Outlook.com deprecating subscribed .ics / iCal calendars

Question

So apparently Microsoft is deprecating subscribed .ics / iCal calendars from outlook.com. This is actually the second Microsoft support person to tell me this over the past month as I've been trying to get support for 2 subscribed .ics calendars that suddenly aren't syncing to my personal outlook.com calendar following the initial import, for example whenever the event organizers modify existing events or adds new events. Instead of trying to fix the issues, this is what they're telling me.

Not surprisingly, subscribed .ics calendars work completely fine in Google Calendar and interestingly they work even with my paid Microsoft 365 business account. Sure I can use my Microsoft 365 business account to subscribe to these, which actually isn't ideal. But the bigger problem is for others in my family who rely on a number of these subscribed .ics calendars that they're subscribed to for hobbies and sports activities that their coaches and team managers update constantly, which now will never update after the initial import.

Is there an official statement about Microsoft removing subscribed ics iCal calendar capability? Completely ridiculous if it's in fact true!

Answer 1

Thanks, Glenn for the response and jny977 for checking back. I just checked with the engineering team directly (sometimes faster than waiting for article updates!) and they did say that they've deployed a fix for this issue. If you're system is up to date and you're still having issues, it might be something different that's happening and I'd recommend that you contact Outlook support: How to get support for Outlook.com (microsoft.com)

Answer 2

Any update to this? Again, the listed "workaround" added here Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com (microsoft.com)

is not actually a workaround. It's only doing a new import of the calendar as opposed to being a subscription. That's a calendar import, not the previous subscription feature.

Please fix that incorrect information falsely listing it as a "workaround" and please provide information when a fix will be in place. It was mentioned almost 2 weeks ago this was being fixed as a priority. I believe tech media has also been on top of this. Please advise.

Hi jny977,

As mentioned in that link our engineers are still working on a fix. Once a fix is rolled out, standard operating procedure would be to update that article to announce the fix has been released.

I'll check back with you by the end of the week if there's any other updates.

Sincerely,

Glenn Rue

Consumer M365 Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community

Answer 3

Hi all,

We have recently received some reports of users who are experiencing issues with subscribing to .ics/ical calendars and are actively investigating these issues with high priority. We apologize for any disruptions in this workflow. 

We also wanted to re-affirm that Outlook has no plans to deprecate its support for .ics/ical calendars, holidays, and professional sports team schedules. This is an important scenario for our customers, and we continue to evaluate improvements to this scenario. 

This issue will be added to the known issues list shortly, so you can get updates on it here: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com (microsoft.com)

Thank you for checking in about this,

Rebecca

Thanks for the heads up, Rebecca. I'll be monitoring this thread for now then until more updates are available on this issue.

Respectfully,

Glenn Rue

Consumer M365 Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community

Answer 4

So apparently Microsoft is deprecating subscribed .ics / iCal calendars from outlook.com. This is actually the second Microsoft support person to tell me this over the past month as I've been trying to get support for 2 subscribed .ics calendars that suddenly aren't syncing to my personal outlook.com calendar following the initial import, for example whenever the event organizers modify existing events or adds new events. Instead of trying to fix the issues, this is what they're telling me.

Not surprisingly, subscribed .ics calendars work completely fine in Google Calendar and interestingly they work even with my paid Microsoft 365 business account. Sure I can use my Microsoft 365 business account to subscribe to these, which actually isn't ideal. But the bigger problem is for others in my family who rely on a number of these subscribed .ics calendars that they're subscribed to for hobbies and sports activities that their coaches and team managers update constantly, which now will never update after the initial import.

Is there an official statement about Microsoft removing subscribed ics iCal calendar capability? Completely ridiculous if it's in fact true!

Hi jny977,

First and foremost, thanks for reaching out to our Microsoft Community Forum and please accept our sincerest hope that all is well.

We understand that you're looking for information on .ics calendars that you imported to Outlook.com

For the longest time our Import or subscribe to a calendar in Outlook.com guide has actually stated: "When you import an .ics file, your calendar doesn't refresh the imported events, even if the calendar's owner makes an update."

Keep in mind this is specifically when you import or subscribe to an .ics calendar in Outlook.com. This is how our Outlook.com service and and Outlook application interacts with .ics calendars.

Sincerely,

Glenn Rue

Consumer M365 Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community