Microsoft 365 Calendar Users Best Practices and Tips

At The Ohio State University we support Microsoft Outlook on Windows, Mac and Mobile and we support the OWA (Outlook Web App). These are the only clients that are approved for use with the University Mail System.

Use the SAME version of Outlook. If you are on a device managed by the University then you should be using the same version of Outlook as anyone else in your area. However at the university we allow users to use personal devices as well. Issues with calendar management can happen with a mixed environment of mobile and desktop client use, especially when they are on different versions of the client. Mailbox owners and any delegates should be using the same version of Outlook with the latest service pack and updates on all computers that are used for calendaring. If you are in a mixed environment of Windows, Mac or mobile devices, each platform should use the same version and each device should have the latest service pack and updates which is hard to control in an environment that uses personal devices. For this reason it is not really recommended to do any calendar managing from a mobile device.

If you must use a mobile device to manage your calendar, consider using the Outlook app to accept/decline meeting requests.  It is recommended that mobile devices only be used for viewing your calendar.   Mobile devices tend to cause the most issues with appointments becoming corrupt, missing, or out of sync.  Scheduling an appointment just for yourself on your mobile device is fine however as it doesn't rely on syncing.

The only real tip for delegates is that ONE person should process meeting invites which is more of a business practice tip than an Outlook tip. 

If you have more than one delegate, having only one receive the meeting requests is highly recommended.  If more than one delegate receives the requests, the delegates and owner must decide who will be processing all the meeting requests.  All other computers/devices and people should ignore (i.e. do not process, do not delete) meeting requests for the mailbox if they receive them. Otherwise, there could be confusion in the system if one delegate accepts it and in the meantime another declines it. With the time necessary for syncing, the appointment could become corrupt.

If more than one user must have access to your mailbox, carefully consider whether these users have to be delegates or if you can assign different permissions instead.  You can share your calendar with different permission settings without making them a delegate. Please see:

• Share an Outlook Calendar on Windows
• Share an Outlook Calendar on Mac
• Share an Outlook Calendar on Mobile

• Always respond to meeting requests from your Inbox. If you always work in the Inbox, you allow the system to manage the meeting requests in a predictable manner. Working in the Inbox allows the system to remove the meeting invitation from your inbox once you accept or decline the invitation. If you work directly in the Calendar, then the meeting invite will be left behind in the Inbox which could cause more confusion. If you see a meeting invite in your inbox and want to delete it, first open it and look at the InfoBar at the top to see if the meeting has been accepted yet or not. If it has been accepted on another device then you will see the words Accepted by username on date, time.
• Do not move meeting requests, such as having a rule that moves all meeting requests to a particular folder. When a meeting request hits your inbox there is a special process that launches something called a "sniffer". This sniffer is a safety feature of Outlook. It sees the meeting request and attaches it to your calendar in a Tentative state, marking your calendar as tentatively busy so you don't accidentally miss a meeting because you did not see it in your Inbox. But the sniffer does not reply back to the meeting organizer. As far as the organizer is concerned, you have not accepted or rejected the meeting. You MUST open it and accept or reject it. And if you move the meeting requests, the sniffer doesn't work and you miss your notification. Just accept and reject meeting requests from your Inbox to decrease the chances of that happening.
• Don't delete a meeting request on one computer after you accept the same meeting request on another computer. If you are using two devices that connect to the same mailbox (e.g., a desktop computer that is using Online mode and a laptop computer that is using Cached Exchange Mode) how they handle the request and the speed with which they handle them is different. The meeting request that you accepted on the Desktop computer is immediately processed. The meeting request that you deleted on the laptop computer is synchronized later. After synchronization, the meeting on the desktop computer is also deleted and you would miss the meeting. You should try to handle meeting requests from the same device.
• If you receive a meeting cancelation, click Remove From Calendar. Do not just delete the meeting cancelation notice from your inbox because that will not remove it from your calendar.
• As much as automating things is supposed to be helpful it is NOT recommended to automatically accept all meeting requests, especially if you have any type of delegate access on the mailbox. If you have auto-accepting of requests on by default, you can mess with the flow of meeting requests.
• Best practice is to NOT forward meeting requests. Ask the meeting organizer to add the necessary attendee to the request. This will keep the meeting list from becoming out of date and the tracking will not work properly for forwarded meeting requests. Also, any updates sent by the meeting organizer will only be sent to the original attendees, not the people the invite was forwarded to.

