Missing Outlook calendar functions

Question

Dear community,

I have a problem with setting up my outlook account. When I was a student I had a outlook account connected to the university. Now that I am not a student anymore, I have a microsoft 365 subscription to still be able to use the office programms. However, in my microsoft 365 outlook calendar version I have no access to certain features, to be specific the categorize function to label appointments and the MS Teams link that appears in the meeting invitation (see the screenshot from my university account).

For the microsoft 365 subscription I used a gmail account, where I used IMAP to use it in outlook. Since gmail does not have the same categorize functions I thought using a gmail account might be the problem for this issue. I made an outlook account to test this, but ran into a different problem: I needed a windows hello PIN for extra security. When I went to the settings of my computer (Windows 10 Home), it said that this option is currently unavailable (second screenshot). I cannot figure out how to setup a windows hello PIN.

My question in short:

• How can I get the categorize function and MS Teams link in my microsoft 365 outlook version?
• If this can only work with an outlook account, how can I fix the windows hello PIN problem?

Thank you in advance,

Kind regards,

Jeroen

Answer 1

Hi Jeroen, this is Bryll

Thank you for writing us here in Microsoft Community.

Exchange and IMAP are both protocols used to access email, but they work in slightly different ways and offer different features.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

• IMAP syncs emails with the mail server, allowing you to view your emails from multiple clients
• Only incoming mail is stored on the server, while sent items are stored locally.
• IMAP does not natively support syncing of contacts and calendar items.

Exchange

• Exchange is a mail server managed directly by an IT administrator or its email server host.
• It syncs all data items, including emails, contacts, and calendar items.
• Each user has an individual mailbox on the server
• Any additions or changes to data items will be seen by all devices once connected to the server

In most school or University email accounts, it usually uses an Exchange configuration. Meanwhile, @Gmail accounts support IMAP configuration.

Both Color categorization and Microsoft Teams link requires an email account that supports Exchange Protocol which is the reason why having @Gmail account in Outlook desktop client does not populate the same features.

Creating a new @Outlook.com email account and adding it to Outlook desktop client will enable the Color categorization and Microsoft Teams link however it can only be used specifically to the @Outlook.com email account and cannot be taken over to the @Gmail.com account.

• Create and assign color categories - Microsoft Support
• Configure Teams meeting links to open in Teams desktop app - Outlook | Microsoft Learn

Here's how you can create a free @Outlook.com email account: How to create a free Microsoft Outlook email account – Microsoft 365

Once an @Outlook.com email account is created, you can add it in Outlook desktop client by following the steps here: Add an email account to Outlook - Microsoft Support

If Windows Hello PIN shows up and cannot be skipped when adding @Outlook.com email account in Outlook desktop client, you might want to consider trying the following:

1. Switch your Windows profile to a local account: Switch your Windows 10 device to a local account - Microsoft Support
2. Disconnect your university email account from your Windows account settings: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-or-remove-accounts-on-your-pc-104dc19f-6430-4b49-6a2b-e4dbd1dcdf32#:~:text=If%20you%20need%20to%20remove%20an%20account%20from%20your%20PC%3A
3. Create a new Outlook profile: Overview of Outlook e-mail profiles - Microsoft Support
4. Create a new Windows user profile: Create a local user or administrator account in Windows - Microsoft Support

Should problem remain, let us know so we can recommend other strategies. If possible, please send further screenshots.

Yours truly,

Bryll

Community Moderator

Answer 2

Good day Jeroen,

I am afraid that @Outlook.com and @Gmail.com accounts use different mailboxes and server settings wherein it uses different display name when sending. Currently, the feature for merging two different email accounts to use one display name when sending is not yet made to be available. This feature might be something to be considered by Outlook developer team. You can submit your suggestion directly to Office developers by using Feedback hub How do I give feedback on Microsoft 365? - Microsoft Support This is the official channels for sending feedback to Microsoft. Your feedback will help Microsoft improve its products and services.

We are happy to hear that the problem has been resolved. I am pleased to offer you guidance and support.

To help other customers searching for help on related issues, please feel free to mark the response you found most helpful by clicking “Yes” on the bottom of that post. This will ensure the helpful responses are most visible when searching (and you can vote more than once if the solution was spread over multiple posts).

Thanks again for choosing Microsoft.

Best wishes,

Bryll

Community Moderator

Answer 3

Dear Bryll,

Thank you for your reply. What I have done now is replacing the account of my Microsoft subscription from a Gmail account to an Outlook account. I forward my Gmail to Outlook so that I can use the Outlook environment. This seems to work. I can now use the categories and MS Teams.

I have one more question. Is it possible to reply to mails in Outlook (forwarded from Gmail) using my Gmail mail address? So that when I send a mail using Outlook it shows my Gmail mail address at the sender’s information?

Kind regards,

Jeroen