O365 - Can "automatic replies" be used to also mark calendar as out of office

Al Pray 1 Reputation point
2022-05-10T15:13:28.703+00:00

I have co-workers that manage to remember to set an out of office message when they are out but don't bother to update their calendars to show they are unavailable. Yes, when I schedule a meeting it tells me the are out at the top of the screen but it would be much better to actually see their (non) availability using the scheduler. Can the calendar be updated automatically as a result of setting Automatic Replies via some sort of script?

Outlook Management
Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Vasil Michev 94,911 Reputation points MVP
    2022-05-10T16:32:07.127+00:00

    Is this for Exchange Online? If so, you can use the Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration cmdlet with the AutoDeclineFutureRequestsWhenOOF, CreateOOFEvent and/or DeclineAllEventsForScheduledOOF/DeclineEventsForScheduledOOF/EventsToDeleteIDs parameters, as needed. Refer to the cmdlet help for detailed description: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-mailboxautoreplyconfiguration?view=exchange-ps
    You can also do this via OWA settings, if you prefer an UI-based approach (EAC > View Another mailbox > select the mailbox > Settings > Mail > Automatic replies).

  2. ChristyZhang-MSFT 20,706 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-05-11T07:19:23.24+00:00

    Hi @Al Pray ,

    Welcome to our forum!

    According to your description, I have done a lot of test and research but didn't find a useful methods to set "automatic replies" as "Out of office" status in Outlook.

    I'm afraid that you have to ask the co-workers to create an appointment and change the status to Out of office as a workaround.

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