• Whenever you update a meeting make certain to always send an Updated Invite to EVERYONE. If you edit or cancel a meeting and do not send an update to all attendees, then your calendar is the only one that will reflect the change. Adding an attachment, changing the location or the time are all things that are considered "editing" a meeting and as such you need to send the updates to all attendees, or they will miss important information.
• If you are not the meeting organizer do not edit the calendar item. If you do then you are only affecting your instance of the meeting. If you edit a meeting and an update by the meeting organizer is sent, then any edits you made, including notes, will be over written. If you are the meeting organizer any notes you add will be sent to all recipients.
• Do NOT invite a LISTSERV to a meeting. You may not always know who a subscriber on the list is and tracking information of responses isn't reliable. The LISTSERV members also all end up as Optional Attendees which could affect planning.

Microsoft recommends some standard practices when working with recurrent meetings. A recurring meeting is one that is scheduled to happen on a consistent repeating basis.

• Always schedule an end date on all recurring meetings. Microsoft recommends no more than six (6) months out for recurring meetings. By adding an end date you decrease the likelihood of creating more issues if you need to update or edit the meeting series.
• Be conscience of what and how much you are editing. If you need to change an entire series of meetings it is recommended to cancel the original meeting and create a new one. This can keep common issues from happening when updates are sent. If you need to change ONE INSTANCE of the meeting (such as changing the location for one instance, or shifting the time for one instance), delete the one instance and create a new meeting for that date, time and/or location.
• Once an appointment or meeting becomes corrupt there is no saving it. Just delete all occurrences of the meeting or appointment and start from scratch.
• Always try to avoid frequent changes. Frequent changes can cause issues within the Microsoft 365 system. Recurring meetings can become "lost", duplicated or out of sync if many updates are made. If you think you will have a series of meetings that may require consistent updates, consider chunking the series instead. Create individual meetings or consider shorter recurrence windows. For example, if you have a project that will require you to meet weekly for the next year, consider only scheduling the first month of meetings, until you see if the meeting is set up the way you need, the time consistently works for everyone and the location is available every time you need to meet. It is still only recommended to schedule no more than Six (6) months out.

Resources when discussed in the Microsoft 365 system are our rooms and technology needed to facilitate a successful meeting. That could be as simple as a room being scheduled in the Outlook system to additional resources as determined by your business needs. When working with Resources in the Microsoft 365 environment they need to be invited as Resources and not as Required or Optional Attendees. Also Resources need to be invited using the meeting invitation system. DO NOT schedule directly on the resource's Outlook calendar as that can cause additional issues. If you try to schedule directly in the resource calendar you will bypass the meeting conflict check that occurs and double booking of the room/resource could occur. This is the same recommendation we make when it comes to your own personal Outlook system, always work in the Inbox for meeting requests.

Recurring Meetings and Resources need to be managed carefully. You MUST open the meeting acceptance message that is sent from the resource.  If there is even one conflict with the dates of the recurring meeting, the resource will decline ALL meetings. Pay close attention to the meeting responses.

• Microsoft recommends not keeping too many old items in your calendar. The recommendation is no more than 5000 items or it can become cumbersome and overwhelming. Try deleting or archiving older calendar items to free up space. It will also make it easier for anyone viewing your calendar.
• As stated previously, corrupted meetings are a lost cause and will remain corrupt until you delete them. Delete the meeting or series of meetings and create a new one.
• Sending attachments in a meeting request is not the most effective or sustainable way to share information. One of the benefits of using the Microsoft 365 environment is that we have many different ways to share information and collaborate with others. Sending attachments means increased calendar storage size, multiple versions of an attachment on your network, if an update to the attachment happens then a meeting update needs to be sent to everyone. Versioning and tracking will not be maintained. It is best practice to use the cloud storage features of Microsoft 365. Place the attachment in the meeting space. Send a link to the file that is stored in OneDrive instead of an attachment. If you do receive a meeting request with an attachment, consider saving it to your cloud storage and removing it from your instance of the meeting invite. Remember if you are not the meeting organizer, you only affect your instance of the meeting, not everyone else's.