Small group shared calendar does not update

[Robert Woods]

Hello, I just migrated a client to 365 from exchange on prem, were trying out office 365 groups for the first time and having a TERRIBLE experience with the shared calendar. This is a small law firm that handles all of their bookings through the shared law firms calendar, and within 2 days they had 5 meetings double booked due to the shared calendar not updating in peoples outlook desktop. 

The group was set up and the calendar added under everyones outlook calendar tab. half of the users could not book the calendar even though they had owner rights in the group. We had to rebuild their outlook profiles to get the shared calendar to work. Now, even though they can add appointments directly to the calendar from desktop outlook, the other users have to leave their calendar, click on the group in outlook and open the calendar from there, and as soon as they do the group calendar updates in the calendars tab. 

one suggetion I found online was to disable downloading of shared folders in outlook account. I did this last night and they are going to test today... 

If this does not work we will be ditching groups and just creating a sharepoint calendar for their team to use. 

[#2]

@Ravin Sachdeva any insight here?

[#3]

It is very weird and doesn't make a lot of sense, but try making them "Members" and "Owners" of the group. I find that in certain uses, these roles are not at all well defined but this can be solved by simply making the members in question both Members and Owners.

[#4]

@Maria Kang can you help here?

Thanks!

[#5]

Hi Robert, 

Assuming that Outlook 2016 (not web client) is your team's main Outlook client, I'm gathering two issues here:

1. Some group members do not see specific groups in the left nav in Calendar tab so they have to go back to Mail tab, go to groups folder and then click on group calendar link found in the ribbon. 
   
   • Unable to see all your groups in Calendar tab is a known limitation and we're currently working to address this. 
   • But in the meantime, one workaround would be to favorite groups to ensure that they appear in Calendar tab. 
2. Some users could not book the calendar even though they had owner rights in the group. 
   
   • Are they getting any errors when try to book events on group calendar? If so, could you please share screenshots with me? 

-Maria 

[#6]

Maria,

Let me clarify the issue. It is not what you stated below. All users have the group favorited and see it in the left nav bar no problem.

The issue is that when 1 user adds an appointment to the shared calendar it never shows up on the other members shared calendar in outlook. In order to get the new appointment to show up the user has to click on the group in outlook, and open the calendar from within the group interface in a new window, then the appointment appears on the shared calendar in the new window, and their original outlook calendar window.

[#7]

Thank you for the clarification, Robert. 

Could you please file a support ticket so I can get your logs and pass them to our engineering team?

Regarding some owners unable to book calendar events on group calendar, could you provide me with more details? Is it just group appointment that they're unable to create? Or they cannot send meeting invites to group members either? Any error messages? 

Thank you again for reporting these issues. 

-Maria

[#8]

I will file a ticket asap and provide you the number.

I fixed the issue with some owners being unable to add items by rebuilding their outlook profile. that part of the issue is now resolved, everyone can book. Not sure why I had to rebuild their profile but no worries there.

[#9]

Hi Robert, 

I couldn't find your ticket but our engineering team confirmed that this is a known issue and we're currently rolling out the fix. I'll keep you updated as we make progress on this. 

Thank you, 

-Maria

[#10]

thank you maria, the end users have not reported any more trouble after I changed the setting in the profile to not download shared calendars, so I did not want to disturb them. I will keep an eye out here for any new info. if you have time, could you message me with some details of the known issue?

[#11]

Hi Robert, there was an issue in Outlook 2016 where new group appointments created through this outlook client only existed in local store and did not get synced to the server. We have a fix for it and we're rolling out asap.
Apologies for any confusion.
-Maria

[#12]

Hello @Maria Kang,

Some of my end-users encounter the same problem.

Do you know if the fix has been rolled out?

And in which Outlook version it is included?

Thanks a lot for your help

Pierrick

[#13]

I am experiencing the same issue. Local, group calendar in Outlook 2016 will not upload to the Server. What is the status of this repair?

[#14]

I'm having the same problem with a client.  I've set up a similar scenario on my own tenant and also have the same problem.

Basically everything appears to be OK, users can see  & update the calendar, but the updates don't get synced to other users unless they un-check & re-check the calendar in Outlook.

I would think this should be basic functionality for an O365 Group.

I'm about to convert the client to a different solution, since O365 Groups don't appear to work as they should.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks.

Ray

[#15]

Ray, @Maria Kang is the microsoft rep that weighed in earlier in this thread. Maybe she can provide some help here? For me the fix was to uncheck the box mentioned earlier on each clients outlook.

1. On the menu select Tools > Account settings
2. Click on your account, then on Change More Settings then select the Advanced tab.
3. Clear the "Download shared folders (excludes mail folders)" check box.
4. Exit and restart Outlook.

[#16]

Hi Robert.

I've tried unchecking this (and re-checking and un-checking again).  It makes no difference.

Thanks anyway, but I'll have to keep searching.

Cheers

Ray

[#17]

We are having the same problem. Any updates to this issue? To clarify, we are experiencing the following:

1. User creates an entry, appointment or invitation, on the Group calendar from Outlook desktop client (subscription).

2. For other users to see the entry, they need to deselect the group calendar, and reselect it from view. This seems to "update" the calendar.

All changes are immediate and visible in OWA, they just don't sync back down to the desktop client unless the calendar is unchecked and rechecked. We can't continually expect users to refresh their desktop calendar every time. 

Any recommendations would be great!

[#18]

I've spent too long on this issue, with the client getting steadily more upset.  So I decided that O365 Groups simply don't work and reverted back to the "old fashioned" shared calendar.

I won't be trying it again with this client.  Maybe if it ever gets resolved I might try it on new clients, but I'm not holding my breath.

[#19]

@Maria Kang- Was this fix ever rolled out? It looks like people are still experiencing the issue, as am I. I am new to Groups and figured maybe it was just a learning curve, but this is the exact issue that I am encountering:

• Attendees listed on a meeting scheduled from a Group's calendar do not consistently receive the meeting invitation to accept onto their own calendar (this includes group members and group owners as well as additional attendees that may not be subscribed to the group). 

We need this functionality, as we need to be able to have multiple group owners manage various meetings instead of individuals owning them, in order to provide a collaborative and load-sharing space. 

Thanks in advance!

[#20]

@Maria Kang Was this fix ever rolled out? Is there a more recent thread on supporting issues with group calendar syncs?

Any event created by a group member on the shared group calendar does not show up on anyone else's view of the calendar - it is very frustrating.

Thank you.