When I receive an invitation to a TEAMS meeting, it doesn;t have the accept, decline buttons. It doesn;t add to the TEAMS calendar. TEAMS does not work as it used to. I am using the new Outlook.

Question

I used to have an Accept, Decline button, and the date / time would be added to my Teams calendar

Answer 1

In New Outlook, Teams meeting invitations and responses are still handled through Outlook’s calendar; Teams then shows what is on the Exchange/Outlook calendar. The behavior described (no Accept/Decline buttons and no calendar entry) indicates the meeting request is not being treated as a standard Outlook meeting request.

From the available information, there are two main patterns to check with the sender/organizer and the environment:

1. Verify the invitation is a true Outlook/Exchange meeting request
   • The organizer must send a meeting request from Outlook or Teams, not a plain email with a link.
   • If the organizer sends a task request or a non-standard format (for example, Rich Text that is converted to HTML by a transport component), the action buttons (Accept/Decline) can be removed and the layout scrambled. In that case, the recipient sees no proper buttons and the item does not behave like a meeting.
   • Ask the organizer to resend the invitation as a normal Outlook meeting (not as a task request or custom formatted message) and confirm whether the buttons appear in New Outlook.
2. Check for format conversion issues in the mail flow (admin-side)
   • When Outlook sends special items (like task or meeting requests) as Rich Text Format (RTF), an intermediate transport component (such as an external signature/disclaimer service or a connector) can convert the message to HTML.
   • That conversion can strip the Accept/Decline elements from the message, leaving only text and breaking the interactive buttons.
   • An Exchange or Microsoft 365 admin should review:
     • Outbound connectors that route mail through external services which may be converting RTF to HTML.
     • Remote domain settings (for external recipients) such as TNEFEnabled that control whether Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) content is preserved or converted.
   • If the admin ensures that meeting requests are not being converted in a way that strips TNEF/RTF metadata, the Accept/Decline buttons should remain intact.

Because New Outlook and Teams both rely on the same Exchange calendar, once the invitation is recognized as a proper meeting request and accepted, it will appear on the Outlook calendar and then in the Teams calendar as expected.

If the issue persists only for specific senders or domains, it is likely related to how their environment formats or converts the meeting requests before they reach the mailbox.

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References:

• Accept and Decline buttons missing in a task request
• You can't send a response to a meeting request in Outlook
• Manage your calendar in Microsoft Teams