Shared calendars now sync to mobile phones

Microsoft

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Hi 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.

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.

 

 

Hi 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.

Hi Julia

 

Thanks for the reply. But as you know in Office365 OWA and Outlook you can turn these calendars on and off as required, as I doubt anyone wants all of their shared calendars on at the same time. Especially on a mobile device where the screen size is so much smaller I cannot see half of the entries on my calendar anymore. This really should be looked at and have a function where you can change what you are viewing.

Hi Allan, I completely agree with you. In the Outlook mobile clients on iOS & Android, you can select/unselect calendars just like you can in all the other Outlook clients. You can also select/unselect calendars in the native iOS calendar app. I'm not sure how all the native Android apps work across manufacturers, but that is just a limitation of the app you're using. I recommend using the Outlook mobile apps myself :)

OK, 365 shared calendars available via iOS app now, but what about a step by step (or link to one that may already exist) for shared mailbox?  OWA is supposedly 'not supported' and dead according to support rep, and that app allowed viewing all sub folders.  I cannot see any folder in any e-mail inbox and zero shared mailbox.

Hundreds of posts, all over the place, no definitive CURRENT solution?

Hi Robert, the Outlook mobile apps do not yet support shared mailboxes. The best way to help increase the priority of this request is to vote for it in UserVoice. Here are the links to the request for shared mailboxes on the iOS client and the Android client.

Hi Julia,

 

I am experiencing the same issue as Allan and many third-party calendar app users. This isn't an issue with my Android Calendar app- I can select and deselect multiple calendars from any other email server, just not Outlook. When I add my Outlook calendar, it only lists my personal calendar, and yet when I access that calendar, it shows information from all the calendars shared with me (which is A LOT).

 

 

I hope a solution to this issue is in the works! It's frustrating to me that this great feature only works correctly on the Outlook mobile app. Some better cross-functionality would be much appreciated!

Same issue!

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.

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?

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