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.
More Information
Apple Support Forum Topic : 3.0 Causing Multiple Copies of Invites to be sent through Exchange
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Last reviewed on Apr 13, 2012
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.
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.
Thanks Diane…I missed the date so my bad….Be nice it it were at the top though….
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.
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.