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Problem with "Due Soon" Notifications Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Under my Data preferences, "Due soon" is set to in the next 2 days—so actions due within 48 hours should be marked orange. This setting has not been changed for the last several days. However, I have an action due in 1 day, 2 hours, and 45 minutes (entered about a week ago) that is not marked as due soon.

The only way I can seem to get OmniFocus to update itself is to go into the preferences and switch "2 days" to "3 days," and then back to "2 days" again.

This appears to me to be a critical bug in OmniFocus—I'm constantly worried that an important task is due soon that I (and OmniFocus) are forgetting—but I haven't found anyone else mention it. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for your help!
Greg
 
I should mention that I'm running OmniFocus 1.5 rc2, although I've noticed this issue multiple times with both this version and the stable version that came before it.
 
You won't see the Due Soon styling on the action in question if it is not yet available (because it has a start date/time in the future, or is being blocked by another action). The Due Soon styling is only applied to available actions, in my experience. If this doesn't explain the behavior you are seeing, could you give us a screenshot? I realize my theory doesn't explain the apparent refreshing you're getting by changing the Due Soon settings, but it's worth knowing about if you are concerned that you might miss something because it didn't have the Due Soon styling for as long as you expected.

If you use the built-in Due Soon perspective (assuming you are running 1.5), do the items which should be styled Due Soon but aren't appear?
 
Thanks for your reply. I don't believe the action in question ("Foreign policy puzzles assignment") fits into either of your criteria because, as you can see, it is currently the only action under its project and it has no start time. The due date is Nov. 6 at 11am (the date/time when it wasn't marked "Due soon" and should have been—before I refreshed it by switching the Due soon setting back and forth—was Nov. 5 at 8:15am).

Since I refreshed the Due soon settings, I can't properly test your Due soon perspective question (they are now marked due soon everywhere). Even if that did get unmarked actions to be marked due soon, though, obviously having to constantly change perspectives to check for actions due soon wouldn't solve the problem.

Thanks for your help!
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Had you ever set the Due Soon settings (in preferences) before?

I assume due dates are something that OmniFocus periodically checks for - like maybe every hour or so. Maybe your particular pattern of OmniFocus use was preventing that script from running. I don't know anything about it--just a guess.

My advice is see if you can reproduce the behavior.... And maybe put those critical assignments into iCal too, until you're confident your copy of OmniFocus is behaving properly.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluerings View Post
Thanks for your reply. I don't believe the action in question ("Foreign policy puzzles assignment") fits into either of your criteria because, as you can see, it is currently the only action under its project and it has no start time. The due date is Nov. 6 at 11am (the date/time when it wasn't marked "Due soon" and should have been—before I refreshed it by switching the Due soon setting back and forth—was Nov. 5 at 8:15am).
No, this doesn't seem to be the case I mentioned. But as I said, if you're going to rely on the Due Soon styling, it is good to be aware of cases where it may not do what you expect.

Quote:
Since I refreshed the Due soon settings, I can't properly test your Due soon perspective question (they are now marked due soon everywhere). Even if that did get unmarked actions to be marked due soon, though, obviously having to constantly change perspectives to check for actions due soon wouldn't solve the problem.
I'm not proposing that you switch back and forth between perspectives, though that is exactly how I work (for other reasons). I do a daily review in the morning, checking the Due perspective to be aware of what items are due in the coming day or two so that I can try to make sure they are allotted sufficient time for completion. It is my belief (which you can test next time you get OF to misbehave as you report) that the Due perspective will show you those items which were not being styled appropriately. It is still inconvenient if they are not styled appropriately at the earliest time that they should be, but at least you wouldn't be completely unaware of an impending deadline. Suspenders and a belt, if you will :-)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by abh19 View Post
Had you ever set the Due Soon settings (in preferences) before?

I assume due dates are something that OmniFocus periodically checks for - like maybe every hour or so. Maybe your particular pattern of OmniFocus use was preventing that script from running. I don't know anything about it--just a guess.
OmniFocus appears to check at least every time the seconds component of the time goes to 0 (on the minute, in other words) for items becoming due, due soon, or available.
 
Something interesting to try here might be the Clean Up button. I wonder if triggering a clean up might refresh the styles. (Not suggesting that is the right behavior, just trying to get a handle on the apparent bug.)
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
I had this exact problem, and the same concern about "If this is happening, then what else am I missing?" I don't know if this is a help, but what I found out is that OF had opened up multiple windows on my mac (when I select a context from the list that drops down from the menu bar, it seems to open a new window on top of the old) and the windows on top would *not update with "due soon" items. When I clicked those windows closed and only had one window open, everything updated on time again. That was my easy and quick solution, and haven't had an issue since. By the way, I want to commend the people in this forum for quick, helpful, and kind responses. I haven't seen this much willingness for overwhelming support from an online community anywhere else. You have all helped me greatly as I learn this incredible system.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by needles27 View Post
I don't know if this is a help, but what I found out is that OF had opened up multiple windows on my mac (when I select a context from the list that drops down from the menu bar, it seems to open a new window on top of the old) and the windows on top would *not update with "due soon" items. When I clicked those windows closed and only had one window open, everything updated on time again.
I attempted to replicate this twice on my setup (I'm using 1.5rc2). I had an original window open, and set an action to become due in 48 hours and two minutes from now. Then I did command-N to make a new window, and left that one on top. In 2 minutes i got a growl notification that the item was due soon, and both of the windows were displaying the action in orange with the little numbered icon next to the folder. Both windows were in project mode.

The second time, I repeated the process but set the new, top window to the "Due" perspective that comes with the default toolbar (thus, I was viewing it in context mode). In 2 minutes, the top window automatically added the new action in orange to the action list.

So, for me, it works properly. But it's possible that your extra windows are not the same as my extra windows, because when I select a context from the Edit>Context menu in the menubar, or from the inspector, it does NOT make a new window.

By the way, those extra windows that are popping up, do they say "Focusing on ..." at the very top of the window? If you're focusing on a folder that doesn't include the project in question, you won't see any actions from that folder, whether or not they are due.
 
 


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