New Appointments are saved in the wrong calendar

I'm seeing a lot of complaints with "lost" appointments and meetings saved to the wrong calendar in Outlook 2013 when IMAP accounts are in the profile.

Another common complaint is that users are unable to Categorize appointments and contacts, and flag options are limit to flag or no flag.

Incoming meetings are placed into the "This computer only" calendar. I want all appointments added to the calendar in my default .pst file. This is so frustrating. I want to define a "default calendar" and have ALL appointments go there, regardless of the email account they arrived in, and that now seems impossible. What was Microsoft thinking?

Microsoft was thinking about all of the people who complained about needing two .pst files in a profile that had only an IMAP account.

The problem with the way Outlook 2013 handles Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes goes beyond which calendar the meeting requests are added to. Categories and Flags will not work "as expected" on items in the IMAP folders.

Too many people are in the habit of deleting IMAP .pst files or accounts when they think something is wrong with Outlook. If they do this when they have a single IMAP data file in Outlook 2013, they will lose their calendar, contacts, notes and tasks unless they remember to export those folders first. Because the new IMAP data file is tied to the account that created it, it will require expensive recovery tools to recover the contents if System Restore can't restore the profile.

The solution? Make sure all calendar, contacts, tasks and notes are exported or moved from the IMAP .ost folders to a local .pst (which is set as the default data file).

Create a local pst file

To create a local pst file:

1. Go to File, Account Settings, Data Files tab
2. Click Add, type in a name for the pst file
3. Set it as Default data file
4. Close Outlook and reopen it
5. Move the contacts from the Contacts (This Computer only) folder to the Contacts folder in the new pst file
6. Switch to the Calendar (This Computer only) folder
7. Switch to a List view
8. Select all and move or drag the appointments to the new calendar folder

Repeat Step 5 for Tasks and Notes, if necessary.

To remove the (This Computer only) folders from the IMAP data file:

1. Close Outlook.
2. Open Windows Explorer, type %localappdata%\microsoft\outlook in the address bar
3. Delete the IMAP ost file
4. Restart Outlook

Create a local pst file video tutorial

Related Posts:

1. 

   What you need to know about IMAP accounts in Outlook 2013
2. 

   Outlook 2013: Set reminders on Tasks in an IMAP account
3. 

   Outlook Categories, Flags, and IMAP Accounts
4. 

   Save appointments to a non-default Outlook calendar folder