iPhone Calendar (How Far Back Forward, Numbers, Red Numbers)


When you set up your iPhone for the first time, you will find several pre-installed apps on the device. One of the pre-installed apps, the calendar, is useful for checking the date, tracking events and planning your schedule. As you are using the calendar on your iPhone, you might be wondering how far it goes.

So, how far does the iPhone calendar go? The iPhone calendar can go as far as you are willing to keep scrolling. There are reports of people scrolling up to year 78,000 and only stopping after getting tired. The iPhone calendar can go as far as you can scroll, and it is safe to state that the iPhone calendar might be infinite. If you have an iPhone and enough time, you can try to record how far forward you can scroll on the calendar.

When planning your schedule, you can enter events that will happen in the next few years on your iPhone calendar. While scrolling up through the years, you might go up to 5 or ten years and enter the event.

The calendar on the iPhone is an important app, especially for those users who want to keep track of their schedules. You can use the calendar app to arrange your schedule for the next months or years. As you enter the events, you might wonder how far your iPhone’s calendar can go.

The iPhone calendar can go as far as you can scroll. There is no end to the iPhone calendar’s forward capability; it depends on your strength, time and device battery power. Some users have scrolled to year 78,000 and could have kept going but stopped after getting tired.

If you want to set a record, open the calendar app and see how far you can scroll forward. There seems to be a limit in the iPhone calendar going backwards. One user has gone as far as 4716 BC but could not move beyond that year. The iPhone calendar app is also updated regularly; hence these dates are accurate whether you are going backwards or forward.

The calendar app was introduced with the first iPhone in 2007 and was meant for the user to track events, check dates, check holidays and arrange their schedule. Apple has improved the calendar, and after the release of iOS 5, the calendar app has iCloud support and can be synchronized with other calendar services like Google Calendar.

When you want to create an event, you need to scroll down to the correct date before you can continue. When you set up an event that will happen after five or ten years, you need to scroll up to locate the correct date. If you have synchronized your iPhone calendar with your Google Calendar, the event automatically appears on your Google Calendar.

If you wonder when your birthday, wedding anniversary, or any other important date is in a thousand years, you can check it on the iPhone calendar. Open the iPhone calendar app and start scrolling until you reach one thousand years.

The date is also accurate because the app is regularly updated. If you have time and strength and your iPhone has enough battery charge, you can keep scrolling and even check when your birthday will be in ten thousand years.

You should note that this is only possible on the iPhone app. If you have downloaded other third-party calendar apps on your device, they might be limited to only going forward for 100 or 200 hundred years.

You can also go backwards on the iPhone calendar when you want to confirm when a certain event will take place. If you can remember the date of a certain event but cannot remember the day, you can go back to your calendar and check the exact day.

For example, you might remember your birth date but cannot remember the exact date, hence scrolling back allows you to get the exact date. However, you cannot go back on your calendar past 4716 BC. A user reported that they scrolled back to 1AD, and the calendar automatically moved to 1 BC. They continued scrolling until 4716 BC but could not scroll further back.

What Does the Number on the iPhone Calendar Mean?

The iPhone calendar is an important app on your iPhone that helps you keep track of your schedule. While using the iPhone calendar, certain numbers and symbols might appear when you launch the app. When using the iPhone calendar, a certain number might appear on the app, and you might be wondering what it means.

The number on the iPhone calendar means that the calendar has a pending event notification. The number will show you how many notifications you have on your calendar. For example, if you have fourteen pending event notifications, you will see the number “14” on your calendar.

The number will increase if you add more events and decrease when the events come to pass or if you delete some of the events. It is important to keep track of the number, especially if you have important events coming up and you do not want to miss them.

You can customize the pending notifications on your iPhone calendar to avoid missing important events. Customizing the events will ensure that you get notified before the events come up, hence you do not have to depend on looking at the number showing pending notifications on the calendar app.

To customize the iPhone calendar notifications,

  • go to “Settings”
  • tap on “Notifications”
  • tap on “Calendar”
  • turn on “Allow Notifications”
  • tap on any upcoming events and
  • select where the notifications should appear or how you will be alerted. Select an alert sound or vibration to ensure you do not miss any event notification.

When the day of the event comes, your iPhone will either produce a sound or vibrate, notifying you of the event.

It is important to know how the iPhone calendar works, especially if you will use it to plan your day, week or month. The iPhone calendar eliminates the need to keep a physical diary where you have to enter events by writing them on the correct date and month.

However, if you do not know what certain numbers and symbols mean, you might miss some crucial notifications. To view all the numbers and symbols on the iPhone calendar, go to the calendar’s toolbar.

