Apple's Time to Leave is a genuinely good feature when it works. It checks the drive to your event's location and tells you when to go. The trouble is how often people find it simply isn't there, or doesn't fire, with no indication why.
If that is you, the specific symptom matters — each one has a different cause.
The three symptoms people actually report
Apple's own discussion forums have long-running threads on this, and the complaints cluster into three shapes.
Time to Leave isn't in the alert menu at all. People describe creating an event with an address and finding the option simply absent from the alert list — then it appears, then it doesn't, with no obvious pattern.
It works on one device but not another. One widely reported version: an event created on an iPhone produces a Time to Leave notification on the iPad, but not on the iPhone the person is actually carrying. As one poster put it, if it works on the iPad then it should work on the phone — but it doesn't.
It reverts to no alert. Someone selects Time to Leave, closes the event, reopens it, and the alert has silently reset to none. There is a reported case of the option being selectable on a Mac but not on either the iPhone or the iPad, and reverting after being set.
Why each one happens
Missing from the alert menu almost always means the location isn't resolving. Time to Leave needs a real mapped address to calculate a drive from. If you typed the location as free text — an office name, a room, a partial address — Calendar has a string, not a place. No place, no drive, no alert option. Delete the location and re-enter it, choosing from the suggestions until it resolves to a point with a map preview. Apple documents adding a location so Calendar can tell you when to leave in Add location and travel time to events.
Working on one device but not another is the clearest one: location permissions are set per device. Your iPad and your iPhone each have their own Location Services configuration. The iPad having permission tells you nothing about the phone. Check the phone specifically.
Reverting to no alert is the messiest, and is usually a sync problem — the event is being edited in more than one place and the version without the alert is winning. Set the alert on one device, leave it a minute, then reopen it on that same device to confirm it stuck before trusting it.
What to check, in order
- Precise Location must be on for Calendar. In Settings, under Privacy and Security, then Location Services, find Calendar and enable Precise Location. Approximate location cannot produce a drive estimate. This is the single most common fix — see Apple's guide to turning Location Services and Precise Location on.
- Location access set to While Using or Always. If it is set to Never, Time to Leave cannot work at all.
- The event needs a mapped address. Full street address, selected from the suggestions, showing a map preview.
- Notifications enabled for Calendar, with Time Sensitive notifications allowed so a Focus mode doesn't suppress them.
- Low Power Mode off, or at least understand that it restricts background activity that the feature relies on.
- Check the phone's own settings, not the iPad's or the Mac's. They are separate.
Then test it: create an event about 30 minutes from now at an address roughly 20 minutes away, with Time to Leave selected. If nothing arrives, your settings are not the problem.
Why it can still fail after all that
The feature is doing something demanding in the background — watching the calendar, resolving a location, estimating a live drive from wherever you currently are, and firing at the right moment, on a phone that is actively trying to limit background work.
And it fails silently. There is no error, no warning, nothing to check. You find out it didn't work when you are already late, which is exactly when the information was worth having.
That is why the forum threads run for years rather than getting closed. For a one-off appointment, an unreliable alert is a nuisance. For a drive you make every day, it is not something you can build a routine on.
What to use for a journey you make regularly
If the trips that matter are recurring, the better approach is something built for that rather than a general-purpose calendar alert.
BoardSpy Calendar Alarms connects via Google Calendar with read access (not Apple Calendar OAuth). Where an event has a location, it works out the drive from your saved commute origin, adds live traffic and a buffer, and sets a leave-by alert rather than a one-shot notification that depends on Precise Location. Meetings without a place — Zoom, Meet, and the rest — get a meeting alarm before they start.
Available on iOS and Android. See Calendar Alarms on the homepage and BoardSpy vs Google Calendar Time to Leave.
In the meantime, the departure time calculator will give you a leave-by time from your arrival time, no app or calendar permission required. And if you use Google Calendar rather than Apple's, the same feature fails there in its own ways. If Google never blocked the drive on the calendar at all, see how to add travel time to Google Calendar.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Time to Leave missing from my iPhone calendar alerts?
Usually because the event's location hasn't resolved to a real mapped address. Time to Leave only appears as an option when Calendar can calculate a drive to a specific place. Delete the location and re-enter it, selecting from the suggestions until a map preview appears.
Why does Time to Leave work on my iPad but not my iPhone?
Location permissions are configured separately on every device. Your iPad having Precise Location enabled for Calendar says nothing about your iPhone. Check Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Location Services, then Calendar on the phone itself.
How do I turn on Time to Leave on iPhone?
Enable Precise Location for Calendar in Location Services, add a full street address to the event selected from the suggestions, then choose Time to Leave from the alert options when creating or editing the event.
Why does my Time to Leave alert reset to none?
This is generally a sync conflict — the event is being edited on more than one device and the version without the alert wins. Set it on one device, wait a moment, then reopen it there to confirm it saved.
Does Apple Calendar add travel time automatically?
Apple Calendar has a Travel Time feature that adds a buffer for the journey, which is more than Google Calendar offers. It is still an estimate made when you create the event rather than a live check on the day.
Is there an app that reliably alarms when it's time to leave?
BoardSpy Calendar Alarms connects to Google Calendar with read-only access. Events with a real address get a leave-by alert from your saved commute origin plus live traffic. Meetings without a place, including video calls, get a meeting alarm before they start. You can turn individual meetings on or off. Download: https://boardspy.site/apps/ — homepage: https://boardspy.site/#calendar-alarms — compare: https://boardspy.site/compare/boardspy-vs-google-calendar-time-to-leave/.