Set the time and location for handoffs

A handoff is the moment the children move from one home to the other. Coparia already knows which days those are from your parenting schedule. Tell it the time and location once, and each handoff shows on the calendar with both, and you both get a reminder before it.

Before you start. You need a parenting schedule. See Set up who has the children, and when. Only parents can set or change handoffs.

Set the usual time and location

Your schedule’s swap days are worked out for you. A 2-2-3 that starts on a Friday, for example, changes homes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so you set those three once.

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Parenting schedule.
3. Under Handoffs, open the swap day you want to set.
4. Choose the Time, and start typing the Location to pick an address from the suggestions. A location does not have to be an address. “Field 3” or “the north gate” works too.
5. Choose a Reminder, or leave it off.
6. Add Notes if there is something to remember every time, like the soccer bag.
7. Select Save from today (on a phone, Save).

Different for each direction. If the time or location depends on who the children are going to, turn off Same for both directions. You then set Going to Mom and Going to Dad separately. A school pickup one way and a meet at home the other is common.

Changes start today. Saving applies from today onward. Handoffs that already happened keep the time and location they had, so the calendar still shows how things actually went.

Set them up with a new family

When you create a family, the step after the parenting schedule is Handoffs. It shows each swap day with a time and a location to fill in, and one switch for reminders. Fill in what you know. Skip for now is fine, and everything can be set later from Settings.

Change one handoff

Plans shift for a day without changing for good. Change that one day from the calendar and the usual time and location stay as they are.

On a computer:

1. Open the Calendar and select the day.
2. On the handoff, select Change this day.
3. Change the time, location, reminder or note, then select Save.

On a phone:

1. Open the Calendar and tap the day.
2. Tap the handoff to open its details.
3. Tap Actions, then Change this day.
4. Change what you need, then tap Save.

The other parent is told about the change, so nobody turns up at the old location.

To undo it, open the same handoff and choose Use the usual time and location.

When the children are on different schedules

If each child follows a schedule of their own, every schedule has its own swap days, and you set the handoffs for each one. In Settings, each schedule has its own Handoffs section. When you create a family, the Handoffs step shows every schedule’s swap days, with the schedule’s name and the child on each one.

On the calendar, a day the children change homes shows one handoff when it is the same for all of them: the same parent, time, location, reminder and note. When it is not, each child gets a handoff of their own, named for them, like Emma: handoff to Dad. A child who is not moving that day gets none.

Changing one of those days works the same way. Change a child’s handoff and only that child’s changes. Change the one shared handoff and it changes for every child it stands for.

A handoff with nothing set

Some handoffs have no time or location yet. That happens before you have set your swap days, and always for a handoff created by a swap or a holiday, because those are not part of your regular pattern.

They still show on the calendar, as No time or location yet. Open the handoff and choose Add time and location (on a phone, it is under Actions). What you add applies to that day only.

Reminders

A handoff reminder goes to both parents, at the lead time you chose: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or 1 day before. It names who the children are going to, the time and the location.

Whether it reaches you follows your A reminder for an event setting under Settings, then Notifications. See Choose what Coparia tells you about. Helpers never get handoff reminders.

When it does not work

There is no Handoffs section. You have no parenting schedule yet, or you are signed in as a helper. Only parents can set handoffs.

A swap day you expected is missing. Swap days come from the schedule’s pattern and its start date. If the pattern is right but starts on the wrong day, every swap day moves with it. Check the start date first.

There are two handoffs on one day. The children’s handoffs differ that day, in who they go to, the time, the location, the reminder or the note. Make them the same and they show as one.

A reminder did not arrive. Check that the handoff has a time and a reminder set, and that your A reminder for an event setting is not Don’t tell me.