We're seeing complaints that Outlook automatically sends meeting updates to the attendees several times a day. When users delete the responses from their inbox it triggers another update to attendees.
The good news: it’s not user error.
The bad news: it appears to be a problem only for people who sync iPhones with Exchange.
The bug appears when the user creates an appointment in Outlook and includes themselves as an attendee, often because they are the members of a distribution group or a delegate.
Scenario
The repro steps are as follows:
- The iPhone user creates a new appointment in Outlook and uses a distribution group as an attendee; the meeting organizer (iPhone user) is also part of the distribution group.
- The Meeting organizer sends the appointment from Outlook.
- An attendee accepts the appointment request.
- The organizer receives the response from the attendee and deletes it from their inbox.
- A meeting request update is sent out to all attendee’s of the meeting.
- This repeats itself and continues to send out meeting updates.
Workaround
Until Microsoft or Apple releases a fix, use this solution discovered by Derik and Mark:
When creating a new appointment in Outlook, do not include yourself as an attendee. If you are using a distribution group to invite others, expand that group and remove yourself as an attendee.
Phillip suggests setting an end date:
We are having users report a similar issue, it appears that the main issue is with repeating calendar invites that DO NOT stipulate an End-Date. The users iPhones are sending out the meeting notifications. Having the organizer cancel, then delete the original repeating meeting and then recreating the repeating meeting with a valid end-date specified, resolves the issue once the iPhone resyncs with the calendar.
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU13 iPhone iOS - (random, several versions)
Outlook's no end date option can be disabled via a registry edit or group policy. For more information, see
More Information
Current issues with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and third-party devices (Microsoft Support)
Calista Kossatz says
I am still facing this issue and unfortunately, the workaround from Derek and Mark have not helped. I am not included in the group/attendee list and there is an end time/date in the request. This issue is incredibly frustrating and now I am scared to look at my meetings because I will be seen as unprofessional for re-sending the request. Has anyone found a fix?
Diane Poremsky says
If you use the outlook app, the problem *shouldn't* occur.
Shannon Clark says
When I send a meeting request to a group, there is one person in the group that when he accepts, it sends everyone an identical meeting request again.
Diane Poremsky says
Is he accepting on a smartphone? That is a fairly common problem when accepting on a phone. I believe its less of a problem if using the Outlook app over the native apps.
rino19ny says
what about on an iPhone 8 where a user, not the organizer, can't respond to a meeting invite?
Diane Poremsky says
Well, you shouldn't accept from a phone if you can avoid it. i don't see this issue listed on microsoft's list of known issues: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563324/current-issues-with-microsoft-exchange-activesync-and-third-party-devi
rino19ny says
yes, except issue 1.2 that is somehow close.
why are you saying we shouldn't accept meeting invites from a phone? that's the purpose of having email and stuff like that on the phone for convenience.
Diane Poremsky says
>> why are you saying we shouldn't accept meeting invites
Many of the problems are caused by accepting invites on the phone. If the phone app uses EWS (Exchange web services) instead of EAS (Exchange Active Sync) there should be fewer problems. The outlook app uses EWS, the native apps use EAS.
Alan says
Everything the author has posted here is pretty much wrong. The “work around” sure doesn’t work, and Microsoft themselves have no solution (per other web sites). The Outlook Internal Version on these forwarded meeting planners match the iPhone 6s Plus.
I have several dozen of these in my inbox, and the quantity is multiplying. None of the users where I work have touched their device calendars, including me.
Outlook integration with the iPhone has been broken pretty much from the beginning. The author of this article needs to stop parroting the wrong answer and start posting some original problem-solving answers to fix this problem.
Diane Poremsky says
Unfortunately, if the workarounds suggested by other users aren't working for you, you will need to wait for Microsoft to come up with a fix for this long-standing issue.
Microsoft's list of known ActiveSync issues (and fixes, when available) is here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2563324/current-issues-with-microsoft-exchange-activesync-and-third-party-devi.
Pete says
I am getting a very similar issue. Every morning I am forwarding a calendar invite that I've received to everyone who is in the meeting invite. I am not the original creator of the meeting invite. My iPhone seems to randomly respond. I've read the thread.
Diane Poremsky says
sounds like it is this issue - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4014990 -
Phillip says
We are having users report a similar issue, it appears that the main issue is
with repeating calendar invites that DO NOT stipulate an End-Date. The users
iPhones are sending out the meeting notifications.
Having the organizer cancel, then delete the original repeating meeting and
then recreating the repeating meeting with a valid end-date specified, resolves
the issue once the iPhone resyncs with the calendar.
