{"id":11556,"date":"2017-09-26T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sherweb.com\/blog\/?p=11556"},"modified":"2022-09-05T16:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T20:16:20","slug":"troubleshoot-meeting-invitations-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sherweb.com\/blog\/microsoft-ecosystem\/office-365\/troubleshoot-meeting-invitations-outlook\/","title":{"rendered":"How to troubleshoot meeting invitations in Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outlook calendar issues are quite common, and they can severely impact the operational efficiency of an organization if left unresolved. Indeed, meetings run everything for a company, from stock shipments to software implementations.<\/p>\n

You need to know how to troubleshoot Outlook to fix issues such as calendar appointments not showing up; partial or incorrect information appearing on meeting invitations; meeting requests being sent, accepted, or declined in an endless loop; and many others. Here are some known troubleshooting solutions for Outlook issues.
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1) Meeting creation: attendee not found<\/h2>\n

One of the steps for setting up a meeting on the Outlook calendar requires you to specify the meeting attendees.<\/p>\n

During this process, some users experience problems with finding a particular attendee on the global address list or loading them up for the meeting.<\/p>\n

To solve this problem, it\u2019s usually sufficient to refresh the locally cached Address Book<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In Outlook, click on File<\/strong>, select Account Settings<\/strong>, and then choose Download Address Book<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Download<\/p>\n

2) Free\/Busy doesn\u2019t work: no info appears<\/h2>\n

The Outlook calendar comes with an excellent feature called Scheduling Assistant<\/strong>, also known as Free\/Busy<\/strong>. It basically lets you know if the person you\u2019d like to send an invitation to is already busy or unavailable for your selected date\/time range.<\/p>\n

To open this feature, simply navigate to the Meeting tab, and click on Scheduling Assistant<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\"Scheduling<\/p>\n

Vertical bars mark the start and end times of meetings. The color legend at the bottom is a good reference for the formatting on screen.<\/p>\n

\"Legend\"<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the Scheduling Assistant may refuse to provide you with information about an attendee\u2019s availability.<\/p>\n

When this happens, cells will be filled with diagonally striped lines like the ones below:<\/p>\n

\"Unavailable<\/p>\n

This issue can usually be fixed by following these steps:<\/p>\n

1) Run \u201cOutlook.exe \/Cleanfreebusy\u201d<\/h4>\n

The command switch Outlook.exe \/Cleanfreebusy<\/strong> restores Free\/Busy data. This switch can only be used when Outlook is online.<\/p>\n

2) Refresh the Outlook Address Book (OAB)<\/h4>\n

In Outlook, click on File<\/strong>, select Account Settings<\/strong>, and then choose Download Address Book<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Scheduling<\/p>\n

3) Check if the Autodiscover Service is working:<\/h4>\n

To retrieve Free\/Busy information from Exchange Server, Outlook needs to be able to access Availability service endpoints<\/strong>, which are defined by the Autodiscover service<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It’s important to ensure that the Autodiscover<\/strong> service is answering requests from clients who can’t get Free\/Busy data.<\/p>\n

To do so, you can use Microsoft\u2019s Remote Connectivity Analyzer Tool<\/strong><\/a>, a collection of web-based tools designed to identify connectivity issues affecting the Exchange Server environment. It\u2019s easy and quite intuitive, but before running any tests, make sure you select the correct options.<\/p>\n

To download the tool, visit https:\/\/testconnectivity.microsoft.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Remote<\/p>\n

Then, select the Office 365<\/strong> tab.<\/p>\n

\"O365<\/p>\n

Under Microsoft Office Outlook Connectivity Tests<\/strong>, choose Outlook Autodiscover<\/strong>, and click Next<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"O365<\/p>\n

On the Outlook Autodiscover page, fill out the form, and click Perform Test<\/strong> when you\u2019re finished.<\/p>\n

\"Perform<\/p>\n

Save the log results, and send them to your System Administrator for further analysis.
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3) Outlook meetings disappearing<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re unable to see the meeting invitation you just sent on your Outlook calendar, follow these steps to resolve the problem:<\/p>\n

1) Run \u201cOutlook.exe \/cleanroamedprefs\u201d<\/h4>\n

This switch command cleans (and copies again) your Outlook roaming preferences from the local settings of the PC on which it is run.<\/p>\n

Roaming settings are a small collection of settings that govern reminders, the Free\/Busy grid, working hours, calendar publishing, and RSS rules.<\/p>\n

Settings running on Exchange Server can change during an Outlook session. Normally, as soon as new settings become available, they are updated for the user client. Unfortunately, in certain cases, this doesn\u2019t happen, leading to various problems. Running Outlook.exe \/cleanroamedprefs<\/strong> should fix the problem.<\/p>\n

To do so, click on Start. In the search box, type Outlook.exe \/cleanroamedprefs<\/strong>, and hit enter. (Note: there is a space after \u201c.exe\u201d and before the forward slash)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Outlook should start up again.<\/p>\n

\"Outlook<\/p>\n

2) Run \u201cOutlook.exe \/sniff\u201d<\/h4>\n

The switch command Outlook.exe \/sniff<\/strong> overrides the programmatic lockout that defines which client is processing the meeting item.<\/p>\n

It will open Outlook, look for new meeting requests in the inbox, and add them to the calendar.<\/p>\n

Click on Start<\/strong>. In the search box, type Outlook.exe \/sniff<\/strong>, and hit enter.<\/p>\n

\"Outlook<\/p>\n

3) Run \u201cOutlook.exe \/cleanprofile\u201d<\/h4>\n

This command removes invalid profile keys and rebuilds default registry keys, as needed.<\/p>\n

Click on Start<\/strong>. In the search box, type Outlook.exe \/ cleanprofile<\/strong>, and hit enter.<\/p>\n

\"Outlook<\/p>\n

Should the issue persist, proceed as follows:<\/p>\n

4) Check if the meeting is visible on the cloud calendar of the Outlook Web App<\/h4>\n

The Outlook Web App (OWA) is the Microsoft Exchange web-based email client. The user interface is similar to that of Microsoft Outlook, but the web-based version doesn\u2019t require the client software (Outlook) to run on your PC.<\/p>\n

Just go to https:\/\/login.microsoftonline.com, provide the required credentials, and log in.<\/p>\n

Then, navigate to the Calendar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"OWA<\/p>\n

The meeting is not present on the OWA calendar<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the meeting is not present on the OWA calendar, the best thing you can do is contact your system administrator so they can check their Exchange Server data.<\/p>\n

The meeting is present on the OWA calendar<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this case, the problem is likely with your Outlook software.<\/p>\n

Follow these steps: Repair your Outlook profile.<\/p>\n