Color category in Outlook Desktop app not synced with Outlook Web Application

Question

I assign color category to eleven categorize my mail in Outlook Desktop app, however, the color category does not sync in the Outlook Web Application. All my events in the Outlook Web Application are grey. The Outlook Web Application only shows the original six categorizes. Is there a way that the color categories that show on the Outlook Desktop Calendar will also show when opening the Outlook Web App Calendar.

Answer 1

Hi @Catherine Cashman ，

Based on my test on O365 account, the color categories set by the client are synchronized to the web side.

Categories in Outlook desktop client:

Categories in Outlook for web:

I tried to reproduce your scenario and found that when the synchronization was slow, the color categories would be displayed in grey.

I refreshed the browser, and the color synchronization was successful. Please refresh your browser to check if the problem is solved. If the problem still exists, please provide more information for us to analyze.

1. What type of account are you using? If you are using O365 account, does the problem occur in a personal mailbox or a shared mailbox?
2. What version of Outlook do you have? Please provide specific screenshot.

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Answer 2

Hi @Catherine Cashman ，

According to my research, group calendar has limited support for categories.

Group calendar color categories are stored in each user's mailbox, not on the server. This means that each user has their own list of categories, including category names and colors. When you view a shared group calendar, you see the category list from the group's mailbox, not your own category list. So if you and another user use different category names or colors, you'll see different colors or grays.

You can require each user to manually create the same list of categories, marking the categories with the same colors and names.

Besides, you can vote for this entry in the Feedback Portal How do I share color categories in a Group Outlook calendar? · Community (microsoft.com)

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Answer 3

Probably category color displaying to multiple users is a limitation of Outlook software because I can see on OWA.