Reminders "+" Button Not Working, or Dynamic Island Quick-Add Is Empty (iOS 26)

Quick summary

If tapping the + button in Reminders does nothing, and using the Reminders quick-add via Control Center or the Lock Screen shows an empty Dynamic Island that won't accept typing, this is very likely a stuck system popup — specifically, an "Allow Alarms for Urgent Reminders" prompt tied to iOS 26's new alarm-style reminders feature — silently blocking input across the whole Reminders interface, rather than the app itself being broken. It's a known, reported bug, and there's a specific, non-obvious fix that resolves it for most people without needing to reinstall anything.

Symptoms

Opening the Reminders app works fine, but tapping the + (new reminder) button does nothing — no keyboard, no new item, no error.

Using the New Reminder quick-add control (from Control Center, Lock Screen, or the Action Button) opens a Dynamic Island panel that appears completely empty, and tapping into it doesn't bring up a keyboard or accept any text.

No visible error message or crash — the app just doesn't respond in these two specific spots.

Why this happens

iOS 26 added a new "urgent reminders" feature that behaves like an alarm (it can override Focus/silent mode for time-critical tasks). The first time this feature is invoked, iOS shows a one-time permission prompt: "Allow Alarms for Urgent Reminders." In a known bug, this prompt can get stuck in a state where it's blocking input to both the in-app "+" button and the Dynamic Island quick-add panel, without actually being visible on screen as a normal dialog — so it looks like Reminders is just broken rather than waiting on a hidden permission prompt. It's been specifically linked to devices that aren't set as your primary "Find My" location device.

Step-by-step fix

1. Check your Find My "My Location" device setting

This is the fix most consistently reported to work. Go to Settings → [your name] → Find My → My Location, and confirm the iPhone you're having trouble on is actually set as your location device. If it isn't, set it as such, then try creating a reminder again.

2. If the stuck popup is still blocking things, use the text-size trick to reveal its Dismiss button

Some users have found the stuck "Allow Alarms" popup has a Dismiss button that's rendered off-screen or invisible at normal text size:

Go to Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size → Larger Text.

Turn off any Accessibility (extra-large) sizes, and drag the slider down to the smallest regular size.

Reopen Reminders — the Dismiss button on the stuck popup should now be visible and tappable.

Tap Dismiss, then set your text size back to whatever you prefer.

3. Turn off Time Sensitive Notifications for Reminders

Settings → Apps → Reminders → Notifications, and turn off Time Sensitive Notifications. This is the specific notification category tied to the urgent-reminders/alarm feature that's causing the stuck prompt in the first place.

4. Restart the iPhone

A full restart (not just closing the app) clears a lot of stuck-UI-state bugs like this one, especially after making the changes above.

5. If it's still not working: general Reminders troubleshooting

Check Settings → [your name] → iCloud, and confirm Reminders sync is switched on.

Check whether a Focus mode is active — some Focus configurations can interfere with Reminders' alerts and, in this iOS 26 bug, seemingly the quick-add flow too. Turn off any active Focus from Control Center and retest.

Settings → General → Software Update — install anything available; Apple has been actively patching iOS 26 point releases, and this is exactly the kind of UI bug that gets fixed in one.

6. Last resort: unsync and reinstall

If nothing above works: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Reminders (turn off, choosing to keep the data on this iPhone when prompted), then delete and reinstall the Reminders app from the App Store, then turn iCloud sync back on. This clears any corrupted local app state that the steps above don't reach.

Still not working?

If the Find My device setting is already correct, the popup-dismiss trick doesn't reveal anything, and a restart plus the latest iOS update don't help, this is worth reporting directly to Apple via Settings → General → Feedback (if available) or a Genius Bar/Apple Support conversation, since at that point it's more likely a genuine unresolved bug in that specific iOS build than something fixable through user-side troubleshooting.