Accepting Outlook invites in Calendar and Mail

Is there any way of accepting an invitation sent from Outlook when I use Calendar and Mail?


I can add the event to my Calendar but can't see a way of sending the acceptance notification other than as a manual email.


I'm reluctant to set up an Outlook account just for the occasional invite that I receive - I use Outlook at work and don't want to use it at home.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jul 22, 2022 07:29 AM

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Posted on Jul 24, 2022 10:50 AM

Thanks for the swift reply.


I have set up Outlook and Teams in order to send invites. The only reason I am sending myself Teams invites is to troubleshoot.


These arrive in Mail as emails. There is no option for me to accept or decline. Only to add an event to Calendar.


Nothing appears in Calendar until I manually add the event.


If someone using Calendar app on a Mac creates an event and invites me to it, I get the expected options to accept or decline.


For clarity, and to my original question: is it possible to use Calendar app to accept or decline an invite that has been sent by someone else who uses Windows with either Outlook or Teams?

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Jul 24, 2022 10:50 AM in response to bailier

Thanks for the swift reply.


I have set up Outlook and Teams in order to send invites. The only reason I am sending myself Teams invites is to troubleshoot.


These arrive in Mail as emails. There is no option for me to accept or decline. Only to add an event to Calendar.


Nothing appears in Calendar until I manually add the event.


If someone using Calendar app on a Mac creates an event and invites me to it, I get the expected options to accept or decline.


For clarity, and to my original question: is it possible to use Calendar app to accept or decline an invite that has been sent by someone else who uses Windows with either Outlook or Teams?

Jul 23, 2022 01:39 PM in response to Woodenbookend

Hi Woodenbookend,


Thank you for posting in Apple Support Communities! On your Mac in the Calendar app, the notification for acceptance or rejection of the invitation is sent automatically. Them being notified that you've replies will be dependent on their notification settings.


Check out more info here: Reply to invitations in Calendar on Mac – Apple Support (UK)


Hope that helps!

Jul 24, 2022 12:16 PM in response to Woodenbookend

Woodenbookend,


Thanks for confirming this information for us.


If you do not have an Outlook email account synced with Calendar for the invite, this may be expected if you're not seeing the option to accept via email. If you were to have an Outlook account setup with Calendar, you should be able to accept and respond to the invite directly in the Calendar app with these steps: Reply to invitations in Calendar on Mac - Apple Support


If you're not seeing an option to accept the invite in the email itself, you may want to reach out to Microsoft Support for additional assistance on this.


Cheers!

Jul 24, 2022 11:48 AM in response to 1ssmith

I am only using Outlook to troubleshoot by sending invites. I do not want a solution that involves me using Outlook to receive and accept invites. If that is the only way that it will work I accept that, but this is not a viable solution for me and I consider this a limitation of Calendar and Mail.


As I have now done more testing I have come to the following conclusion:


  • Invites sent from Outlook to Outlook work as expected.

(recipient can accept or decline and sender gets a notification)


  • Invites sent from Calendar app to Outlook works as expected.

(recipient can accept or decline and sender gets a notification)


  • Invites sent from Calendar app to Calendar app works as expected.

(recipient can accept or decline and sender gets a notification)


  • Invites sent from Outlook to Calendar app does not work.

(recipient gets an email but can only manually reply and add event to Calendar)



Jul 24, 2022 03:46 AM in response to Trish313

Thanks for the reply Trish313.


Unfortunately neither the Calendar app or Mail recognise the invite as such so I don't get the options to accept or reject.


All I get is an email with the Teams meeting details and link, and an attached .ics file that I can use to add the event to my Calendar. Siri also recognises it as an event and offers to add it to Calendar.


However, that is adding an event, not accepting an invitation so nothing is sent back to the sender.


The first few instances of this were when I was invited to external events. I have now set up Outlook and Teams via Parallels and get the same results.


My Calendar behaves as expected when I'm invited to events from someone else using iCloud and Calendar.

Jul 24, 2022 08:46 AM in response to Woodenbookend

Thanks for the additional information, Woodenbookend. It’s appreciated.


When we searched Microsoft’s site, everything having to do with accepting Team meetings included adding Outlook for Mac. Since Parallels is a different partition, this would be expected behavior. Have you tried adding it to your Mac’s partition instead?


If this isn’t an acceptable resolution, please reach out to Microsoft for help: Microsoft Support


Feel free to get back to us with any questions or problems you may have.


All the best.

Jul 24, 2022 10:04 AM in response to SnickZ.

Sorry, I may have confused things. Me installing Parallels is for something unrelated but as it’s there, I thought I’d try testing things. Outlook / Teams is only to try to troubleshoot by sending invites to my iCloud address. I have no interest in using them for anything else.


My emails are in Mail app, events and meet are in Calendar app. My primary email adddess is @icloud.com.

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Accepting Outlook invites in Calendar and Mail

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