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Adding Birthdays and Anniversaries to Outlook's Calendar

Slipstick Systems

› Outlook › People › Adding Birthdays and Anniversaries to Outlook’s Calendar

Last reviewed on November 19, 2019     73 Comments

When you create a Contact and add the contact's birthday and/or anniversary a recurring event is added to your calendar. This feature cannot be disabled.

To remove the calendar named Birthday from Outlook.com or Office 365 mailboxes, see Remove the Holiday or Birthday calendar from Outlook.com or Office365

If you don't want the events added to your calendar, don't enter dates in the birthday and anniversary fields. Put the dates in the Notes field or a user defined field. Or delete the event from your calendar. Note that if you do this, Outlook may recreate it at some point.

Birthday field on Contact

However, if you import a contact list or sync with a handheld device, these events are not created in the calendar. In order to have them added you need to either edit the contact's name (clicking the Full Name button and saving the contacts is sufficient) or edit the Birthday and Anniversary fields to trigger an update. See the Tools below for utilities that can trigger the update.

See Removing Birthdays and Anniversaries for an easy way to remove the dates from Contacts and the events from the Calendar. There is also a VBA sample there to remove the events from the calendar as soon as the Contact creates it.

 

Reminders for Birthdays

When you create a new contact and specify a birth date, Microsoft Outlook automatically creates a recurring annual event in the Calendar folder for contact's birthday, but it doesn't set a reminder unless you have Outlook set to add a reminder to all new appointments (and in that case, it uses the default reminder time, usually 15 minutes).

If you want a longer reminder period, you will need to change the reminders on each birthday or anniversary or use VBA to set the reminders.

Dim WithEvents mcolCalItems As Items

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    Dim objNS As NameSpace
    Set objNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
    Set mcolCalItems = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar).Items
    Set objNS = Nothing 
End Sub 

Private Sub mcolCalItems_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
    ' #### USER OPTIONS ####
    ' remind XX days before birthdays 
    intDays = 7

    If Item.Class = olAppointment And _
       InStr(Item.Subject, "Birthday") > 0 Or InStr(Item.Subject, "Anniversary") > 0 Then
        With Item
            .ReminderSet = True
            .ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 24 * 60 * intDays
            .Save
        End With
    End If
End Sub

For help using the VBA Editor, see How to use Outlook's VBA Editor

 

Add Birthdays and Anniversaries to calendar

When you import Contacts (or sync with a smartphone) the birthdays are not added to the calendar. You have two choices: a macro or an add-in. The add-ins offer more features (and can offer a high return on investment) if you sync a lot, but for one time use, a macro is quick and effective.

This macro uses the Contact folder you are looking in. If you prefer to use the folder picker, change the Set MyFolder line to Set myFolder = Session.PickFolder

Sub AddBirthdaysAnniversaries()

 Dim myFolder As MAPIFolder

 ' To use the Contacts folder you are in
 Set myFolder = Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder

    For i = myFolder.Items.Count To 1 Step -1
    
    If myFolder.Items(i).Class = 40 Then
    
    ' If you want to see that it's working, uncomment this line
       ' myFolder.Items(i).Display
        
    ' Copy the correct birthday and anniversary to a variable
         mybirthday = myFolder.Items(i).Birthday
         myanniversary = myFolder.Items(i).Anniversary
         
    ' Set today as the birthday & anniversary
        myFolder.Items(i).Birthday = Now
        myFolder.Items(i).Anniversary = Now
        
    ' Replace 'today' with the correct birthday & anniversary
         myFolder.Items(i).Birthday = mybirthday
         myFolder.Items(i).Anniversary = myanniversary
         
    ' Save and close
         myFolder.Items(i).Save
         myFolder.Items(i).Close 0
    End If
    
'Repeat with next contact
    Next i

 End Sub

Convert Imported Birthdates

This macro will convert imported birthdays to recurring events.

Sub ConvertBDayRecur()

    Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
    Dim objItems As Outlook.Items
    Dim objFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
    Dim appItem As Object 'Outlook.AppointmentItem
    Dim pattern As Outlook.RecurrencePattern
 
    Set objOL = Outlook.Application
    Set objFolder = objOL.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
    Set objItems = objFolder.Items
    
    On Error Resume Next
 
    For Each appItem In objItems
    If InStr(1, appItem.Subject, "'s Birthday") > 0 And appItem.Categories = "Birthday" Then
     
     With appItem
 
    'make recurring
     Set pattern = appItem.GetRecurrencePattern
     pattern.RecurrenceType = olRecursYearly
     pattern.PatternStartDate = appItem.Start
     pattern.NoEndDate = True
    appItem.Save
     End With
    End If
    Next
 
    Set obj = Nothing
    Set objItems = Nothing
    Set objFolder = Nothing
    Set objOL = Nothing

End Sub

 

Tools

CustomDays

Use CustomDays to display a person's age on their birthday or year on anniversaries. The display can be changed individually using placeholders. You can also use this tool to delete birthday entries that are not associated with a contact. Automatically send a birthday email, or completely prevent the entry of birthdays in the calendar. Also available separately as CustomBirthday and CustomAnniversary. (site is in German but utilities will work in English Outlook)

Outlook Birthday App

Create birthday and anniversary appointments in a calendar based on a list of people. These appointments can out as far out as you would like. You can include age and anniversary number (optional).

