Calendar Reminders - When to Leave

Dewg

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I've got my M8 synced with my Office 365 account, so my work calendar is on the phone. Cortana is set to remind me about calendar events and offer me traffic and "leave now" reminders.

However, I've never seen one come through. How does Cortana remind you when it's time to leave for an event? Is it a verbal notice, or does the live tile change, or you get a notification sound, or is there something on the lock screen?

When I had Google Now on Android, it would play my text message notification sound and then put an alert in my lock screen and notification screen that it was time to leave for an appointment (and the time to get there with traffic).
 

Dewg

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Yes - they do. Example location: 1000 Main St., Irvine, CA 92614

The appointment in Outlook has a 15 minute reminder set. My phone goes off at 15 mins to the time, as I would expect. But I've not seen Cortana warn me earlier. Or maybe she did, but I didn't know what to look for.

What does a Cortana reminder look like? For a 3PM appointment, does she say "Leave by 2:30PM to get there with traffic"? Is it a visual cue, with navigation map info? I don't know what I'm looking for.
 

Nerdy Woman

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I just got my first reminder.

The reminder is text on Cortana's live tile and when you open app, map is displayed. Tapping map opens your default nav app (I use here drive), already to give you turn by turn.

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What still blows my mind is how incredibly accurate the ETA is, even with So Calif drivetime traffic.

Tonight, I hit every red light taking surface streets 8 miles to event and arrived one minute ahead of here drive ETA.

Lesson? Set appt time 10-15 minutes prior to actual start. If start is at 6 and drive time is 32 mins, Cortana will notify you at 5:28 that it's time to leave.
 
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WPit

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The "when to leave" reminder shows up on lock screen with snooze, dismiss option and an alarm sound, but that's my L 925. Don't know about M8, should be the same though. Notification on live tile works too, with more anticipation. Thing is, cortana learns your routine, and still is in beta. Let's say that you leave and you're far from late to an appointment, she won't alert you either, you know. Cortana's weather live tile always shows up in mornings. It's part of the routine stuff. And fill your complete address, with city name. I use Here+ as my default GPS, have daily commutes saved as favorites, also places under cortana's notebook, and interests. A pro tip is, always use cortana, access her interests options and save new configs often, then she will work. It is indeed a cool feature!
 
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Dewg

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Another question for those that have it working correctly:

If you have an appointment scheduled in your calendar, let's say about 30 mins drive time away. And the appointment has a reminder set for 2 hours prior. The phone alerts you 2 hours early and gives you "Snooze" and "Dismiss".

If you dismiss the alert - will Cortana still tell you when to leave for the appointment about 30 mins before? Or do you have to snooze it for her to work?
 

Nerdy Woman

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Another question for those that have it working correctly:

If you have an appointment scheduled in your calendar, let's say about 30 mins drive time away. And the appointment has a reminder set for 2 hours prior. The phone alerts you 2 hours early and gives you "Snooze" and "Dismiss".

If you dismiss the alert - will Cortana still tell you when to leave for the appointment about 30 mins before? Or do you have to snooze it for her to work?

Since Cortana will remind you that it's time to go even if you haven't set a reminder within the calendar using any one of the umpteen advance notice times, I don't think Cortana's "go now" notifications are dependent upon the calendar reminders.

You can always test that... just keep track of the time the way you did before there was a Cortana and see if she still does her thing.
 

fishes

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As to the locations in my calendar appointments, may I use the names of places I have added in Cortana's places? For example, I have added an address of my office and named it "work". May I use this name or am I supposed to enter the whole address again into the location input line in a calendar appointment? Hope I am clear.
 

Skamath

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Do your calendar events specify location?

I've just turned on this feature myself and added locations to my calendar events.

To start off I like your start screen nerdy ;) Would you be able to tell me if this is just for you Beta's that it works. I have the Alpha version in Aus and cant find a thing on how to turn the feature on :) Screen shots would be helpful to know what a Beta looks like.

On a tangent, How do I change location address that Cortana guessed as my Home address. It shows my home address to be 2 houses down the road!! It just asked me if my current location was home, I said yes to which she said I will make a note of that but GPS was way off.

I have tried long tap and hold on the address which gives only the copy function and the other one is to remove but no edit option.
 

Nerdy Woman

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To start off I like your start screen nerdy ;) Would you be able to tell me if this is just for you Beta's that it works. I have the Alpha version in Aus and cant find a thing on how to turn the feature on :) Screen shots would be helpful to know what a Beta looks like.

On a tangent, How do I change location address that Cortana guessed as my Home address. It shows my home address to be 2 houses down the road!! It just asked me if my current location was home, I said yes to which she said I will make a note of that but GPS was way off.

I have tried long tap and hold on the address which gives only the copy function and the other one is to remove but no edit option.

TY, on the start screen, Skamath. Snagged a Bing pic I liked, bumped the color with Pictures Lab, and used Start Perfect to get more transparent tiles. :D

My location frequently shows as a non-existent address on the busy street behind my home... on the opposite side of an 8 ft high cinderblock wall. LOL

For Cortana, go to your places and delete the incorrect information.

