Group Calendar

[Joseph Nierenberg]

When a group is created in M365 with a Teams team, the group resources include a calendar. The group calendar is available in Outlook (both desktop and web). I cannot find a way to make it available from within Teams. There is a channel calendar available to be pinned to the General channel, but that is a blank calendar only for that channel; it does not sync with any other group or Outlook calendar, as far as I can tell. Is there any way to pin the group calendar to the Teams site?

[#2]

Hi, this is something being worked on! https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/16933204-include-office-365-gr... so vote for it to stay updated when status changes.

As for now you can for example add the calendar as a website (add a tab) adding the URL to it.

[#3]

@ChristianJBergstrom 

Re. UserVoice: thanks. I'll go there and vote.
Re. pinning the calendar URI: I thought that could work, but it brings in--at least when I view it--all of my OWA calendars. The URI is apparently unrelated to which radio buttons are checked for including calendars. I do not know whether other Team members would see only the shared calendar and not also my own calendar, but I didn't want to risk it. Do you know how that might work?

[#4]

See if this helps. And no, you don't have to worry about others seeing what only you have access to.

https://www.marksgroup.net/blog/microsoft-teams-add-a-group-calendar-to-teams/

[#5]

@ChristianJBergstrom 

Tried that, and it turns out the issue is more extensive than I thought:

- Team members who are not in my organization have to change tenant in Teams to see the teams tabs. In this case, with the URI of their OWA pinned to the channel, they can see their own calendar just fine, and not mine (thank you), but they do not have an option to view the group calendar. There is no radio button available to them.

- At first I thought this was manageable, because they could see the group calendar in Outlook and just overlay it on their own calendar, but no. In their Outlook--remember, they're not in my organization; they are a guest user in my AAD and a member of my Teams-enabled M365 Group--they do not see the group calendar. Under the Group ribbon tab, when they browse groups (and click All), my organization's group does not appear, even though they are a member. They can see groups within their own organization, but not groups--even of which they are a member--within another organization.

This defeats the entire purpose and functionality of cross-organizational teams. It also, more critically, means that team members outside my organization cannot view the group calendar. We now have multiple events being scheduled for group participation, but no apparent way to enter them once and have them available for more than one person (outside the tenant).

Do you see a way around this?

[#6 · Accepted solution]

You didn't mention external people in your question. As you noticed they can't access the calendar. But something that is common that people do is creating a Group calendar web part https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-the-group-calendar-web-part-eaf3c04d-5699-48cb-8b5e-3...

[#7]

Yes, thanks. I was figuring that out at the same time you were replying. I was concerned that adding a new calendar would miss the entries already made, but by adding a group calendar and specifying the group it all works fine. (Not at all clear to me why the group calendar isn't already added to the SPO site, but I don't care enough to follow that up.) I've added the URI of the SPO group calendar page to the Teams site as a website, and also provided it as a link to the externals. They might have to log in, but they should be able to access it equally well both ways.

Thanks very much for your help.

[#8]

@ChristianJBergstrom
Although I think we have this set up as well as it's going to get, we've just discovered a related problem.

External group members cannot add or modify calendar entries on the group calendar web part in SharePoint Online or in Teams (which is just a pointer to the SPO web part). The only way to add or modify events in that calendar is through Outlook, and the only group members who can see the group in their Outlook are internal users in the tenant organization.

Is that your understanding, too?

[#9]

Yes, they can only view. I should have mentioned that to you.

[#10]

Maybe I missed it. Can I make this calendar available to external users via a hyperlink?

[#11]

Hey Tony, in this scenario it's just being added to the SP site so the externals already added can view it.

[#12]

Hello, I have read through this thread because I am having some similar issues. I am attempting to set up a shared calendar so that my team can view our upcoming training schedule; i.e., who is participating in which trainings on which day. 

I tried out the Channel Calendar functionality in Teams, but this duplicates the meetings in Outlook, which is what we're trying to avoid. (We don't want to have to invite the entire training team to every training, cluttering our inboxes.) I thought maybe we could invite the Team Channel to our training meetings (which are all conducted via Teams) but this does not work, as the meetings do not show up on the calendar unless you create them there.

So now I'm trying to create a group in Outlook with all the trainers and potentially sharing the group calendar, as described in this article: https://www.marksgroup.net/blog/microsoft-teams-add-a-group-calendar-to-teams/. I thought that if I invited the group (via the group's email address) it would show up ONLY on the shared calendar, and not on every group member's personal calendar. Again, this is not the case: when you invite the group, you're inviting everyone in the group. 

Is there a way to create a shared calendar in Teams or Outlook to see ONLY certain shared meetings, and those meetings do NOT appear on everyone's personal mailbox? Can we share meetings on a case by case basis with the shared calendar so that they are visible to group members?

[#13]

@ChristianJBergstrom I don't see the Team's Group Calendar as an existing webpart in my SharePoint site. How do I make this available so that I can then follow the directions in your link?

[#14]

Hi Christian, please can you tell me if there is any update on this functionality? Facing the same issue with MS Teams calendar not displaying group events. Kind regards, Lewis