Adding Birthdays and Anniversaries to Outlook's Calendar was last modified: November 19th, 2019 by Diane Poremsky
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Related Posts:

  • Removing Birthdays and Anniversaries from the Calendar
  • Create Birthday Events for Public Folder Contacts
  • Moving recurring items in older versions of Outlook creates a single e
    Moving Birthdays drops the recurrence
  • Show only Birthdays for a Particular Month

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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Henk (@guest_211265)
June 10, 2018 9:36 am
#211265

Thanks for the macro. Worked perfectly.

0
0
Reply
chelsea (@guest_203390)
December 13, 2016 1:55 pm
#203390

When adding in birthdays, do you need the year they were born in for there to be a reminder each year or can you just put there month/date in with the current year?

0
0
Reply
Heather (@guest_203261)
December 6, 2016 10:02 am
#203261

Hi everyone! Diana, I just stumbled across your site and it's INCREDIBLE! There is not another site I've found as robust, interactive and actually USEFUL to the degree yours is. THANK YOU!

I have a question, which I suspect might require a macro. I'm not overly skilled, so forgive me if this is a simple fix...

I would like the Outlook "birthday" calendar (which is working for contacts who have birthdays in their contact data), to show name AND also Company & Title. So instead of John Smith's Birthday, I'd like to see "John Smith - Manager - XYZ Company's Birthday).

Can anyone help? Thanks!

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Heather
December 7, 2016 9:45 am
#203279

The problem is that the calendar is read-only - you can't edit it, so a macro won't work. The only (and bad) solution is to put that information in the contact's name field. Sorry.

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0
Reply
heh (@guest_203418)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
December 15, 2016 2:00 pm
#203418

Thank you!

0
0
Reply
dave (@guest_198222)
April 26, 2016 10:48 am
#198222

I would like for outlook calendar to display a number via count like "Dave is 62 today" or "Dave and Mary' 37th Anniversary"

1
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  dave
June 19, 2016 12:34 am
#199492

This is one way: https://www.slipstick.com/developer/code-samplesa/add-persons-age-birthday-event/

0
0
Reply
Fancy (@guest_196967)
March 4, 2016 4:06 pm
#196967

I want to add the birthdays of my team and have a reminder or some sort of notification sent out to everyone to notify them that it's someone's birthday...how do I do this?

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Fancy
March 9, 2016 12:42 am
#197065

See https://www.slipstick.com/developer/send-email-outlook-reminders-fires/ for one method.

0
0
Reply
Hafez (@guest_195742)
January 3, 2016 12:31 am
#195742

is there someone I can hire to make the add-in for me?

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Hafez
January 3, 2016 2:58 pm
#195752

We don't do addins and I'm not sure if anyone on this list is taking small projects - [post2post id="11049"]

0
0
Reply
Hafez (@guest_194753)
November 15, 2015 11:42 pm
#194753

few questions about the above solution:
- will it only change the default reminder of Birthday appointments? Other recurring appointments will remain as is?
- is it possible to create this as an "add-in" or plug-in that can be a packaged code that can be set to multiple users?
- trying to deploy Outlook to a many users and have the Birthday and Anniversary reminders automatically set for 1 week reminder

Is the above possible?

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Hafez
November 16, 2015 12:15 pm
#194758

Yes, as written, it applies only to birthday and anniversaries. It could be compiled into an addin and deployed.

0
0
Reply
Hafez (@guest_195067)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
December 3, 2015 12:46 am
#195067

does this solution work with Outlook 2016? O365? Could I ask you to send me an e-mail? I would like to find out if I can find a developer to create this plugin for me.

1
0
Reply
Hafez (@guest_195319)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
December 12, 2015 11:24 pm
#195319

is it possible to hire someone to create this addin for me?

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Hafez
January 6, 2016 1:59 am
#195815

We're no longer compiling addins - not sure if any of the developers on [post2post id="11049"] would be able to do it for you.

0
0
Reply
chris gambino (@guest_193282)
September 14, 2015 8:04 am
#193282

I have a personal address book associated with the corporate calendar. So everyone see my kids birthdays. I would like to associated that my personal address book with a personal calendar. is that possible? if so how?

0
0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  chris gambino
September 14, 2015 9:54 am
#193291

You can create a personal calendar in your mailbox but will need to move the personal appointments to it (or open the personal calendar then create the appointment in it). Or you can set personal appointments to Private - then only people with permission to view private appointments can see them.

0
0
Reply

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