Why the Teams Calendar not visible in Outlook?

[Subhendu Maji]

When an Office 365 Groups (private and public) is created from the Teams interface the group's Calendar is not visible in Outlook desktop and web. When an existing Office 365 Groups is added with Teams then the Calander remains accessible from Outlook. Wondering if there is any reason for this inconsistent behaviour?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

This is expected behavior!
Microsoft did this change that when you create a team now the underlaying office 365 group isn’t visible through outlook! This is because you often create a team for the sake of a team, not a group , and that caused confusion for users having a group suddenly in their outlook!
The reason why it’s visible when creating from an existing group in teams is that the group already exists and is not created during teams creation!
You can make these visible again:

https://www.synigopulse.com/blog/item/office-365-groups-created-from-microsoft-teams-will-be-hidden-...

[#3]

Thank you @adam deltinger

Agree that this is an expected behaviour of how Microsoft would like to. However, feels like there are a lot of assumptions regarding use cases. Wanted to know during AMA if there is any evidence-based reason for this behaviour. Wish that the owner has control during the creation regarding visibility or admins could choose how the feature would behave for the tenancy.

[#4]

We had tremendous feedback on this issue which is why the change was made.  Making the calendar visible in Outlook at Team creation was an definitely an issue.  You can as noted below make them visible again.  Meanwhile we'll be doing additional work to improve the calendar and group calendar experience over the next few quarters to enable many use cases where this calendar should be seen and used.  

[#5]

@Karuana Gatimu- we've been struggling with this issue, but found a solution at

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams/Teams-do-not-create-365-group/m-p/210239.

In summary, when you create a Team (from scratch, in Teams), a Group (with mailbox, calendar, etc.) is automatically created, but hidden from Outlook (i.e. It won't appear under Groups).

The hiding setting used to be set by default to false but is now by default set to true if created via Teams.
 
Here's the powershell commands to change the hidden setting so the Group appears in Outlook for all Team members:

• Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
• $UserCredential = Get-Credential
• $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
• Import-PSSession $Session
set-UnifiedGroup -identity "TeamNameHere" -HiddenFromExchangeClientsEnabled:$false

Please upvote the creation of a toggle in the Admin Center to do the above:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/34734004--hiddenfromexchangecl...

[#6]

Voted on this! Very much needed thanks for highlighting.

Best, Chris

[#7]

@Oz Oscroft I am not one of those Microsoft bashers, who never misses a chance to make my often misguided opinions to known. But I have to say that I have absolutely had it with Teams and that horrific new SharePoint design, and all of lost functionality. It really seems like MS is going to great lengths to enforce their vision, by making decisions for us, and always saying that it is "based on user feedback". What users are providing them with this sort of feedback? Who out there is telling them to take away the ability to make decisions based on our particular business needs?

[#8]

@Subhendu Maji I agree with you Subhendu. I feel like Microsoft has become the owner of our tenant. 

[#9]

Hi @whaleshark.  Having been what could probably be described as a 'very advanced end user' of SharePoint for many years, I'll admit that I started out with the same thinking as you when I moved to a job where it was my role to roll out Office 365 to the organisation.  However, my views have shifted significantly as I've embraced the new world of Microsoft.  We've taken the approach of taking using everything out-of-the-box and haven't, in 2 years, found anything we can't do that we want to.  Taking the time to develop a strategy and plan for using Teams, SharePoint, OneNote, Planner and Project Online together also paid dividends.  I've also been really impressed with how Microsoft, a leviathan of a company, also IS listening to users. I took the time to use the feedback button in all the tools and ended up having monthly calls to discuss our requirements.  They even came to visit when one of their development teams was over from the US.  Take a look at UserVoice and you can see that they're taking it seriously.  Hang in there!

[#10]

@Oz Oscroft 

After hiding group from GAL , still it not visible to outlook.

Please do not suggest to update outlook version as it seems to work with group.

---

@Oz Oscroft wrote:

@Karuana Gatimu- we've been struggling with this issue, but found a solution at

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams/Teams-do-not-create-365-group/m-p/210239.

In summary, when you create a Team (from scratch, in Teams), a Group (with mailbox, calendar, etc.) is automatically created, but hidden from Outlook (i.e. It won't appear under Groups).

The hiding setting used to be set by default to false but is now by default set to true if created via Teams.
 
Here's the powershell commands to change the hidden setting so the Group appears in Outlook for all Team members:

• Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
• $UserCredential = Get-Credential
• $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
• Import-PSSession $Session
set-UnifiedGroup -identity "TeamNameHere" -HiddenFromExchangeClientsEnabled:$false

Please upvote the creation of a toggle in the Admin Center to do the above:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/34734004--hiddenfromexchangecl...

---

[#11]

Thank you! It helps

[#12]

Is there any way to fix this on Mac? Powershell on Mac does not support Set-ExecutionPolicy apparently.

[#13]

@adam deltinger , i've set it to False, how long or how many hours will it take to show in OWA? I waited at least 2 hours and the group is not visible still.

[#14]

@whaleshark - The teams calendar IS in Outlook. I train users to look under "All Group Calendars" and if it is not already there . . . then I have them look into the Ribbon and select "Browse Groups." They will either see it listed there or if they search for the Team name, it will appear with a "View" button and a "Join" button. If they click the Join button they will then see it in Outlook and be able to toggle it on or off.

I understand that some folks are saying to use PowerShell to force it to display there. My experience with M365 so far has brought me to the conclusion that most things like this I give it 24 hours before I assume it didn't work. With everything online, it sometimes takes longer than you would like for the change to replicate to everyone. 

I hope this helps.