Outlook.com changing appointments

[astro46]

If I enter a new appointment on my desktop, or on phone (windows mobile 10), outlook.com seems to corrupt them when they pass through outlook.com for syncing. I never enter anything directly in outlook.com. Outlook 2016 desktop is set up to default to "no reminders", and the phone isn't good enough to give me that option, so I have to manually change the reminder on every appointment to "none".

I have turned off all calendar reminders on the phone to avoid getting constantly annoyed by outlook.com set reminders. On the computer I delete the reminder box without looking at them. There still doesn't seem to be an option at outlook.com to default to "no reminder".

Is there a way to get calendar to work the way I want it to, rather than how Microsoft forces me to use it?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Is your account on the old server or the new server? Log into outlook.com and look at the URL - outlook.live.com = new server.

There is a bug with activesync that sets this - it tends to come and go and i thought it was fixed on the office 365 servers (but i could be wrong.)

Try this code in outlook to remove 15 min reminders. (If you want to set reminders on the desktop, choose a different default.)

When new appt are added to the default calendar, the reminder is turned off if it's 15 minutes.

Private WithEvents Items As Outlook.Items

Private Sub Application_Startup()
  Dim Ns As Outlook.NameSpace

  Set Ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
  Set Items = Ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar).Items
End Sub


Private Sub Items_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
  On Error Resume Next
  Dim Appt As Outlook.AppointmentItem
  If TypeOf Item Is Outlook.AppointmentItem Then
    Set Appt = Item
' Checks the reminder start time
If Appt.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 15 Then
     Appt.ReminderSet = False
     Appt.Save
    End If

End If

End Sub

Set macro security to low in Outlook then press alt+F11 to open the macro editor. This macro goes in ThisOutlookSession. Then restart Outlook.
How to use Outlook's VBA Editor

 

[astro46]

apparently I am now on the new sight. outlook.live.com is the url. Don't know when that happened.

I don't understand if the vba is meant to eliminate 15 min appts only on desktop or in outlook.com calendar. I have desktop outlook set to default to "none", which it does. Anything passing through outlook.live.com seems to get the reminder changed. So, when going to phone it changes from none to 15 min, 2 hour, 2 days, all different depending on some MS formula.

Today, however it has gotten vastly more complicated, both my phone (lumia 925,windows mobile 10)and desktop show no appts at all. Birthdays and holidays are there, but when swiping to a previous week on phone, they disappeared. Later, when syncing desktop, they disappeared there also. Appointments are currently still on the cloud site. I don't know if this is temporary MS cloud failure in syncing, a more general failure, or...? Does this indicate that no calendar items are stored locally? If I don't have internet or data, I don't have a calendar?

update: Outlook just asked me about storing info locally for offline use. I said ok. appointments are now showing again on desktop, but still not on phone

 

[astro46]

update 2: just now found appointments appearing again on phone. don't know what the missing appointments was about, and, hopefully it won't happen again.

the first part of my reply, above, is still relevant.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

It almost sounds like the account was just migrated and outlook and the phone needed to be refreshed.

I was under the impression the phone sync always used a 15 min. appointment - in that case, delete the if and end if lines ot remove all reminders.
If Appt.ReminderMinutesBeforeStart = 15 Then
End if

But... I'd wait and see how it's working on the new server. Also, in Outlook 2016, if the account is listed as Exchange ActiveSync, you should remove it and let auto account setup add it back as a Microsoft Exchange account. This is a much better experience compared to Active Sync. It might eliminate the reminder issues.

 

[astro46]

Diane, based on a couple of days of testing and real appointments, checking synced copies. it seems like the modification issue has been resolved from moving to new server and using exchange for syncing. at least since yesterday morn. if anything changes I'll post.

re: the default reminders on win10 phone: reminders are different lengths depending on how far out the appt is. something for tomorrow may get 15min. for two months from now, 12 hours.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

re: the default reminders on win10 phone: reminders are different lengths depending on how far out the appt is. something for tomorrow may get 15min. for two months from now, 12 hours.

That is seriously weird. There should be two reminder periods - one for timed, one for all day.

 

[astro46]

Sorry, you're right. the timed events get 15 min. all day get 12 hour reminders. when I tried ityesterday with an event 2 months out, I must have set it for all day, getting the 12 hr reminder. I was wrong about the cause.

too bad we can't set a default (none) for phone appointments, like we can in Outlook on computer, and not have to reset each appt.

 

[astro46]

reminder settings were remaining between devices for 5 weeks. But that ended about a week ago. calender items set on desktop (defaults to no reminder) get a reminder when appearing on phone or laptop. same from laptop to phone. or phone to desktop.
appalling that MS thinks it's ok to change calendar settings.