Advice on how to consolidate multiple calendars

Copper Contributor

I'm a consultant and have different email/calendar accounts for each client.  So far I've been adding each account to Outlook 2016 on the desktop and the Outlook client in Android.  My latest client uses GSuite and has security settings that do not allow the account to be added to a desktop or mobile client, web client only.  Luckily I just found the "Add a personal calendar" feature in my school 365 account, and was able to add my new work calendar that way.  Work appointments for that account now show up in the web client and also in Android, but not on the desktop.  Appointments from my other 365 account are visible in Outlook 2016 and Android, but not in the web client.

 

Ideally I'd like to be able to go to any client, particularly the desktop, and view all my appointments to help when I'm trying to schedule something new.  Related, I'd like all meetings to actually be on one calendar (preferably my school 365 account) so that busy/free status is accurate when others are trying to schedule time with me.

 

I have 7 accounts total, but only 4 have active calendars that I need to track (1 GSuite, 1 educational 365 account, 1 365 account provided by GoDaddy, and one IMAP account whose calendar is currently rolled up under my school account).  Suggestions?

10 Replies

@mlaps If you added the calendar to outlook on the web, it should sync down as a subfolder of the calendar in your mailbox. 

 

Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings to open the Account Settings dialog. Double click on the account and click More Settings > Advanced. Do you have an option to "Turn on shared calendar improvements (preview)" ?  

@Diane PoremskyThanks so much for the suggestion.  I turned on the shared calendar improvements (which was unchecked previously) and restarted Outlook, but still not seeing appointments from my work calendar in desktop Outlook.  Also not seeing that calendar in the side panel, in case it just hadn't been selected.  Any other places to check?

 

Also, is there someway to get the booked times from my other work account (Work2), an O365 account, to reflect as busy on my O365 school account?

Tried a full reboot as well, but still no luck.  This is a retail license of Office 2016, not an O365 subscription, in case that matters?

@mlaps  

The office license doesn't matter as long as it has the option to enable the new calendar experience. I would remove it and add it back. 

 

You could get MFCMAPI and look at the data file - is the calendar listed? I had a problem a few months ago where some of the calendars had the hidden flag set. And in looking at my calendars... had it today - the Indians calendar was hidden - double click on untick Boolean then click ok. 

This article shows where to look - you'll be unhiding, not hiding.  (I suspect the hiddden flag is set when you remove a calendar - if you add it back, it will remain hidden.) 

https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/delete-outlooks-default-folders/

 

 

>>

Also, is there someway to get the booked times from my other work account (Work2), an O365 account, to reflect as busy on my O365 school account?

>>

If busy state should sync, but it won't show on your main calendar (or in your free/busy) unless you copy the appointments to it. 

In addition to adding your own, you can combine multiple Google calendars. If you want to add someone else's calendar to yours, choose the + sign next to Other calendars and click on Subscribe to calendar.

@Diane PoremskyI've downloaded MFCMAPI and gone through the instructions you linked to, but having trouble finding any sign of my work calendar.  There's a fair amount of material to look through, so I can't tell if I just haven't found it yet or if isn't there.  Before I did this I disabled and enabled the new calendar experience again, but no change.

 

>>If busy state should sync, but it won't show on your main calendar (or in your free/busy) unless you copy the appointments to it. >>

 

I'm not following this.  If the busy state syncs, why wouldn't it show up in my free/busy?

 

On this one, my main goal right now is to try to get the sync to go towards the GSuite account.  People at this firm are making appointments with me all the time without asking for my availability, simply because they only see the one calendar.  I have a fair number of meetings each day, many of which end up getting rescheduled, so trying to do this manually is bound to run into problems.

 

 

@Lewis-HIf you're referring to doing this from Google Calendar, I've tried without success.  I'm able to subscribe to my O365 school calendar and it shows up under Other calendars within Google, but none of the meetings from that calendar are displayed even though I'm supposed to have full permissions.

@mlaps 

>>>

>>If busy state should sync, but it won't show on your main calendar (or in your free/busy) unless you copy the appointments to it. >>

 

I'm not following this.  If the busy state syncs, why wouldn't it show up in my free/busy?

>>>

 

When you add the calendar, you'll see it as a separate calendar - if you are doing this so people can check your calendar and see if you are available, they will only see the appointments on your default calendar. That is the only calendar that is used for free/busy.  Subscribed calendars are for your reference only. 

 

If you need everything on one calendar, you will need to use a different method - 3rd party utility or macro to copy the events to one calendar. 

@Diane PoremskyThanks, that makes more sense.  Final clarification I hope, the separate calendar is just for "other" calendars, right?  When I go to OWA and "Add a personal calendar" and use that to add in my GSuite account, that seems to actually get added to my main calendar instead of being an overlay, assuming that means that those events are showing as busy to anyone with access to my free/busy times, even though for whatever reason they still don't show up in desktop Outlook?

 

 

@mlaps curious if you figured anything out that works?