Add birthdays and other occasion reminders

GiftList reminds you before friends' birthdays, holidays you choose and dates you add yourself. You control all of them in your profile's Notifications & email card, under Occasion reminders. To see everything ahead, open Friends › Coming up: friends' birthdays, the holidays for your country and your own dates for the next 12 months. The next 30 days also show in Friends › Activity.

Choose which birthdays and holidays remind you

Open your profile's Notifications & email card. Under Occasion reminders, open Friends' birthdays, Holidays or Your dates and turn each one on or off. These switches save straight away.

• Friends' birthdays: following someone adds their birthday here. Turn all off stops every friend's birthday reminder at once, and Turn all on brings them back. If a friend keeps their birthday private, it won't appear and you won't get reminders about it; if they share it again, their reminder comes back on or off as you last left it.
• Holidays: turn on the holidays you want a reminder for. The list follows your profile's country: the US, the UK, Canada and Australia each have their own holidays, such as Mother's Day on its local date, and New Year's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas are offered everywhere.
• Your dates: birthdays and anniversaries you added yourself.

The email and push switches on the Occasion reminders row turn all of these on or off together, and need Save preferences.

You can also turn one friend's birthday reminders off from the ⋯ menu on their row in Friends › People › Following, on their date in Friends › Activity, or on their profile. Turning a reminder off stops the messages; their birthday still shows in Friends.

Every occasion email has a Manage reminders link that opens the same settings.

Choose when reminders arrive

Reminders arrive 2 weeks before and on the day. To change one reminder's times, open it from its list and pick from 1 month before, 2 weeks before, 1 week before and Same day.

Add or edit a date

Open Your dates and choose Add a date. Give it a useful name and date, choose whether it repeats every year, and save. Open a date to edit or delete it. Review existing reminders before adding another entry for the same event.

Understand shared dates

Following someone does not guarantee that their birthday will appear. The person must have supplied the relevant information and made it available to you; anyone can keep their birthday private, and then it won't appear and you won't get reminders about it. If a date is missing, ask them or add your own reminder rather than assuming the follow did not work. To keep your own birthday private, see change your profile.

A Birthday list has its own date, set by the list's owner, which people who can see that list still see.

If a reminder does not arrive

Check that the occasion's reminder is on, your notification preferences, the email address on your account, and the phone's GiftList notification permission. Check spam for email reminders. If the problem continues, contact us with the occasion date and device, without sharing passwords.

Related: Family groups, find your lists.