How to cancel an event without notifying attendees?

Question

Hey guys! I need to delete/cancel an event on a calender. Only trouble is, I do not want anybody to see it has been removed. It is an old team members birthday and while she is no longer in our office, she is in our organization and had RSVP'ed yes to the event. Is there any way to take this off the calendar without her seeing? I would feel awful for her to get a notification it was cancelled/removed.

Answer 1

Hi @Aly Sweeney,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Deleting or canceling a meeting from Outlook or Teams as the organizer will notify attendees. If you need to remove the event without sending notifications, this requires an advanced solution using PowerShell (Remove-MgUserEvent -SendCancellationMessages:$false).

Because this involves Graph API permissions and potentially admin consent (e.g., Calendars.ReadWrite), we recommend sharing this guide with your IT administrator so they can perform the task for you. They will have the necessary access and tools to deploy these steps securely.

First of all, you should set up your PowerShell:

# Install the Graph module if needed
Install-Module Microsoft.Graph -Scope CurrentUser

# Connect with the least privilege for calendars
Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Calendars.ReadWrite"

# Verify the profile/scopes
Select-MgProfile -Name "v1.0"

 Admin/delegate scenario: If you’ll act on another user’s calendar, your app/user must have appropriate Application or Delegated permissions (e.g., Calendars.ReadWrite) and consented by an admin. For application permissions, you’d use app auth instead. Ensure Connect-MgGraph is with the account that has rights over the organizer mailbox.

Then, you’ll need the event’s Id (not just the subject). There is a couple of ways:

A) Search by subject and date window (your mailbox):

# Example: find the event by subject text within a date range
$start = (Get-Date "2025-11-01T00:00:00Z")
$end   = (Get-Date "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z")

$events = Get-MgUserEvent `
  -UserId me `
  -Filter "contains(subject,'Aly Birthday')" `
  -StartDateTime $start.ToString("o") `
  -EndDateTime   $end.ToString("o")

$events | Select-Object Subject, Start, Id, Organizer

B) If it’s on someone else’s mailbox (you’re a delegate or admin)

$userid = "******@yourtenant.com"
$events = Get-MgUserEvent `
  -UserId $userid `
  -Filter "contains(subject,'Aly Birthday')" `
  -Top 25
$events | Select-Object Subject, Start, Id, Organizer

If it’s a recurring meeting, make sure you target the occurrence or the series master depending on what you intend to delete.

 

From here, you can delete the event without sending cancellation:

A) On your own calendar

# Use the Id you found above
$eventId = "<paste-event-id>"

Remove-MgUserEvent -UserId me -EventId $eventId -SendCancellationMessages:$false -Confirm:$false

B) Another user’s calendar (as organizer/delegate)

$userid  = "******@yourtenant.com"
$eventId = "<paste-event-id>"

Remove-MgUserEvent -UserId $userid -EventId $eventId -SendCancellationMessages:$false -Confirm:$false

The meeting is removed from the organizer’s calendar silently; no cancellation email is sent to attendees.

Since this solution might be not friendly for end users, I think your suggestion is excellent, and I believe many other users would also want this simplified version of this feature. In this case, I strongly recommend submitting your feedback through the New Outlook · Community portal. This is the most effective way to ensure your voice reaches the product team and can be considered for future improvements.    

Once you access the site, we’d love to hear your perspective on the ‘Cancel an event without notifying attendees’ feature you mentioned. Sharing your ideas helps you connect with others who have similar needs and fosters collaboration. When posts receive high engagement, it signals to Microsoft what matters most to customers, which can guide future improvements and deliver features that enhance your experience. 

If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to share them with me. I’ll be happy to assist you. 

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

---

If the answer is helpful, click "Accept Answer" and vote positively. If you have more questions about this answer, click "Comment".

Note: Follow the steps in our documentation to enable email notifications if you want to receive email notifications related to this topic.

Answer 2

To cancel an event without notifying attendees in Microsoft Outlook, you can use the following methods:

1. Remove the Event from Your Calendar: You can delete the event from your calendar without sending a cancellation notice. However, this method does not prevent the event from remaining on the attendee's calendar.
2. Use the Stop-MgUserEvent Cmdlet: If you are using PowerShell with Microsoft Graph, you can use the Stop-MgUserEvent cmdlet to cancel the event. This cmdlet allows the organizer to send a cancellation message, but if you want to avoid notifying attendees, you can simply delete the event from your calendar without sending a notification. Note that this action will move the event to the Deleted Items folder.
3. Edit the Event: If you can edit the event, you might consider changing the event details (like the title or time) to something neutral or generic, which might help in keeping it off the radar without formally canceling it.

It's important to note that if you delete the event directly from your calendar, attendees may still see it unless they also delete it from theirs. Unfortunately, there is no built-in feature in Outlook that allows you to completely hide the cancellation from attendees if you are the organizer.

---

References:

• Stop-MgUserEvent