Both Office 365 and Outlook.com users have a separate Birthday calendar in their mailbox. The server populates the calendar from your contacts, in much the same way that Outlook creates birthday and anniversaries for your contacts, but without adding more noise to your own calendar. Because it's a separate calendar, you can hide or show the events easily.
However, a lot of users don't like the extra calendar, especially when they already have the birthdates on their default calendar, thanks to years of using Outlook. Fortunately, it can be deleted from Outlook, which turns it off in Outlook on the web.
You can remove the calendars if you aren't using them, but you cannot delete individual items from the calendars.
I am trying to delete a list of birthdays, but it won't allow me. A message pops up "You cannot make changes to content of this read-only folder"
The server created the birthday calendar from your contacts and it is read-only; you can turn it off in Outlook on the web's Calendar options but cannot delete individual birthdays from the calendar. If you want to remove a birthday from the calendar, you'll need to edit the person's contact.
If you decide to keep the separate birthday calendar, you'll probably want to delete the birthdays from your own calendar. The easiest way is to search for "birthday" or "'s birthday" then Select All and Delete. Search for "location:country name" if you need to delete Holidays.
To remove the Holiday calendar, right click on the calendar and choose Delete folder. You can delete the Holiday calendar in either Outlook desktop or Outlook on the web.
If you delete the Birthday calendar in Outlook, it will come back within a few seconds, you need to turn it off in Outlook on the web's Calendar Options and choose Turn off the birthday calendar
These calendars sync with your mailbox. When you delete them from Outlook on the web, they will be deleted from all devices your mailbox syncs with.
Enable the Birthday or Holiday Calendar
If you want to restore either Calendar, you'll need to log into Outlook on the web if you want to enable it again. You can enable it from the Add calendar link in the bar or in Calendar Options, Other Calendars.
- Select the Calendar module.
- Click on Add Calendar
- Select Birthday calendar
- Select Holiday Calendar
- Choose the desired country (or countries) whose holidays you want to see
- Click Save to save changes and return to the calendar
Ozzi says
This is no longer an option from OWA
Diane Poremsky says
It is - they moved it and I forgot to update the article. It's in Calendar > Add Calendar.
Ozzi says
Thank you. I see it now.
Mark says
Diane-
I am looking for someone to help with some issues. Are you available to talk?
Diane Poremsky says
I have some availablity but between heping an elderly family member and a scheduled vacation, my May avability is limited.
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Rob Filipe says
Hi, i used to have a windows phone which pulled in contact birthdays from different sources, phone is gone, but there is no way to remove these 'old birthday's and they are not contacts in my phone or outlook. How can i remove these orphaned birthdays?
Diane Poremsky says
Are they on the calendar? You can just delete them from the calendar. If they all say 'name's birthday", you can search for "'s birthday".
Rob Filipe says
No birthday events are read only, and not a contract on my phone or in Outlook, it only exists in my calendar. But some entries in my calendar I want to keep
Cheska says
Hi! I'm working for a company and I was asked to delete non-active user's birthdays. Is deleting the birthday can only be done by account or is that something that I can do for the company's entire calendar?
Brian Holley says
I turned off the birthday calendar because i had duplicates. Once I turn it back on none of the contacts birthdays are visible. How can I restore them?
Diane Poremsky says
How long ago did you add it? It can take a day or two (maybe up to 7 days) for the dates to show up.
May says
Oh, thank you so much!!
I've been bothered by this "read-only" birthday reminder for years.
I've never thought it could only be fixed via the web-version.
You are wonderful!
João Coelho Rodrigues says
Hi Diane
Thank you for posting this helpful information.
For a long time I was trying to solve the problem, I had double alarms coming from my 'Calendar' and plus from 'Birthday Calendar', even associated with very old contacts already deleted in the 'Calendar' but still alive in the 'Anniversary' Calendar, those alarms were delayed by more than one year, and they did not make sense anymore, things were starting to run out of management. The 'Birthday Calendar' being reborn continuously a few seconds after being killed, like a phoenix, was driving me crazy.
My heart to you :)
Damianna says
Thanks for posting this. I know it might be petty on my part, but the Birthday calendar thing had been driving me nutters for a few years.
Diane Poremsky says
Not petty at all - its annoying. I wish it was turned off by default.
Scott Burke says
I don't mind the calendar so much... it's the reminders/alerts for EVERYONE. The people I need to be reminded already have alerts.