Forum Discussion
MicrosoftShared calendars now sync to mobile phones
We are rolling out a feature update that enables shared calendars to sync to mobile phones. This update will make it possible to sync all your Office365 shared calendars to your mobile phone for any permission level (view, edit, or delegate permissions). In addition, you can now share a calendar or accept shared calendar invitations from Outlook on iOS and Android.
Existing shared calendars will not be upgraded as part of this change, and they will continue to sync only to Outlook on the web, Windows, and Mac. Only shared calendars that are accepted after these changes are released will sync to mobile phones.
The shared calendar will only sync to mobile phones if:
- The calendar is shared between users who are both hosted in Exchange Online
-
The calendar is accepted from a sharing invitation using Outlook on the web, iOS, or Android
We'll be gradually rolling this update starting on 9/18 and rollout will be completed by 9/22.
You can find more details about shared calendar improvements at the article located here.
117 Replies
Hi Julia,
I am having a huge problem as since the 9/2017 update whenever someone shares there calendar with me I cannot turn it off so that it is not on my Mobile phone. I would like to be able to see events when necessary, but not have 10 or more people's schedule on my personal mobile phone at all times. It becomes cluttered and confusing. Even when I deselect their calendar on the web outlook calendar it remains on my mobile phone. When I delete the events from my mobile phone I have been told that it deletes the persons calendar event. I notice that this only occurs for those who are listed under "People's"Calendar and not "Others" Calendar. I assume they labels changed after 9/2017. Is there any fix for this because it is causing me great headaches.
Unless they've changed it again shared calendars won't appear on your mobile device if they've been added using the desktop outlook app instead of outlook online. They will still be available in outlook online though, the important part is how they're added not how they're accessed.
On apple devices you should be able to turn individual calendars on and off. On android devices you can also pick individual calendars depending on the specific combination of apps you're using. I've found that as long as you use the gmail app to setup the sync to your exchange account it will let you control the calendars individually but not if you use your phone manufacturer's email app.
If you don't need the calendars while mobile at all I would remove them from your shared list and re-add them using the outlook desktop app. If you need the ability to turn them off and on selectively (and you're on android) I would setup your email in the gmail app. Then you should be able to turn the individual calendars on and off in your calendar app. You might have to experiment some.
I hope that helps, this feature isn't well documented.
Hi Keisha,
This is the same problem I had. The only solution was to rely on the Outlook App Calendar for my work meetings/appts and keep my personal calendar separate (i use gmail and the samsung calendar). When in Outlook App calendar, when you select the menu top leftyou can de-select the shared views calendar. It is frustrating that I have to view two separate calendar apps but this was the only way I could work it.
Is there a way to remove the shared calendar from my phone, but not Outlook 365? I do not and do not plan to use Outlook 365 on my phone or any other mobile device.
- How do I NOT have this option? I only want to view shared calendars on my desktop as my work and personal phone are 1. I don't want to see my Exec. director's schedule at home while looking up my kids appointments.
At least until they update all calendars to work this way just add the shared calendar on your outlook client instead of through outlook on the web and it should not sync to your phone.
Thanks Mike, I added the calendar from my desktop app and still shows my Director's full calendar on my phone. hmmmmm
Sometime around the beginning of January the ability to send sharing invites from shared mailboxes was removed. You can no longer edit sharing permissions on the calendar of a shared mailbox through OWA which makes this whole feature pretty useless.
Annnnnnnd the point of it all is?
- You can make the calendars appear separately with their own colors and ability to turn them on and off on android by setting up the sync with the gmail app instead of the non-gmail email app (samsung / android / whatever). What matters is the way the sync is setup, not the app used to view the calendar.
Thanks Mike for the workaround! Moved all my email to the Gmail app instead of the standard Samsung email app, and now for some reason my standard Samsung calendar app is syncing my Outlook calendars correctly. Weird! Thanks for the suggestion!
That's a great feature - but only if you want it.
How do you turn it off? I don't want ALL the shared calendars showing on my mobile calendar. The only option is to turn off the "calendar" which incorporates my personal calendar and all shared. This is rather annoying, so hopefully there is a way to do this without actually deleting the shared calendars from within my O365 account.
- Julia ForanHi Allan, there is no way to disable this. We have to promise users that they will have the same calendars sync to all of your devices (just like they experience in every other calendar service). Feel free to private message me with more feedback about your use cases for not wanting all calendars to sync to all devices.
I need to turn this off. We have multiple people with multiple appointments per day. When I am at my desktop I can check where everyone is and schedule appointments for them, but when i am out and about I need to know where I have to be. I don't want 30+ other appointments on my screen. You need to make this optional or I have to turn off all shared calanders, which then means i can't schedule my people when I am in the office. This is really frustrating.
If existing shared calendars will not be upgraded as part of this change, am I reading it correctly in meaning my current user's personal calendars that they have shared out in the past will not be accessible via mobile? If that is the case is there any way to get my users personal calendar's shared out and accessible by mobile by perhaps unsharing and resharing again?? Or am I just stuck with not being able to get them on mobile?
Does this include contacts as well or only calendars?
- Julia ForanHi Becky, it is calendar only. We'll eventually automatically upgrade already-shared calendars but are not planning to do it anytime soon.
And yes, you can absolutely self-upgrade by re-sharing & re-accepting. At this point, you just need to accept from Outlook on the web, iOS, or Android to self-upgrade so that the shared calendar syncs to your mobile phone.
This is a good option. However it would be much more beneficial, if the appointments are differentiated by colors - one color for your personal calendar and another color for the shared calendar. Presently both are shown with the same color and the calendar seems to be in a mess, at least on the mobile view.
- Julia Foran
Hi Abhay, it sounds like you're using a 3rd party calendar app. I have heard many Android apps show all the events as if they were the same calendar, which makes all the events show in the same color. This is an issue with the app you're using, not the Office 365 implementation. If you add your account to Outlook on iOS or Android, you'll see that the calendars are separate and you can choose different colors.
I have shared calendars showing up on the app widget that I have deleted. I do not want to see these items but can not find a way to get rid of them.
- Julia Foran
Hi Judson Walker Please try deleting the calendar using one of the Outlook apps. If you're still hitting an issue, then it would be good to reach out to Customer Support. This forum is not intended to be a "support/debug" channel and more of an "information/how-to" channel.
- @julia Is it possible to mute notifications from the other calendars. I have a person who is getting meeting reminders on their mobile from these other sync'd calendars. How do we stop that?
- Julia Foran
Greg Tiber - That should not be happening because on the sharee copy of the calendar, we set the popup reminder value to "None" for all events. Can you send me a private message with a screenshot of what the event looks like in Outlook on the web?
Hi Julia, some of our customer experience the same on Windows Mobile with Outlook. They receiving notifications about events from shared calendars. I will try to catch the details with customers and send you these.