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU13
iPhone iOS - (random, several versions)
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks for the information - definately should always use an end date - and now Outlook supports this via group policy.
https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/calendar/encourage-users-to-set-end-date-on-recurring-appointments/
Jonathan Williams says
I found the answer for my issue ... log into Office 365. Go to settings (cog in right hand top corner) select calendar then on the left side options select General, Mobile Devices and check 'Don't send read receipts for messages read on devices that use Exchange Active-Sync. This immediately stopped the multiple messages I was sending and receiving every 18 minutes. I also had added my email account to an old Blackberry Playbook - just for fun and I think it was this device possibly that caused the issue - so I removed this device in the list above the read receipts check box
Lisa says
this worked for me. it's been 20 minutes and no new messages sent thank you!
Joe says
Have been seeing this a lot lately (my org has 120,000+ mailboxes) and I'd like to confirm that if Outlook for Mobile (iOS/Android) is used EXCLUSIVELY (removing Exchange connections via the native iOS/Android mail/cal/etc. apps) that this prevents the issue?
Since reading http://www.networkworld.com/article/2904714/microsoft-subnet/microsoft-outlook-calendar-corruption-lost-meetings-duplicate-appointments-april-2015-update.html and other related sites, we have been strongly recommneding using the Outlook for Mobile app exclusively to our customers. So far it's been quite successful, but I'd like to know what others have seen.
Thanks! -Joe
Diane Poremsky says
the bug is in the EAS connection - the outlook app uses EWS, so it shouldn't have issues.
Joe says
Diane, thanks so much for everything you do for the community! -Joe
Dan says
Outlook for Mobile is certainly useful, but the prospect of having a 3rd party caching 1 month's worth of our emails does not go down well with the compliance officer. Nor with me either, so there goes that solution. As more and more orgs migrate to O365, the security argument becomes moot, so time is on our side. But still, was the issue of 3rd party access to your mailboxes never an issue? With the amount of accounts in your org, you must have had the discussion.
Diane Poremsky says
>> Outlook for Mobile is certainly useful, but the prospect of having a 3rd party caching 1 month's worth of our emails does not go down well with the compliance officer.
As of a few months ago, everything is pushed through Microsoft's Azure, they no longer use Amazon's AWS (which Acompli used before Microsoft purchased them).
Dan says
That's correct. But from the perspective of a firm running Exchange on-prem, Azure is a 3rd party too ;-)
Just sayin ...
Myfender says
So can confirm on multiple sites this is an issue with iphone/android, in fact i have solved it for serveral meetings finding the "right phone" to disconnect. Thats the problem though, how can I find the offending phone? I have meetings with 250 attendees many with iPhones (personal iphones i have no control of turning off icloud ectt for them) many of the CEO level.
I have used LPS to check IIS logs for most hits, i have looked at event viewer for event id 9646 (too many connections) and get-messagetracking powershell just shows you the "mailbox attendant" as sender not a user. Anyone got a good ecp script to help locate who has these invites in a loop???
Diane Poremsky says
It's actually an activesync problem - which is how the phone native apps sync.
Meghan says
Hello,
When I create a meeting in Outlook, I am NOT able to remove myself as a attendee.
I need help.
Diane Poremsky says
You can't remove the organizer (change change the organizer). Are you acting as a delegate for another user?
Ioana says
I have a similar Problem. When someone is sending an invite to a group, with no Request Response, he receives every night in Deleted Items, at the same time, Answers from Outlook on behalf of the users invited. And the email is sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2013.
I posted my Problem also here, but no answer.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_outlook-mso_other/exchange-2013-meeting-invitation-sent-with-request/f206cbec-0b2f-42be-a94d-18052533b503?tm=1478692351695
Can somebody help me?
sandis says
I can see this here @Exchange 2010 and IOS 10.2 too, any suggestions?
Diane Poremsky says
All recommendations are in this kb article https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2563324 -
Elle says
This is happening to me and I can tell you I DO NOT have myself as an attendee on any of the meetings.. Sooooo new fix????
Diane Poremsky says
The latest information is here - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2563324
mike says
Any updates here? It's annoying as hell
Diane Poremsky says
Nothing that I'm aware of - the issue seems to come and go as Apple releases update. Microsoft has a list of issues they update as they are fixed or discovered. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2563324
Lori Flower says
So I have had a few complaints on this with Exchange 2010 and iOS 10.2. Is there anything we can look for on the Exchange side or Outlook using MFCMAPI to prove that the iOS client made these updates?
Diane Poremsky says
No, not to my knowledge. Sorry.
Steffen says
FWIW, the bug seems to be fixed with iOS 9.3, as per https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3108212
Diane Poremsky says
At least for now.... but it's been an off and on bug for years.
