How to end recurring Outlook series without deleting past meetings

Question

I need to change the time and subject for a recurring meeting so I was just going to select an end date for the current time and set up a new meeting. Should be simple. However, when I try that I get a message "if you changed specific appointments in the series, your changes will be cancelled, and those appointments will match the series again." That means that all the past meetings will be deleted from attendees' calendars, and we don't want that. Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Answer 1

Hi @Lea Ann Gerkin 

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.  

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concern. I completely understand how recurring meetings that are no longer relevant can make your calendar feel cluttered and harder to manage. It’s a common situation, especially when meeting series continue beyond their intended purpose. 

Here are some options you can try: 

1/ Manually delete future occurrences 

• Open your Outlook calendar. 
• For each future occurrence you no longer need, right-click and select Cancel Meeting (or Decline, Delete depending on your Outlook version). 
• Choose Cancel occurrence when prompted. 
• Repeat for all future dates you don’t need. 
  This method ensures your past meetings remain intact, though it can be time-consuming for long sequences. 

Note: These steps will also remove all past occurrences of the meeting series from your calendar. If you are not the meeting organizer, the only way to remove future occurrences without removing past occurrences is to delete each instance of a recurring meeting individually. 

 

2/ Editing recurring events in Outlook with “This and all following events” 

Only the meeting organizer, the person who sends a meeting request, can send a meeting update or a cancellation to all attendees.  

• Right-click on the starting entry for the change  
• Select Edit > Choose This and all following events 
• The edit screen for changing event information will appear, along with a message that "You’re editing this and all following events in the series"  
• Change the timing of events.  
• Once hit Send, all events have changed to the new date going forward  

3/ Manually archive calendar events to a PST file 

This method moves your older calendar events into a separate Outlook Data File (.pst), freeing up space but keeping them accessible. 

If your goal is to declutter your future calendar while keeping historical data: 

• Ensure past events remain in your main Outlook data file (OST or PST). 
• You can also archive or export older events if you have mailbox space constraints or want an off-calendar record. 
• To learn more, please visit: Archive items manually - Microsoft Support 

 

For more information, please refer to the following links: 

• Cancel all future meetings in a series - Microsoft Support 
• Change an appointment, meeting, or event in Outlook - Microsoft Support 
• Delete an appointment or a meeting - Microsoft Support 
• How to Delete Future Occurrences in Outlook Without Losing Past Meeting Data | IT trip 

Note: Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. The sites are not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above link  

 

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.    

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 your thoughts on this. 

 

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Answer 2

Dear @Lea Ann Gerkin, 

I hope you are doing well. 

I completely understand how important it is to ensure that previous meetings remain on attendees’ calendars when making changes to a recurring series. 

Please note that Outlook features can sometimes behave differently depending on the license type and client version (e.g., Outlook Desktop vs. Outlook Web). This might explain why the experience varies.  

Could you confirm if you’ve tried the workarounds we suggested earlier: 

• Option 1: Manually delete future occurrences  
• Option 2: Editing recurring events in Outlook with “This and all following events”  
• Option 3: Manually archive calendar events to a PST file  

If you’re still unsure whether these steps will preserve past meetings, you can create a quick test recurring meeting and try the steps before applying them to your actual series. This is a safe way to verify the outcome. 

Since you have checked all the steps, but the issue still persists, we believe Microsoft Support Engineering should step in to investigate further. Please reach out to them directly. 

• Ticket Support: In the Microsoft 365 Admin Center>Support>Help & Support. You can raise support ticket. Please note that you’ll need an account with admin rights to sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.  
• Phone Support: Microsoft provides customer service phone numbers based on your region. You can find the appropriate contact number here.   

I hope you found the answer helpful, and we would greatly appreciate it if you could mark it as accepted. This helps highlight the solution for others who may be searching for similar information in the community. Your contribution not only supports fellow users in finding the right guidance more quickly but also helps build a more resourceful and collaborative space for everyone.    

If you have any concerns or questions in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Not only will I be happy to assist you, but all moderators in the Q&A forum will also do their best to provide support and guidance.  

Thanks again for your kind words.