Unable to Turn Off Shared Calendar's Reminders

Question

Hello, in order to coordinate and schedule events for my business, I need to be able to view my coworkers calendars. Naturally, they share their calendars with me. However, I cannot change the notification or reminder settings for shared calendars, and I will receive notifications or reminders for every event on every shared calendar.

I have seen this same request/problem be asked again and again on this forum for at least 4 years now. Each one received a totally inaccurate answer, then the threads are closed.

Is this major problem going to be solved any time soon? Will it ever? I don't know how I am supposed to choose between have calendar event notifications on always for every single person in my business, or turning off all notifications, including for my own calendar. I don't know how the world is functioning with such simple functionality missing. Please help!

Answer 1

Hi @Ryan Kehoe ,

Naturally, they share their calendars with me. However, I cannot change the notification or reminder settings for shared calendars, and I will receive notifications or reminders for every event on every shared calendar.

As far as I know, yes, there's no setting available in Outlook to control the reminder for shared calendars separately. But based on my personal experience and test in my M365 lab environment, normally the reminders of the shared calendars won't pop up. Below are the test steps I used, you can take a look and point out if I have misunderstood anything.

In my test, user2 shared the calendar with user1, then user1 add user2's calendar in Outlook via Add Calendar > Open a Shared Calendar:

Both user1 and user2 had a meeting on their calendar at the same time, but only the reminder of the primary account user1 prompt:

When it comes back to the issue you meet, can you please provide the details below for further troubleshooting?

1. Is this a recently occurred issue for you or it has been like this since the shared calendars are added to your Outlook?
2. Did you add those shared calendar using the same method as aforementioned? (Add Calendar > Open a Shared Calendar)
3. What's the detailed version of your Outlook? You can view the version information via File > Office Account > About Outlook:

Besides, if you are using Outlook for Microsoft 365, I'd suggest trying to disable Shared Calendar Improvements and see if it can help:

1. In Outlook, select File >Account Settings >Account Settings.  Select the account that you use to manage someone else's calendar and choose Change....
2. Choose More Settings, followed by the Advanced tab.
3. Clear the checkbox next to Turn on shared calendar improvements.
   
4. Select Apply and OK.

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