Calendar items not sent to new members of group

[kkostas]

Hello,

I have created some calendar items in outlook that are sent to a group.

Whenever I make a change in that group (either add or delete members) this calendar item is not updated. This means that new group members do not receive an invitation for existing meetings.

What I need to do to resolve this, is to edit each such meeting, eg make a change in description, and then send it again. Only this way the new group members will get invited. I come from Google, where this feature works flawlessly and it seems very strange for outlook to force me to update each calendar item, just to update the recipients. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of using groups in calendar.

Is there any way you can fix this please?

Thank you!

Kostas

[#2]

Hi @kkostas,

Outlook does not automatically update calendar invitations for existing meetings when there are changes to group memberships.

To ensure that new group members receive invitations to existing meetings, you can use these solutions:

Resend Invitations Manually

1. Open the calendar event that you want to update.

2. Make a minor change to the event, such as adding a space or a character to the description.

3. Save the changes to the event.

4. Outlook should prompt you to update the meeting. Click "Send Update" to resend the invitations to all attendees, including the new group members.
   
   Change an appointment, meeting, or event - Microsoft Support

5. The new group members should now receive invitations to the updated event.

Use Distribution Lists (Contact Groups) in Outlook

You can also consider using distribution lists (also known as contact groups) in Outlook instead of directly inviting a group of people to a meeting:

Create a contact group in Outlook - Microsoft Support

1. On the Navigation bar, choose People 

2. Select Home > New Contact Group.

3. In the Contact Group box, type the name for the group.

4. Select Contact Group > Add Members 

   , and then select an option:

   • Select From Outlook Contacts.

   • Select From Address Book.

   • Select New E-mail Contact.

5. Add people from your address book or contacts list, and choose OK. To select multiple people, hold down the Ctrl key as you choose members. 

6. Choose Save & Close.

7. When you schedule a calendar event, invite the distribution list (e.g., "Project Team") as an attendee. When there are changes to the group membership, update the distribution list accordingly. New group members will automatically receive invitations to events where the distribution list is invited.

Using distribution lists provides more flexibility in managing group memberships and ensures that changes to the group are automatically reflected in calendar invitations.

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Kindest regards,

Leon Pavesic

[#3]

Hello @LeonPavesic,

I tried doing your suggestion of creating a distribution list in Outlook and then sending a calendar invite to the members of that list. Once it was sent, I added another user into the distribution list but the said calendar invite wasn't automatically "pushed" into her calendar.

Would you be able to suggest any other solution? 

Thank you,

Jann

[#4]

Hey @LeonPavesic and @Jann_N,

I had exactly the same issue with group calendar events: new distribution list members didn't automatically receive the events in their calendars.

I would be grateful for any help with this matter!