Christian says
Still a live issue! Sending my friends nuts, at least I know it wasn't me. Thanks for the article.
Jim says
Was a fix ever discovered. It's killing me!
Diane Poremsky says
No, not yet. The problem is they find a cause and fix it, then it comes back again. :(
Jimmy says
Having the same issue here to, with IOS 9.2
does anyone have a workaround?
Harrrrrrrrrrry says
I'm still having this issue:
Someone will create a meeting, when the other person accepts the request the original meeting creator will start to receive 30 emails a day stating that the meeting has been accepted. This is happening with several people in the business, even the CEO!!. All of the people apparently sending the 'acceptance messages' have Iphones. Could their be a bug in the latest Apple Update?
Harry says
Hello, this it turned out iPhone cloud sync with Exchange calendar. please disable the cloud sync and this fixed for our users.
David says
How has this fix responded?
Harry says
We fixed the issue by disabled iCloud Sync for Calendar and Reminders on all of Apple devices (iPhone and iPad or Mac machine)
Bruce Guyton says
Harry...did you have to turn the cloud sync for Exchange calendar and reminders for all attendees of the meeting who have iOS devices or just the organizer. I assume you meant for all attendees with iOS devices but just checking....
David Feifer says
Have been experiencing this issue with our HR managers phone over the past couple of weeks. She has an IPhone 6 with the current 9.1 update and strangely is the only person on my domain that is having this issue. Or she is the only one saying anything about it. The first time this happened to her was on thanksgiving day and then again yesterday so it is completely random at this point which ones will have an issue and this is the first time we have had a problem like this. I updated our exchange 2010 system to rollup 11 from 9 just before thanksgiving so not sure if this is just a coincidence or the cause of the issue. (2cas 2 mbx HA with a dag of 3 databases)
Thilina says
I am still having this problem is there a solution??
Diane Poremsky says
What version of Exchange server are you using?
Betsy says
My user is having this happen to people who send him an invite via Outlook, from either inside or outside the organization, then when he gets the invite on his phone, it will automatically accept and send multiple acceptance emails per day over days to the people in the meeting.
iphone 5
iOS 9.xx
O365
Outlook 2013 in the office
Jackie says
Hi Diane,
My company recently migrated our e-mail system to 365. I am having an intermittent issue where Outlook sends out meeting invites on reoccurring meetings. This has occurred with reoccurring meetings with a scheduled end date and reoccurring meetings without an end date. I am not sending out the duplicate meeting requests and the system seems to be doing it on its own. It seems to happen randomly and not with all reoccurring meetings I have scheduled. I have not listed myself as an attendee on the meetings. I do have my company e-mail connected to my iPhone 6s. Any suggestions as to what could be causing this?
Pedro says
Hi Diane - I had the issue again this morning for a meeting scheduled at 9am. My name was not on the (hidden) destinatories' list, yet the iPhone decided to send the invite this mornin as soon as I enabled WiFi access (6am) so I think that this issue might be the same one evolved or a different one.
Jan Tullis says
HI Pedro, what iOS are you using? This is becoming rampant at our organization. Trying to figure out an easy solution (such as updating ios). Thanks!
Pedro says
I just got a different use case: when someone sends an email saying that something is going to happen on day X and that “you will get an invitation later”, I create a memento in my calendar while the invite is sent. To do that
1/I just go to the [Outlook/Ribbon bar/Respond section/”Meeting”] button and Outlook opens a meeting window for me with the email destinatories as participants and the email contents as meeting details - I don’t click on “send”.
2/The next thing I do is to click on the [Outlook/Ribbon bar/Attendees section/”Cancel invitation”] button so that there is ***no email sent*** and then, make it an “all day event” and click on the “save and close” button
Outlook still remembers that there was an attendees list for that calendar event (you can see this if you click on the “scheduling assistant”) but saves it as a calendar entry instead of sending a meeting invite to everyone.
Now, this morning, my iPhone 6 (iOS9) decided that it needed to enhance my visibility among colleagues (~100 of them) and spontaneously decided to send that calendar entry to all the colleagues in the attendees list (~100), three times. Party time…
Diane Poremsky says
Ouch. I'll see if i can repro it.
Andy says
I've had a similar issue. I create the meeting invite, i DO NOT include myself as an invitee. Other invitees have told me they get invites repeatedly. I'm using Outlook 2015 15.13.1 and an iPhone.
Diane Poremsky says
Yeah, it's something with ActiveSync, so its iPhone & Exchange mailbox, not specific to the desktop client.
John Wilkins says
I had this issue happen for our organization sporadically on the new IOS 8.4. In this instance it sent duplicate meeting updates to a recurring calendar event.
