Forum Discussion
Sharing personal calendars with work profile and showing busy times
You're absolutely right — and what you’re experiencing is a known limitation of .ics calendar subscriptions in Outlook.
What's Happening?
When you subscribe to a personal calendar via an .ics URL, Outlook will display the events as read-only, and these events:
Appear in the calendar view
Do not show up in Scheduling Assistant availability
Do not mark you as 'busy' for others trying to book time via the Scheduling Assistant
This is by design — .ics subscriptions are treated as external, informational calendars, and not "first-class" calendars in Exchange that Outlook uses for free/busy lookup.
What Are Your Options?
To get your personal busy times to appear in Scheduling Assistant, you have to sync or integrate your personal calendar in a way Outlook natively understands as availability. Here are a few solutions:
Best Option: Add Personal Account to Outlook with Publishing Enabled
If your organization allows it, you can add your personal calendar (e.g., Gmail, Outlook.com) as an account in your work Outlook app:
Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings
Add your personal email account (Gmail/Outlook.com)
This brings in the personal calendar as a native calendar, not just a subscribed one
Events now show up in Scheduling Assistant as long as the calendar is marked and Outlook is using "Show as Busy"
You may need to enable syncing or delegate sharing from your personal account.
Alternative: Use Microsoft Power Automate to Copy Events
If you’re not allowed to add personal accounts directly:
Use Microsoft Power Automate (Flow) to copy busy events from your personal calendar to your work calendar (as private placeholders)
These events will show up as "busy" in Scheduling Assistant
You can customize this to:
Copy only events marked as “busy”
Set the subject to “Private Event” for confidentiality
Keep it in sync automatically
What Won’t Work
Subscribing via an .ics feed (what you did)
Importing a static .ics file
Viewing a calendar in “overlay” mode — it shows up visually but does not influence your free/busy availability
Thanks for the very detailed response.
I tried the publish and copy the .ics link methodology, and whilst the busy times from my calendar show up in the work calendar, in both the desktop app and the outlook version, if I try to arrange an appointment in my work calendar, the scheduling assistant does not show the personal calander's busy times.
So, unfortunately, the "problem" remains. I can see my personal busy times in the work outlook app, however the personal busy times do no appear in the scheduling assistant.
You're absolutely right — and what you’re experiencing is a known limitation of .ics calendar subscriptions in Outlook.
What's Happening?
When you subscribe to a personal calendar via an .ics URL, Outlook will display the events as read-only, and these events:
Appear in the calendar view
Do not show up in Scheduling Assistant availability
Do not mark you as 'busy' for others trying to book time via the Scheduling Assistant
This is by design — .ics subscriptions are treated as external, informational calendars, and not "first-class" calendars in Exchange that Outlook uses for free/busy lookup.
What Are Your Options?
To get your personal busy times to appear in Scheduling Assistant, you have to sync or integrate your personal calendar in a way Outlook natively understands as availability. Here are a few solutions:
Best Option: Add Personal Account to Outlook with Publishing Enabled
If your organization allows it, you can add your personal calendar (e.g., Gmail, Outlook.com) as an account in your work Outlook app:
Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings
Add your personal email account (Gmail/Outlook.com)
This brings in the personal calendar as a native calendar, not just a subscribed one
Events now show up in Scheduling Assistant as long as the calendar is marked and Outlook is using "Show as Busy"
You may need to enable syncing or delegate sharing from your personal account.
Alternative: Use Microsoft Power Automate to Copy Events
If you’re not allowed to add personal accounts directly:
Use Microsoft Power Automate (Flow) to copy busy events from your personal calendar to your work calendar (as private placeholders)
These events will show up as "busy" in Scheduling Assistant
You can customize this to:
Copy only events marked as “busy”
Set the subject to “Private Event” for confidentiality
Keep it in sync automatically
What Won’t Work
Subscribing via an .ics feed (what you did)
Importing a static .ics file
Viewing a calendar in “overlay” mode — it shows up visually but does not influence your free/busy availability
Surya_Narayana Thanks for the responses. Ill try the Power automate solution, though I was hoping for something a little easier :)