Now tap the + button to add a new favorite place. Type in your home address and save. you'll be given the option of calling that place home.
 

Nerdy Woman

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As to the locations in my calendar appointments, may I use the names of places I have added in Cortana's places? For example, I have added an address of my office and named it "work". May I use this name or am I supposed to enter the whole address again into the location input line in a calendar appointment? Hope I am clear.

I had the location that I shared in my screen shot above listed in Cortana as Brookhurst Hobbies, but I wasn't getting time to leave reminders from Cortana when I used "Brookhurst Hobbies" as the location in calendar events. So apparently, the calendar cannot do lookups on the Cortana's records and Cortana doesn't search her own list of favorite places when checking drive times to calendar events. :p
 

deadwrong03

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It shows up like a reminder does with the option to snooze or dismiss ironically it happened to me for the first time ever today
 

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Skamath

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TY, on the start screen, Skamath. Snagged a Bing pic I liked, bumped the color with Pictures Lab, and used Start Perfect to get more transparent tiles. :D More transparent tiles!:confused:?

My location frequently shows as a non-existent address on the busy street behind my home... on the opposite side of an 8 ft high cinderblock wall. LOL
8Ft Cinder Block Lmao. Sounds like this song. All in All, Cortana, Its another brick in the wall LOL
Now tap the + button to add a new favorite place. Type in your home address and save. you'll be given the option of calling that place home.+1 TYVM

Would you be able to tell me if this "leave now reminder" is just for you Beta's that it works. I have the Alpha version in Aus and cant find a thing on how to turn the feature on in Cortana :) Screen shots would be helpful to know what a Beta looks like.
Some words I talked to myself but didnt type in are added

Just Curious: In your screenshot in the camera apps live folder what is that app where it has a test tube with acid ready to be poured on the camera. LOL Any good?

Cheers
 

WPit

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Since Cortana will remind you that it's time to go even if you haven't set a reminder within the calendar using any one of the umpteen advance notice times, I don't think Cortana's "go now" notifications are dependent upon the calendar reminders.

You can always test that... just keep track of the time the way you did before there was a Cortana and see if she still does her thing.

Dewg:

Not dependent upon calendar, but integrated yes. My "time to leave" reminder pops up with a calendar event info. Time work kicks off and ends, e.g. And you don't have to snooze it for her to work. Just like the good old school vintage clock alarm, it will repeat from that point on or not (dismiss=one alert/ or stop alerts from that one on after snooze pressed), within intervals of... well, I don't know, but very short ones. Maybe two minutes.
And just rectifying, I'm not sure she is still in beta in the US, I believe not? So forget that one, please! Lol. Cheers!
 

aikidaves

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And just rectifying, I'm not sure she is still in beta in the US, I believe not? So forget that one, please! Lol. Cheers!

I am in the US, and if 'she' is Cortana, yes, it still says 'BETA' in bright cyan letters in the upper right hand corner when I start it up. I have not seen an announced release date for Cortana, nor does it come up with one when I ask it to search for one.
 

Nerdy Woman

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Just Curious: In your screenshot in the camera apps live folder what is that app where it has a test tube with acid ready to be poured on the camera. LOL Any good?

Cheers

The test tube is Pictures Lab. I use it often to edit colors. Right now, my start screen is the bright color image on the far right, my lock screen is the original, and my glance screen is the sepia tone... Metaphorically, the deeper into my phone I go, the brighter it gets. :D The x-ray effect is also fun, and it also does some great borders (burnt edges, grunge, cracked), cropping, rotating, adjusting saturation, contrast, brightness. Very easy to use.

HeritageGroup.png

This one does cost a little pocket change, but with 20+ photo editing apps installed, this is my go-to app. $2.99

Pictures Lab | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)
 

Dewg

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Bummer. I did two tests.

1) I setup a calendar event on the phone with an address from the bing list. No reminder.
2) I setup a calendar event on my Exchange account with an address from the bing list. No reminder.

Both events failed to tell me it was time to go. I even asked Cortland to tell me my upcoming appointments and she listed them.
 

Skamath

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Would you be able to tell me if this "leave now reminder" is just for you Beta's that it works. I have the Alpha version in Aus and cant find a thing on how to turn the feature on in Cortana :)
 

WPit

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Bummer. I did two tests.

1) I setup a calendar event on the phone with an address from the bing list. No reminder.
2) I setup a calendar event on my Exchange account with an address from the bing list. No reminder.

Both events failed to tell me it was time to go. I even asked Cortland to tell me my upcoming appointments and she listed them.

Would like to help you more, but can't figure how. Maybe use native calendar app, not outlook? Try synching your account manually from phone. Save setup into interests again. Do you see a white little bell on the right side of your traffic interests? Do you have daily glance on? : )
 

Dewg

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I appreciate everyone's help. I solved my problem by turning off Cortana - which signed me out and restarted the phone. After the restart, I started Cortana again and she went through the initial setup again, but remembered all my information. I knew something was working better, because she immediately knew it was lunch time and started offering me places to eat - she didn't do that before.

I entered a test calendar event (in my Exchange calendar), and she told me when to leave and showed me traffic.

Excellent!
 

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