Reminder fired at the wrong time
If a reminder arrives noticeably earlier or later than the scheduled time, something in the schedule or phone is drifting. Here are the usual causes.
Check the schedule first
- Open the medication on the Meds tab.
- Look at the Schedule section.
- Make sure the times listed are what you expect.
- If the schedule is Every X hours (floating), remember: the next dose shifts based on when you took the last one. A dose taken late pushes the next dose later.
Check for deferrals
On the medication card in the Today view, look for a yellow deferred to 3:15 PM label. If it's there, you tapped Later at some point and the dose was deferred. The original schedule time still applies to the next day.
Check your phone's time and time zone
If your phone is using a manually-set time or wrong time zone, reminders fire based on that. Turn on Set automatically:
- iPhone: Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically (on).
- Android: Settings > System > Date & time > Use network-provided time (on).
Travel between time zones
DoseAlert uses your phone's current time zone. If you travel, reminders shift to local time automatically. If your phone hasn't switched to the new time zone yet, reminders will still fire on the old time.
If you'd rather reminders stay on your home time zone while travelling, disable automatic time zone on your phone, then re-enable it when you return.
Reminders fire 5–15 minutes late
This is usually the phone batching notifications to save battery. Most common on:
- Android phones with Doze or Adaptive Battery on.
- Any phone in power-saving mode.
For critical medications, mark them Critical priority in the medication editor. Critical reminders use the alarm channel and bypass batching on both iOS and Android.
See Reminders are not firing for the battery-saving workarounds.
Reminders seem to fire twice
You might be seeing reminder level 1 and level 2 back-to-back. Open the medication, scroll to Reminders, and check the delay between levels. If you want just one reminder, turn off levels 2–4.
If a single reminder really fires twice on the same phone, contact support with the exact time and medication.