Every all-day reminder you create in the iPhone’s Reminders app has one thing in common: if you don’t give it a time, it alerts you at 9:00 AM. That default works fine for plenty of people, but if you would rather get your all-day nudges at 7:30 in the morning or 8 in the evening, changing the time on every single reminder is tedious.
Fortunately, iOS lets you change the default alert time for all-day reminders in one place. Set it once, and every all-day reminder you create from then on will use your preferred time. Here is how.
How all-day reminders work by default
An all-day reminder is a reminder with a due date but no specific time — the kind you set for birthdays, bill due dates, or “call the dentist.” When you create one, iOS assigns it the system default alert time of 9:00 AM in your current time zone. Apple’s own Reminders support guide confirms this: set a due date without a time and the notification appears at 9:00 AM. The setting below replaces that default with a time of your choosing.
How to set a default time for all-day reminders
Follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap Apps, then tap Reminders.
- Under All-Day Reminders, tap the current time (it shows 9:00 AM by default).
- Pick the time you want all-day reminders to alert you. The change applies immediately, and every new all-day reminder will use it.
What this setting changes — and what it doesn’t
This setting only affects all-day reminders. Reminders with a specific time keep their own time, so your carefully scheduled alerts stay exactly where you put them. And if you use reminders on both iPhone and Android, remember this default lives in your iPhone’s Settings, so it applies to the notifications your iPhone delivers.
Note that on newer iOS versions the Reminders settings sit under Settings > Apps > Reminders. On older releases they appear directly in the main Settings list — so if you can’t find the Apps section, just scroll down to Reminders in Settings itself.
If it still doesn’t work
If an all-day reminder still fires at 9:00 AM after you change the setting, double-check that you edited the time under All-Day Reminders and not the time of a single reminder. Also confirm notifications are enabled for the Reminders app under Settings > Notifications > Reminders. And if the alert arrives at a completely wrong hour, check your time zone — all-day reminders follow your current time zone, so travel or a wrongly set clock can shift them. For something truly time-critical, consider setting an alarm for an urgent reminder instead of relying on a reminder alone.
FAQ
Can I set different default times for different reminder lists?
No. The All-Day Reminders time is a single global setting that applies to every all-day reminder on your iPhone. If one reminder needs a different time, open it and set a custom time on that reminder individually — or add an extra reminder for an important event as a backup.
Does this change the time on reminders I already created?
Reminders you already created keep whatever time they had. The new default applies to all-day reminders created after the change. For existing ones, open each reminder and set its time manually.
Wrapping up
It is a small setting in an easy-to-miss place, but the All-Day Reminders default time makes your morning (or evening) routine noticeably smoother. Set it once in Settings > Apps > Reminders, and your all-day reminders will finally show up when you actually want to see them.
