Easy Fixes: Office 365 Calendar Not Syncing with Outlook 2016

Read time: 5 minutes

Office 365 Calendar is one of the most utilized features which have made the user’s life so much simpler by allowing them to track their own as well as other’s schedules, manage tasks, and share progress with other contacts. It will enable you to share your plan with colleagues so that they can add it to their view in Outlook. If you need other users to edit or view the calendar, there are multiple options available to help. These features ensure a smooth collaboration within teams without any confusion of schedules and meetings.

You can also easily configure and sync your Office 365 calendar with Outlook in a few seconds to double the productivity. Moreover, Office 365 calendar sync can help to combine it with SharePoint view. The related settings of any SharePoint version can easily blend with calendar integration. But, many users often face issues with Office 365 calendar syncing to Outlook for various reasons.

This article will discuss how you can fix the Office 365 calendar not syncing with Outlook 2016 issue. We also will discuss some alternative solutions to deal with the situation.

Reasons behind the Calendar not Syncing with Outlook Issue

Microsoft Outlook 2016 and Outlook for Office 365 have adopted a modern way of authenticating tech stacks. If you are trying to access the Internet calendar file (when it doesn’t even require authentication), the current structure will store on the server.

While most servers respond successfully by supporting these capabilities through modern authentication, some find it an invalid client request. And hence, Outlook can’t add the Calendar to its feature set. Another reason could be a problem with your PST file that doesn’t allow Office 365 calendar to sync with MS Outlook. If you add a shared mailbox in Outlook, then it should also sync with Calendar details.

Ensure that you have not added an incorrect calendar for syncing. In addition, the correct data is synchronized to the server.

Pre-requisites for Calendar syncing-

These are just a few points which you must keep in mind before you start with the process-

• Both Office 365 and Outlook are properly updated.
• There is no issue regarding internet and its bandwidth.
• The right to accept or decline a calendar invite remain with the administrator.
• Keep only one dedicated device to accept or decline the invites.
• Develop a habit of taking regular backups of at least the important Office 365 data.

Workarounds to Fix the Outlook Calendar Syncing issues

A better option is to use Outlook Web App (OWA) to resolve this issue. However, this app doesn’t utilize the authentication option to add calendars. And therefore, you can easily open the Internet calendar after its addition with MS Outlook 2016.
To add the calendar, you need to follow these steps:

• Sign-in/Signup to Outlook Web App with your Microsoft account.
• Access the Calendar module.
• Click on the Add Calendar from the menu.
• Select the ‘From internet’ option.
• Insert the URL and give an optimal name to the Calendar.
• Save the settings.

How to Sync Office 365 Calendar in Outlook

1. If you don’t have a SharePoint calendar, you first need to create it. If you want to add an existing calendar, select it to sync with Outlook.
2. Open the SharePoint calendar list, click on the Calendar tab, and then select Connect to Outlook or Sync to Outlook option from the menu.
3. It will connect the Office 365 accounts and Outlook, and if the system asks for your permission to allow this connection, click Yes.
4. Select the desired folder where your Calendar will sync with Outlook, and click OK to finish the setup.

These steps will now display the Office 365 calendar next to the Outlook calendar.
In case you are still unable to see any sync between Office 365 Calendar and Outlook, then follow these steps:

1. You need to enable the integration of your Office 365 applications
2. Click on the ‘Settings.’
3. Select ‘Manage Users.’
4. Choose the specific user to set up the sync process of Calendar with Office 365.
5. Enable the Calendar sync.
6. Now switch to your Office 365 account and select ‘Calendar.’

Syncing the ICS Calendars

Apart from the normal calendar, if you need to sync the ICS calendar with Outlook, you need to follow a different process:

1. Open the Office 365 Calendar and choose the ‘Import Calendar’ option.
2. Now, add the .ics link, write a suitable calendar name, and click “Import.”

This will then show under “Other calendars.” Users can now easily access their ICS calendar and see the assigned meetings or deadlines

If you don’t know how to generate the .ics link, you need to go to Calendar > Click on the calendar icon > click ‘generate.’ Then, just make sure to save the link so that you have it while uploading on Outlook.

Checking/Confirming the Sync By Sharing the Calendar

Once you have synced your calendar with Outlook, you need to ensure whether it is synced or not. To verify that, you can follow the below steps:

1. Click the Calendar available at the bottom of your Outlook.
2. Select Share from the top of the page, and choose the Calendar for sharing with others.

Note: You won’t be able to give sharing access to Calendars whose owners are others.

3. Add the email address and name of the users with whom you want to share the Calendars.
4. Select the option how these users can use the calendar:
   • Can view and edit the details in the Calendar
   • Can only view the details in the Calendar
5. Now click on Share.
6. When you want not to share the Calendar, simply choose the option Remove.

Note: If you are sharing the Calendar with Gmail users or users of another platform, they will require an Outlook.com or a Microsoft 365 account to access it. Details and information in the Calendar marked private can’t be seen or accessed with other people who aren’t available on Outlook.

Making the Most of Office 365 Calendars

The process of syncing the Calendar with Office 365 is quite simple. If none of the above techniques have worked for you, calendar data may have become inaccessible. In such situations, it is good to have a good backup for your Office 365 data to PST. So you need to backup Office 365 data regularly. It can be done with an automated tool like Kernel Office 365 Backup, which can quickly backup all data from Office 365.

Wrap Up

Office 365 calendar not syncing with Outlook 2016 is a standard error that users widely face. These issues can appear for various reasons, and there is no specific resolution. Sometimes, the mailbox is inactive in outlook and you should restore inactive mailboxes in Office 365. However, you can easily resolve the issue with multiple methods. This article discusses various ways to fix the’ Office 365 calendar not syncing with Outlook’ error.