You mark a reminder as Urgent in iOS 26’s Reminders app, expecting it to sound an alarm like the feature promises. Instead you get a popup: “Alarms Access is Off.” You go check Settings. The permission is already granted. The popup keeps showing up anyway.
Reminders Alarms Access is Off usually points to a missing permission, and that’s the fix most coverage stops at. There’s a second, much less obvious trigger, though. It has nothing to do with permissions at all: which of your devices is currently set as your Find My location device.
The Obvious Fix: Grant Reminders Access to Alarms
iOS 26 added Urgent reminders, a feature that can trigger a real alarm rather than a standard notification. That alarm access is a separate permission from ordinary Reminders notifications, and it’s the first thing worth checking.
How to fix:
- Open Settings > Apps > Reminders
- Confirm the Alarms toggle is turned on
- If it’s already on and Reminders Alarms Access is Off still appears, the permission isn’t actually your problem
The Trigger Almost Nobody Talks About: Your Find My Location Device
A discussion on Apple’s Support Community traces a second, much stranger cause. Urgent reminder alarms are tied to whichever of your devices is currently set as your Find My location device. Try to set an Urgent reminder on any other device, and Reminders Alarms Access is Off shows up. This happens even with the Alarms permission fully granted.
One user in the thread put it directly. Trying to set an urgent reminder on any device other than your Find My location device “will generate the peculiar pop up.” That’s a connection nobody would guess on their own, since Find My and Reminders look like completely unrelated apps.
Fix 1: Set the Device You’re Using as Your Find My Location Device
Do you regularly try to set Urgent reminders from more than one Apple device, like an iPhone and an iPad? This setting is the most likely explanation for Reminders Alarms Access is Off appearing inconsistently.
How to fix:
- Open Settings, tap your name at the top, then go to Find My
- Tap Find My iPhone (or the equivalent for your device)
- Turn on Use This Device for My Location
- Only one device can hold this setting at a time. Enabling it here turns it off on whichever device previously had it
- Try setting an Urgent reminder again on this device
Fix 2: Switch Devices Instead When Setting Urgent Reminders
You don’t have to keep changing your Find My location device, though. A simpler workaround is just switching which device you use for Urgent reminders specifically.
How to fix:
- Check Settings > [your name] > Find My > Find My iPhone. This shows which device currently holds the location-device setting
- Set Urgent reminders from that specific device going forward
- Use standard, non-Urgent reminders on your other devices, since those don’t depend on this setting at all
Fix 3: Turn Off Urgent Reminders Entirely as a Fallback
Neither fix might work for your situation. If so, disabling the Urgent alarm feature removes the popup entirely. The reminder itself still stays functional as a normal notification.
How to fix:
- Open Reminders and find the reminder set to Urgent
- Tap the info button next to it
- Turn off the Urgent toggle
- The reminder still fires as a standard notification. It just loses the alarm-style sound and the permission dependency that triggers this popup
Fix 4: Restart and Confirm You’re on the Latest iOS 26 Update
Urgent reminders are a new iOS 26 feature. Some of the inconsistent behavior around this popup may simply be early bugs Apple is still patching.
How to check:
- Go to Settings > General > Software Update
- Install any available update, since Apple has continued refining iOS 26’s newer features across point releases
- Restart your iPhone afterward. A fresh restart clears some permission-caching issues that can cause a granted permission to still show as denied
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Find My location device setting behind Reminders Alarms Access is Off affect anything else in Reminders? No. It’s specifically tied to the Urgent reminder alarm feature. Standard reminders and notifications work the same regardless of which device holds the Find My location-device setting.
Why would Apple tie an alarm feature to a location setting? There’s no official explanation from Apple confirming this connection or why it works this way. It appears to be a side effect of how Urgent reminders determine which single device should be responsible for firing the alarm. It doesn’t look like a documented design choice.
Can two devices both be set as the Find My location device? No. Only one device holds that designation at a time. Turning it on for a new device automatically turns it off on whichever device had it before. That’s exactly why switching between phone and tablet can make this popup start appearing out of nowhere.
Is this the same issue as the standard Reminders permission popup? Not always. The permission-based version resolves once you grant Reminders access to Alarms in Settings. If Reminders Alarms Access is Off keeps appearing after that, the Find My location-device setting is the far more likely explanation, since it’s the one existing coverage of this issue doesn’t mention.
Should I report this to Apple? Yes, especially the Find My connection specifically, since it’s not documented anywhere in Apple’s own support materials. Reporting through Feedback Assistant with the exact device and Find My configuration helps Apple understand how widespread this behavior actually is. If you’re also dealing with Sleep Focus not turning off automatically, that’s another case worth checking. It’s an iOS feature that depends on a background setting Apple doesn’t clearly document either.
The Bottom Line
Reminders Alarms Access is Off has two separate causes, and only one of them is obvious. Granting Reminders permission to use Alarms in Settings fixes the straightforward case. But if that popup keeps appearing anyway, check which device is set as your Find My location device first. Urgent reminder alarms only work on that one device. Switching between phone and tablet without noticing is the single most common reason this error resurfaces after you thought you’d already fixed it. If you’re troubleshooting other new iOS 26 quirks, this fits the same pattern as AirPods Pro 3’s hearing aid feature disabling unexpectedly — a brand-new feature interacting with an existing system setting in a way Apple hasn’t documented clearly yet.