My Apple devices remember birthdays! But where do they come from?

A reminder about a birthday just appeared on my iPhone screen and my Mac screen.  

But this reminder was not one that I specifically entered into my Reminders app or my Calendar.

So how did my iPhone know to remind me about this person's birthday?

Well, there are a couple of ways that my iPhone, iPad and Mac know to remind me about people's birthdays.  

Once way is that I have recorded the birthdays of friends and family in my Contacts App.

Here is a past Handy Hint on this topic for those of you who are members of the iTandCoffee Club.

• Making sure you never forget birthdays - using the Contacts app!

But I also get reminders for other peoples' birthdays, where these people are not in my Contacts.  Where do these ones come from?

If you are a Facebook user, you also may be receiving reminders about the birthdays of your Facebook friends.   You can control whether you receive these reminders and, if you are not receiving such reminders, you can make some adjustments to turn the reminders 'on'.

Check out this handy hint for details of how to turn Facebook Calendars reminders on and off in the Calendar App, and how to adjust your settings to allow or disallow Facebook's access to your Contacts.

• Controlling Facebook notifications about birthdays and events

Perhaps you don't actually want your Contacts and Calendar apps to access your Facebook.  This is easy to change, and is covered by the below handy hint.

• Including or excluding Facebook information from Contacts and Calendar apps

(To view any of the the above handy hints, you will need to be an iTandCoffee Club member.)


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