New Outlook Notifications are only being sent from one calendar. I have my calendars setup for different types of events but I only receive notification from the default calendar

Question

New outlook seems to only send notifications to the default calendar. I added events to other calendars I created, and none of them work for notification unless I put all events under the default Outlook

Answer 1

Dear @Chris Byrd,

Thank you for reaching out Microsoft Q&A!

Firstly, you can check it to make sure you turn on reminder time: Open New Outlook. Navigate to Settings > Calendar > Events and Invitations. Set a default reminder time (e.g., 15 minutes) for all events.

Microsoft has acknowledged that notification support for shared and secondary calendars is still being improved in New Outlook. Notifications (pop-ups, reminders, alerts) are only triggered for events created in the default calendar. Events added to secondary or shared calendars do not automatically generate notifications unless manually configured. Here’re some information I researched:

1. Default Calendar Notification Behavior: How to enable and disable the Outlook calendar sharing updates - Microsoft Support
   Microsoft states that meeting requests and appointments are saved to the default calendar of the email account. If a different calendar is used, notifications may not appear unless it is set as the default.
2. Shared Calendar Notification Limitations: Add or delete notifications or reminders in Outlook - Microsoft Support
   Microsoft explains that shared calendars must be upgraded to the new sharing model in Microsoft 365 to support notifications. Even then, users must restart Outlook for changes to take effect.
3. Manual Configuration Required for Shared Calendars: Set default calendar - Microsoft Support
   To receive notifications from shared calendars, users must manually enable email alerts for updates to shared events.
4. Notification Scope: Outlook’s notification system is primarily scoped to the default calendar associated with your primary account.
5. Shared/Secondary Calendars: These calendars may not support notifications unless they are upgraded or manually configured.

Because of that, you can try yo use Outlook Web as a Workaround via https://outlook.office.may offers better support for shared calendar notifications.

And make sure you have the latest version update New Outlook, you can check here: Release notes for Outlook for Windows (new) - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn

Sorry for the inconvinience it has caused. I hope this information helpful for you!

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Answer 2

I think Microsoft will get there some day but they have a ways to go. It has been two years or more and I finally was able to work through what i lost when the Mail App was sunset. It was what drove my notifications so I had to work through a lot to get them back. Outlook was not a fully prepared replacement to Mail as far as notifications and I had to find bits and pieces of posts to try to find one that addressed my specific issue, but I finally pieced them together and got Outlook first to actually work to send notifications and then to send the notifications consistently. I really didn't know where to look because all the post were so all over the spectrum that they were hard to follow and because they dealt with so many different issues combined into one it was hard to follow which post and how far to follow it before I switched to the next post. They cover pretty much everything from reinstalling Outlook to reinstalling Windows or converting back to Windows 10. I put enough of what made sense together to find issues with my configuration I had to change and once I did that I started to get dome notification which made it appear that the notifications were not reliable. It took me a while longer to figure out that the reason they were not reliable is because only the default calendar was sending notifications. Once I got there I was able to prove they were reliable as long as I used the default calendar. The post were misleading because they said shared calendars which was not my issue. I have multiple calendars but none are shared so I didn't know to follow the shared calendars to resolve my non-shared multiple calendars. Once I got there everything made sense and I could prove the were reliable under the default calendar. Now I know I hope Microsoft completes the improvements they mentioned by Outlook brought over Mail, but for those improvements to actually mean something they have to actually work. Otherwise you spend two years going down a rabbit hole only to find out the part you were trying to get to work really does work just not in the configuration you are using because you are taking advantage of the new improved New functions that don't work with your configuration. Or to put if simply having the ability to create multiple calendars, but only the default calendar actually works is not really improvement. Or maybe it has always been that way even with Mail before it was sunset and I just didn't know it because I was trying to see the new improve function of Outlook over Mail and just messed up Outlook to where it doesn't work at all. But now it is working and if the Default Calendar is the only one that really does what it is supposed to do I can deal with that now that I know at least the Default Calendar will work. I will keep a couple other notifications in my other calendars to see it someday they start to work, but I can deal as long as I have one that works. The sunset of mail didn't go as smoothly as other apps I use all the time did. For instance Screen Record was Sunset at about the same time but I tried doing it through the snipping tool and in that tool it actually is an improvement as it save an MP4 video instead of saving pictures. I liked the pictures with the highlighted sections you push keys in but I think I like the MP4 a little better. So that sunset of screen recorder was a success because the improved way to do it is actually better. I didn't use it until I needed it but when I did it was a lot easier to use and saved the screen recorder to a MP4 that I could send to anyone where the old method took screen shots I would have to spend time cutting and pasting to to get them to a PDF that I could send to someone for instructions. Outlook or New Outlook didn't just work after Mail was gone. It took some time to figure it out and actually get a result that was usable. And that result was using only the default calendar to send notifications once you have configured Outlook to even work right. It was not automatic. Maybe in the future Microsoft could explain better when an app is sunset how the other tools can be used instead of just saying you are losing "Screen Recorder" You have to use Snippet tool now without any guidance on how the Snippet tool will do the same function by recording the steps in a video when you select the whole screen and enable make a video. Explain a little to someone that is using the tool you decided is no longer needed. OH that is a part I forgot some of the Post I was following said I would have to use the "To Do" app to get notifications even though it only had a partial calendar function tied to it not a real calendar with all the scheduling tools. You can schedule a reoccurring date but can't schedule a reoccurring day of the week. Any way this fixed my basic Notification issue I will leave a couple notifications in other calendars so I know when the issue with only sending notifications from the default calendar is resolved.

Answer 3

That makes sense and explains why my secondary calendars are not sending notifications. That is exactly what I have found, and I moved or copied all my notifications to the default calendar, and it appears to be working. It doesn't fix the issue, but it addresses the issue. Hopefully, Microsoft will figure it out someday. I can deal with having to move all my notifications to the default calendar now that I know the default calendar sends notifications, and I can work with that. The new Q/A is less than desirable because half the time it doesn't work, and it tells me to submit a ticket, but when I do that, it doesn't know who I am, so it creates an error message that I have sent to Feedback because the new Q/A reporting needs some work still. The message says my version of Windows is not supported or something like that. So hopefully Microsoft will fix that too.