Updating a recurring appointment to remove an attendee cancels the meeting for all attendees

Question

Office 365 User, using Outlook desktop.

I have a recurring meeting that I created and invited all the necessary attendees to. I had a need to remove an attendee so I:

Opened the appoint for for all occurrences.
Removed the attendee that needed to be removed.
Sent an update to only added or deleted attendees.

Outcome: All attendees got a cancellation for the meeting and the meeting was removed from their calendars.

This is not the outcome I would expect or have experienced in the past.

I tested the same scenario with new appointments and received the same outcome.

Answer 1

Hi @Becky Filo ,
What's the version of your Outlook(File>Office account>About Outlook), please ensure that you are working with the latest version of Outlook.

For your issue, I have tried to create a new recurring meeting by New Meeting option and remove an attendee by two ways mentioned above on my Outlook365(Version 2008 Build 13127. 20408 Click-to-Run), then choose only send update to him like below.


But according to my test, everything could work normally(the update only be sent to that removed attendee and others haven't received any notice), which seems to I couldn't reproduce your issue.

Do other users in your organization also have this issue?To further conduct the issue, please try to log in your account to your Web Mail and do the same to check if the issue has any difference.
If it could work normally in your Web Mail, the issue may be related to your Outlook client. Please try to troubleshoot your issue by steps below:

1. The interference of add-ins may cause this issue, it's suggested to open your Outlook in safe mode(Windows +R>type"Outlook.exe \safe">click enter) to check if the issue would be reproduced.
2. Corrupted data files or profiles also may cause it, please try to create a new profile and readd your account(Control Panel>Mail>Show Profiles>Add>type a name for the profile> Add your account>Finish) to check if it's effective for your issue.
3. If the issue still exists, you could try to repair your Outlook client.

Update:
What 365 license is assigned to your domain account?

if selecting Send Updates to all attendees it does work as long as the attendee removed was not an optional attendee

According to your description, the issue seems to happen when you remove the optional attendee, and as I know, there's no optional attendee on Outlook for Mac, so that may be the reason why it could work normally like removing required attendee on Outlook for Windows.

So the issue still may be related to your accounts themselves, according to my research, there's no official document that is related to this issue, and I also have tested a lot on my environment but it still could work normally, so in order to further analyze your issue, please try to create a new test account in your organization and do the same operations mentioned above to test if the issue has any difference.

If you have any updates, please kindly post back, and I would still be researching for your issues in the future.Thanks!

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Answer 2

Hello @Jade Liang-MSFT
I am working with @Becky Filo on this issue.
We completed the test in OWA and although I do not get a prompt to send updates to all or only the added / removed members, OWA does the same thing. It is also not limited to just recurring meetings. A single meeting invite does the same thing in both OWA and Desktop. My desktop version is the same as yours.

I did start outlook in safe mode and completed the same tests and received the same results. The steps we are taking follow:

Create a meeting inviting 1 person.
Confirm and accept the invite.
Add another member to the meeting selecting the Send Updates only to added or deleted attendees.
Confirm and accept the invite.
Both attendees get a message. The attendee that already existed has the message in the deleted items folder.
Remove a member from the meeting selecting the Send Updates only to added or deleted attendees.
Both attendees get a cancellation message.

Since OWA is doing the same thing as desktop I did not complete the last 2 steps.
Please advise!

Answer 3

Hi @Jade Liang-MSFT ,
Becky and I are the administrators although GoDaddy restricts us from some functions. We did some additional testing and those users on a MAC are not having this issue. MAC seems to automatically use the send updates only to added or deleted attendees and does not cancel other meeting attendees. We have also found that on Windows, if selecting Send Updates to all attendees it does work as long as the attendee removed was not an optional attendee. If you remove an optional attendee, it cancels the meeting for everyone. I have not found options that can control this behavior. Becky has both a MAC and Windows so the issue does not seem to be related to specific users. We have confirmed that multiple users are experiencing this issue. Curiously, Windows sends an email to all attendees whether that option is selected or not. Updates that do not directly affect that user go to the deleted items folder. Other user cancellations where the canceled user is optional or when selecting send updates only to added or deleted attendees also sends a cancellation to all attendees.
Please advise on next steps.