John Wilkins says
Side note we are using Office 365 for email.
Gareth McShane says
Experiencing this at my work right now, 8.4 iOS, Outlook 2013, Office 365.
Sender/organiser isn't included as an invitee - nor is delegate.
Forrest says
Yeah, this really isn't that helpful. And honestly if a user is inviting themselves to an appointment they create, then that really IS user error.
Diane Poremsky says
This bug should be not be a problem if you've have a newer iOS. updates to some versions of Exchange address the problem as well.
ADW the Schema Czar (@SchemaCzar) says
I am seeing this error on a fully patched iPhone today in May 2015. Can we get an update on this?
Re "inviting yourself to a meeting" - I should not have to fish myself out of an invite I send to the team I work on. Not acceptable. Lots of calendar software has handled this successfully for twenty years.
Mark Hansen says
Oh, I have been able to stop these automatic updates by disconnecting the iPhone being used from the exchange server. That stopped it but I would still like to know how to prevent it permently in the future.
Diane Poremsky says
I am not aware of any fixes for Exchange 2003, sorry. There have been some updates to later versions of Exchange, that are supposed to address the issue, and iOS has some updates that are supposed to reduce the problem. If the devices were not updated, try that.
Mark Hansen says
Hi Diane, if you find any hotfixes for this I would very much appriciate it. We are running Exchange 2003 SP2, iOS 6.1.3, and Outlook 2007 SP3. We are having the same problem with our system, I haven't found a good fix for this yet.
Steve C says
Hi Diane, thanks for the post. any idea which hotfix addressed this? I'd like to contact our hosted Exchange and see if they have applied this patch.
Diane Poremsky says
Offhand, no. There were several issues similar to this, some were fixed client side or on iOS. I'll see if i can find it in my notes- i need to update the article.
Daniel Hernandez says
I'm having a similar issue, I sent a recurrent meeting request and it seems like it was resent several times, the difference here is that I'm not included as an atendee. The original meeting request was sent from the outlook web app, I'm using an iphone with iOS 6.1.2 and a macbook wit OSX 10.8.2. Is there any known issues with Mail? do you know if the iphone issue persists?
Diane Poremsky says
The original iphone issue was fixed by a hotfix on Exchange server but it seems to come and go with various ios updates.
Larry Millican says
I received an invite to a meeting and when i accepted it i received another invite to the same meeting from myself. I am trying to delete it from my iphone since it shows up on my invite button at the bottom. Everytime i try to delete it to clear it off my iphone, it sends a message to every one on the invite list. Any ideas on how to get this off my phone?
Diane Poremsky says
Did you accept it on the phone? That can cause problems such as you are seeing. Do you know what version of Exchange server you use?
Bill Walker says
I have a user who 'accepts' a meeting that was created by another for which he is an attendee and when he does that he receives a meeting response for that sent to himself by himself???
Has an iPhone and iOS6 as well as Outlook 2010 on Windows 7 - all using Exchange (iPhone connects via ActiveSync to our mail system)
Alan Jones says
I have this problem even with appointments scheduled by others. I get reminders every day at least once up until the date of the appointment, even in the middle of the night. I keep accepting the meeting, but it doesn't do any good.
Diane Poremsky says
Accepting won't stop reminders. Do you have multiple copies of the appointments and meetings? Are you accepting them on the iPhone or in Outlook?
Carrie says
I am having the same issue as Alan. My receptionist is sending the appointments once but I get them multiple times (around 5-10 times a day) through out the day and they are waking me up in the middle of the night. None of the other attendees have this issue. I do not have multiple copies of them.
Diane Poremsky says
So it's just the reminders that keep firing? Are you syncing with a smartphone?
Tara says
I'm pretty sure that it has ALWAYS been a best practice NOT to include yourself as an attendee on a meeting request, even before the iPhone even existed. The problem is that if you invite yourself as an attendee and then accept the meeting (even in Outlook), you are no longer the organizer (you're an attendee). Evidently the iPhone just takes care of the 'accepting it' part and forces you to be an attendee.
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, it's generally bad practice to not invite yourself but for the most part, it wasn't a problem - in most cases, outlook reminds you that you are the organizer and won't let you accept.
Chris says
Thanks Diane...I missed the date so my bad....Be nice it it were at the top though....
Diane Poremsky says
The problem began with iOS3 and continues with the newer iOS. When we confirm an issue is fixed, we update the article with that information (but sometimes we forget to do it immediately). We have the last updated date at the bottom of the page.
Chris says
This article is usesless. It does not have a date on it and does not talk about which version of the IOS are in play here.