Can't delete a recurring Meeting

Question

I cannot delete a recurring meeting. I get the Error (originally in German: „Meeting Titel“ kann nicht abgesagt werden. Schließen Sie, und versuchen Sie es erneut." / translated: "“Meeting Title” cannot be canceled. Close and try again.".

Closing and trying again does not change anything at all.

When I try to edit the meeting (and not directly delete in the calendar view) it never loads and stays stuck.

Would appreciate any help!

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for sharing your question. I completely understand how confusing and frustrating it is when Outlook or Teams keeps throwing an error like “Meeting cannot be canceled. Close and try again” without any change.

This issue typically happens when the meeting item is stuck or corrupted in the mailbox, or when Outlook or Teams cannot properly sync the calendar item across clients. According to Microsoft Learn, the first step is always to test whether the deletion works in Outlook on the web (OWA), because if it succeeds there, it means the desktop client is having trouble syncing and may just need updating or repairing.

If the deletion fails in OWA too, Microsoft recommends trying a few repair‑based approaches—such as starting Outlook in Safe Mode to rule out add‑ins, recreating your Outlook profile, or using the built‑in Outlook cleanup switches like /cleanreminders if reminders are involved. Additionally, corrupted recurring meetings can sometimes only be removed through deeper tools such as MFCMAPI when normal deletion fails.

To help narrow down the exact cause, could you share whether this recurring meeting was created in Outlook or in Teams, and whether the deletion attempt also fails in Outlook on the web? Knowing where the meeting originated helps determine whether the sync engine, Teams calendar API, or the local Outlook profile is the root of the problem.

Please feel free to update me with what you see in OWA or any changes after trying these steps, and I’ll be happy to guide you through the next best fix.

 

I hope this helps

 

Best Regards,

Noel