The tools and symbols will be activated when the calendar app wants to notify you about something. For example, if you send invitations to other people to join an event, the symbols of a person with a tick next to them will indicate all invitees have accepted your event invitation. 

If you have several Apple devices, you can link them to your iPhone calendar, allowing you to keep track of your events even when you are away from your iPhone. You can use iCloud to keep your calendar up to date on all your Apple devices.

First, you need to ensure that you have signed in to all your devices using the same Apple ID. On your iPhone,

  • go to “Settings”
  • tap on your name
  • tap on “iCloud”
  • turn on “Calendars” and all your events will be synched on all your Apple devices.

You can also make changes to your calendar using the other Apple devices. If you do not want to use iCloud for your calendar, you can sync your calendar with your mac.

What Does Red Number Mean on an iPhone Calendar?

While using the iPhone calendar, certain numbers will appear on your screen in either a grey or red badge. These numbers usually appear after adding, modifying, or creating an event on your iPhone calendar. When you use your iPhone calendar and see a red number appear, you might wonder what it means.

The red number on the iPhone calendar means you have new notifications regarding your ongoing or upcoming events. The notifications might be for invitations, events added to the shared calendar and changes to events. If you have ten notifications, the number in the red badge will be “10”, and it will increase or reduce depending on the next action you take.

The red number is important when you use your calendar with multiple people, or you have invited people to a certain event on your calendar. When you receive a notification on your iPhone calendar, tap on the notification and take the necessary action.

The iPhone calendar allows users to invite other people to an event or receive event notifications from other users. If you are going to participate in the same event with several people and do not want them to forget, you can create an event and share it with the other users as long as you have their addresses or names.

To invite someone to an event on your iPhone calendar,

  • tap on it and then
  • tap “Edit” at the top of your screen after creating the event
  • tap “Invitees” and swipe up if you do not see any Invitees.
  • enter the names or email addresses of the people you want to invite or tap the plus icon “+” to open contacts
  • tap “Done” when you have selected all people you want to get your event invitation.

If someone sends you an event invitation on your iPhone, you will be notified on your device, and if you miss the notification, you will notice the red number has increased. If it previously read “8” and you receive event notification, the red number will increase to “9” or more depending on the number of event invitations.

To reply to the event notification, tap on the notification or go to the calendar app, tap “Inbox,” and tap on the invitation. The options you will get are Accept, Maybe or Decline. Select the appropriate response to the event invitation.

If you have a busy schedule, it is impossible to accept all event invitations you receive on your iPhone. If your calendar app supports that feature, you can add comments on event invitations. Your comments will be seen by the organizer only; therefore, you can use that feature to explain why you will not attend that event.

If you are willing to attend the event but on a different date or time, you can suggest a different meeting time. When you receive an event invitation, tap the meeting and then tap “Propose New Time”.

Tap the time selected by the organizer and then enter a new one that you think suits your schedule. The organizer will receive your counter-proposal through their iPhone calendar app or an email with your suggestion. 

Creating an event on your iPhone calendar is very easy. You can either use Siri or add the event directly on the app. To use Siri, say something like setting up a meeting with the Dentist on Tuesday at 9 am.

An event will be created on your calendar on Tuesday at 9 am. To create an event directly on the iPhone calendar, launch the Calendar app and tap the red plus icon (+) at the top of the screen.

Enter the name of the event and tap on “Location” or “Video Call” to enter either a physical address or tap “Facetime” to enter a video link. Enter the start and end times, invitees, and any other data you feel is necessary for the event. Tao “Add” to complete.

If you use a shared calendar whenever another person creates an event. In that case, the red number on your iPhone calendar will notify you that another event has been added to your calendar.

Wrap Up

The iPhone calendar is a good app that can help you organize your day-to-day schedule. You can even sync your iPhone calendar with event and organizing apps such as Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar and other third-party calendar apps. If you need to check a date of a particular event, you can scroll forward for as long as you want.

The iPhone calendar can go forward as far as you are willing to scroll, but it can go far back to 4716 BC. Many users have scrolled, some reaching year 10,000 while others have gone up to year 78,000 before getting tired. If you have energy and time, you can scroll forward on your iPhone calendar and see how far forward you can go.

When using the iPhone calendar app, you need to know what the numbers and symbols mean. If you see a number on a grey badge, you have a pending event notification. If the number is red, you have certain notifications regarding ongoing or upcoming events. 

Bal Kang

Bal Kang is a technology expert based in the UK, with experience across a number of technology areas from phones, tablets, computers to gaming.

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