Slack Reminder Not Working? Six Failures We Reproduced
Most broken Slack reminders are misread commands, or reminders that did fire but went to Activity and Later instead of a Slackbot DM. Each failure below was reproduced in Slack on 29 September 2026.
When a Slack reminder seems not to work, it usually did one of two things. It fired, but into Activity and the To-dos tab in the left rail (called Later until October 2026), because Slackbot no longer sends reminders as a DM, and /remind list no longer shows one-time reminders at all. Or /remind read your command differently from what you meant, and set it for another time or not at all. We typed every command on this page into the Slack web app on 29 September 2026, copied Slackbot's replies word for word, and checked where a fired reminder lands again on 8 October 2026.
The reminder fired, but not where you looked
We set a reminder for two minutes ahead and watched. When it came due, nothing arrived in the Slackbot DM. On 8 October 2026 we ran /remind me to check the To-dos tab test 1008 in 2 minutes at 12:04 PM. At 12:06 it appeared as a Reminder card in Activity, now labelled To-do:
The same reminder sat under In progress in the To-dos tab, with a yellow "Overdue" label and a badge on the To-dos icon. On 29 September this list was the Later tab; on 8 October the rail showed To-dos instead, with a note that archived saved items had moved to Saved.
If you are waiting for a Slackbot message, check the Activity tab. If the card is there but no banner or sound came with it, the reminder worked and the notification did not; the checks for that are in Slack notifications not working.
/remind list does not show one-time reminders
If /remind list says "I cannot find any reminders for you", your reminders may still be there. On 6 October 2026 we set a one-time reminder for 30 minutes ahead and ran /remind list straight after. Slackbot confirmed the reminder, then said it could not find any:
The reminder was in the Later tab, which Slack has since renamed To-dos; one-time reminders live there now. /remind list shows only recurring reminders, and recurring ones did not appear in Later before they fired. So check To-dos for one-time reminders and /remind list for repeating ones. See how to edit a Slack reminder for how to change each kind.
"Sorry, I didn't quite get that"
This is Slackbot's reply to any /remind it cannot parse, and the reminder is not created. Three commands gave it in our test:
| Command we typed | Why it failed | What worked |
|---|---|---|
/remind me to check the deploy | No time or day | /remind me to check the deploy at 4pm |
/remind me to stretch every hour | Reminders repeat by day, never by hour or minute | One reminder per time, or a workflow with a schedule |
/remind me to plan the trip every weekend | "Weekend" is not a repeat Slack knows | /remind me to plan the trip every Saturday and Sunday at 10am |
A failed command also stays in the message box after Slackbot answers. Clear it before you type the next one, or the two run together.
Never appear "away" on Slack again
Cloud-based. No downloads. Works 24/7 even when your laptop is off.
The reminder was set for the wrong time
These are worse, because Slackbot answers "I will remind you" and you only find out when nothing happens at the time you meant.
- • A time inside the message wins.
/remind me to call Bob at 5 tomorrow at 9ambecame "call Bob" at 5AM tomorrow. Slack took "at 5" as the time, read it as 5 a.m., and dropped both "at 5" and "at 9am" from the text. Put the message in quotes:/remind me "call Bob at 5" tomorrow at 9amgave "call Bob at 5" at 9AM tomorrow. - • 00:00 means noon.
/remind me to lock up at 00:00was set for noon today.at 12amgave midnight. - • A past date jumps a year. On 29 September,
on September 1 at 9amwas set for Wednesday, September 1st, 2027, with no warning. Always read the date in Slackbot's reply. - • A day without a time fires at 9 a.m.
/remind me to water the fern tomorrowwas set for 9AM tomorrow, the default reminder time. Change the default under Preferences if 9 a.m. is wrong for you.
Slackbot writes the full date and time into every confirmation, so reading that one line catches all four.
Reminders for other people and channels
Slack's help center lists personal, message, list, canvas and channel reminders, and no reminder for another person. To reach one coworker, remind a channel they are in and mention them in the text, or schedule a DM to them.
To check that a channel reminder still exists, run /remind list in that channel. It is listed under In this channel, with a Delete button. When we created one, Slack also posted "set up a reminder ... in this channel at 4PM every Thursday, Korea Standard Time" for the whole channel to see, so the time zone it uses is written there.
The /remind builder writes a command in the order Slack parses, with the message in quotes, if you would rather not trust your own wording.
FAQ
Can I set a reminder without typing /remind?
Yes, from a message. Hover it, click the three dots (More actions), choose Add a reminder and pick a time or Custom. Nothing needs parsing, so none of the misreads above can happen. The reminder shows in To-dos with its due time; see Slack remind me about this message.
Can Slack remind me every 30 minutes?
No. /remind rejects "every hour" and "every 15 minutes". The shortest repeat is daily, including every weekday.
Why did my reminder disappear from To-dos?
If you marked it complete, it moved to the Completed section under In progress. We checked this on 8 October 2026 by completing a fired reminder; it left In progress and showed under Completed. Clear removes it from the list altogether.
Stop Jiggling Your Mouse.
Join hundreds of remote workers who never worry about their Slack status. Set it up once, stay green forever.
Related Articles
Slack Jump to Date: Where the Menu Is and What Each Option Does
Slack's Jump to date menu hides in the date divider above messages. We tested it in a 500-message channel and an older channel: which options appear, how far back the calendar goes, and how to do it by API.
Slack Webhook Not Working? What Each Error Means, Tested
We broke a real Slack incoming webhook 25 ways and logged each answer: 403 invalid_token, 404 no_service, no_team, no_active_hooks, 400 invalid_payload, no_text, invalid_blocks and silent 301 redirects.
Slack Scheduled Message Didn't Send? 5 Cases We Tested
We scheduled five messages for 4:40 PM on 1 October 2026, then archived, left and deleted their channels and deleted a thread parent before the send time. Two sent, three never did, and Slack gave no notice about the three.