Repeating groups tasks not appearing
 

Hi everyone,

I am brand new to OmniFocus. I am quite confused about which tasks appear and which don't when I'm trying to figure out what is due. Here's just one example.

I have a project P. In that project are monthly tasks. I therefore made a "monthly" group which I've set to repeat monthly. I also have other periods but I'll ignore that.

In side the "monthly" group I have a task to pay a particular recurring "bill X".

So, the project does NOT repeat, the intermediate group DOES repeat, and the task does NOT repeat. I assume that's the correct setup.

I made a perspective called "Everything". It shows "All Contexts", Grouping by "Due", Sorting by "Due", Availability="Any Status", StatusFilter="Any Status", EstimatedTime="Any Duration".

Then I test. I set the due date of bill X to today. I restart OmniFocus. It's like I've started up in the morning and want to see what's due. I select my "Everything" perspective. I see bill X as due Today. First question: Should I already see "bill X" as later tasks in the "Due within the next 3 months" group? I don't see it.

Let's say OmniFocus won't repeat the task until I complete the current instance of it. So I do complete it. Should I now see the task due later after I click "Clean Up"? I don't see it.

I even restart OmniFocus and still I don't see it.

Could someone explain this?

Regards,
Barry

You are correct that the future task for a repeating task does not get created until the current task is completed. That is why, before you click the current task as completed, you won't see the future task.

Task groups repeat in a way that you might not expect. That is, if you set the task group as repeating, it doesn't create a new future group until [I]the group itself[/I] is marked as completed. Then, the future group, with the tasks in it, will be created.

It sounds to me like you would be better off setting the task itself as repeating monthly. I have that arrangement myself.

Thanks a lot for that clarification regarding repeating groups. I will experiment more and see if that fully eliminates my confusion. I'll report back if not. Thanks again.

In addition to what Lucas said, if you make your task repeating and it's still not there, also check your "Availability Filter" settings. If you have it set to "Available" and are using a start date for the tasks, they will not show up until the start date. You can change the filter to "Remaining" or "Any Status" to see them.

Thanks Dave. Yeah that one has caught me out a number of times. But my recent testing was with the setting you are suggesting. Thanks for emphasizing this because I keep forgetting it. That's why I had to make a perspective to stop messing up.