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Archiving Old Tasks

If you've accumulated a large number of completed tasks over the years — especially in Apple's Reminders — archiving or deleting old tasks can significantly improve sync performance and speed up BusyCal. Large task lists with hundreds or thousands of old completed items are a common cause of slow or stuck Reminders sync.

important

Apple's Reminders has system limits on the number of items it can store. If you're experiencing slow or stuck Reminders sync, trimming old completed tasks is one of the most effective things you can do. See Reminders Sync Slow or Stuck for more troubleshooting steps.

Quick Summary​

A quick way to archive old completed tasks:

  1. Use a Smart Filter in List View to display only old completed tasks (see below).
  2. Select all and move them to an On My Mac calendar to archive them locally.
  3. Delete them from the original task list to free up space on the server.
  4. Uncheck the archive calendar in the sidebar to hide archived tasks from your daily view.

This moves your old tasks to a local, offline calendar and frees up space in your cloud account (iCloud, Google, etc.), which in turn improves sync speed.

Detailed Steps​

1. Switch to List View​

Click the List View button in the toolbar, or choose View > List. List View makes it easy to see, sort, and bulk-select tasks.

2. Select the Task Calendars to Archive​

In the left sidebar, check only the task calendars / Reminders lists that contain the old tasks you want to archive. Uncheck everything else so you're only looking at the relevant tasks.

3. Create an Archive Smart Filter for Tasks​

Create a Smart Filter that displays only old completed tasks:

  1. Choose Filter > New Smart Filter (or press ⌘-Control-N).
  2. Select Show events that match the following conditions.
  3. Add the following conditions:
    • event type is task — Show only tasks, not events.
    • is completed — Show only completed tasks.
    • due date is before the date [your cutoff date] — For example, 01/01/2025 to show all tasks completed before this year. Adjust the date to suit your needs.
  4. Name the Smart Filter "Archive Old Tasks" and click OK.

The Smart Filter is applied and List View now displays only completed tasks older than your cutoff date.

4. Set a Wide Date Range​

In List View, click the date range pop-up in the upper left corner and set it to Decade (or a suitably wide range). Use the navigation arrows to scroll until you can see all the old tasks you want to archive.

5. Archive or Delete the Old Tasks​

Option A: Archive to a Local Calendar​

If you want to keep the tasks for reference but remove them from your cloud account:

  1. Create a new local calendar: choose File > New Calendar > On My Mac and name it "Archived Tasks".
  2. Press ⌘-A to select all the tasks shown in the filtered list.
  3. Control-click one of the selected tasks and choose Calendar > Archived Tasks from the contextual menu. This moves all selected tasks to the local calendar.
danger

This permanently moves the tasks off the server. Wait for BusyCal to finish syncing — this may take a while for large lists.

  1. Once moved, uncheck the Archived Tasks calendar in the sidebar to hide them from your daily view. They remain searchable and accessible whenever you need them.

Option B: Delete Old Tasks​

If you don't need to keep the old tasks at all:

  1. Press ⌘-A to select all the tasks shown in the filtered list.
  2. Press Delete to remove them.
danger

This permanently deletes the selected tasks and cannot be undone!

  1. Wait for BusyCal to finish syncing the deletions with your server.

6. Clean Up​

After archiving or deleting, you can remove the "Archive Old Tasks" Smart Filter if you no longer need it, or keep it for periodic maintenance. Choose Filter > Edit Smart Filters to manage your filters.

tip

Consider making this a regular habit — once or twice a year, run through the steps above to keep your task lists lean. This is especially important for Reminders users, where large lists can cause sync to slow down or stall.

Exporting Archived Tasks​

If you've archived tasks to a local On My Mac calendar and want to back them up externally:

  1. Select the Archived Tasks calendar in the left sidebar.
  2. Choose File > Export > Calendar File (.ics) and save the file.
  3. After exporting, you can optionally delete the local calendar if you no longer need it in BusyCal.
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