
If you’ve added a work account that syncs Reminders via Exchange, those work tasks merge into your local Reminders database. Apps with Reminders permission see the merged view. The same goes for shared iCloud Reminders lists — anything shared in shows up in the database, and anything with the toggle on reads them.
Worth knowing if you collaborate on shared lists with people who’d prefer their tasks not be visible to your third-party tools.
Sandbox apps and Reminders
App Store apps need the com.apple.security.personal-information.calendars entitlement (Apple groups Calendar and Reminders under one entitlement family). Sandboxed apps with the toggle on read the same data as non-sandboxed apps.
The advantage of sandboxed apps is in what they can do with the data after reading. Their network egress is restricted to declared endpoints. Direct-download apps have no such limit.
Apple’s first-party apps
Reminders, Calendar, Notes, and so on don’t appear in the toggle list — they’re Apple’s own and integrate at the system level. You don’t manage their access via Privacy & Security; you manage them via account settings (Internet Accounts, iCloud sign-in) or by signing out of the Apple ID entirely.
Audit checklist
Once or twice a year is enough for Reminders since it’s a low-traffic permission:
- Open
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Reminders - Confirm each app on the list is one you actively use for tasks
- Downgrade Full Access to Add Only where appropriate
- Toggle None for anything you can’t justify
- Remove ghost entries
What if I don’t use third-party task apps?
Then your Reminders list should be empty or close to it. Apple’s Reminders app, Calendar, and Mail don’t appear here — they’re system-integrated. If the list is empty, leave it that way. If it has entries, audit them.
What about Shortcuts?
Shortcuts that interact with Reminders generate Automation grants, not Reminders grants. They show up in Privacy & Security → Automation under Shortcuts.app, with Reminders as a child. So if your Shortcuts library has tasks-related shortcuts, the relevant audit is in the Automation pane, not the Reminders pane.
Reminders is one of the simplest permissions to audit because the legitimate-use list is narrow and most users only have one or two task tools. If you’re not in the deep end of productivity nerdery, your list might be a single entry or none. Either way, the toggle is yours to control.