I cannot accept a meeting invitation on behalf of a public folder calendar; it stays in 'not accepted' state

Question

Hi,
At our office we have a general calendar in which we share when we are on holiday, have a day off, have a meeting with externals in one of our meeting rooms, have an office event etc. That way, we can all see what's going on in our office in one overview. (who is here, who is not, who is occupying which meeting room for which project and with which guests and when we have office wide events/meetings etc. This general calendar is set up as a public folder calendar.

Previously, we could copy meetings from any personal calendar into the general calendar, so employees didn't have to enter the meeting in two calendars (the staff usually handled said copying of meetings when employees forgot). Now that copying is no longer possible, I am looking for another way to easily place meetings from a personal calendar into a general calendar.

My idea is to have people invite the general calendar when they set up a meeting in their personal calendar that should also be in the general calendar. I have enabled the mailbox for the public folder and during tests I have been able to create a meeting in my personal calendar, invite the general calendar and have the meeting appear in the general calendar. However, in the general calendar I cannot accept the meeting. When I try I get the following message: "As the meeting organizer, you do not need to respond to the meeting". Also, when I ask my colleague to accept the meeting in the general calendar, she can accept the meeting, but the meeting merely appears in her own personal calendar (which in some cases is fine, if you are also attending, but that's not always the case) and the meeting in the general calendar remains 'not accepted'.

How can we accept the meeting on behalf of the public folder calendar?
Or is a public folder calendar not the right type of calendar for the purpose we have for it altogether?

Awaiting your response.

Answer 1

Hi @Marijke van Putten - VenhoevenCS ,

This issue could be due to the way public folder calendars handle meeting requests. Unlike user mailboxes, public folders do not have the ability to automatically process meeting requests, which is why the meeting stays in a ‘not accepted’ state.

Here are a few things you could consider:

1. Delegate Access: Ensure that the delegate has the necessary permissions to accept meeting invitations on behalf of the public folder calendar.
2. Alternative Solutions: In Exchange Online, you can create a Shared Calendar to meet your office needs. Here are the steps:
   1. Create a new calendar in your own mailbox.
   2. Share this calendar with your colleagues. You can do this by right-clicking on the calendar and selecting “Share Calendar”. You can then add the email addresses of your colleagues.
   3. Set the appropriate permissions. You can decide who can make changes to the calendar and who can only view it.
   This shared calendar can be accessed by all your colleagues, and they can add their events (holidays, days off, meetings, etc.) to it. This way, everyone can see what’s going on in the office in one overview. Also, for meeting rooms, you can create and configure Room Mailboxes in Exchange Online. A room mailbox is a resource mailbox that’s assigned to a physical location, such as a meeting room. When users book the room, it’s added to their meeting request automatically. This can help you manage which meeting room is occupied for which project and with which guests.

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