Issue to open an ics file in new outlook

Paul USUBELLI 215

Hello there,

A colleague is having a problem: when he tries to open an .ics file located in his C: drive with Outlook New, nothing is offered. He has to go to the calendar, manually import it, for the event to appear in his calendar.

Is this normal? If not, what can I do to resolve this problem?

Thank you in advance for your response.

Sincerely,

Paul

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Pete Lauria 110 Reputation points

2025-07-13T00:57:01.6466667+00:00

Neither of these options work.

Re-associating ICS with outlook did nothing. Double-clicking doesn't even return an error. Nothing.

Drag/drop gives an error "Cannot copy the item."

Could someone at Microsoft please actually research the root cause of this error? Routine troubleshooting steps will not fix an underlying change that Microsoft clearly pushed out that broke this basic functionality.

Thanks.
Bill Ramsey 30 Reputation points

2025-07-16T18:18:46.41+00:00

Same issue here. If I double click the .ics file nothing happens. If I go to new outlook, click on calendars, then I see a popup to import the file. But even that only works 3/10 times.
Fred Nielsen 15 Reputation points

2025-09-05T18:20:16.6666667+00:00

I have the same issue as others here: when I open an ICS file using New Outlook, nothing happens. I've doubled-checked that the default association for ICS is to New Outlook, and also tried manually Opening With - nothing happens.
Ganesh Gholap 10 Reputation points

2025-10-16T13:48:13.8933333+00:00

Microsoft team I also having same issue, and this is an genuine issue where ics file is not opening wherein old version was supporting it.

Can you please update.
Wally 15 Reputation points

2025-12-16T14:12:12.88+00:00

Some don't import because they lack a "UID" in the .ics file. Others the "METHOD:PUBLISH:REQUEST" is in there and I deleted "REQUEST" from the statement and save. Then it will add. Obviously, this is not efficient at all and I wish someone at these "TRILLION DOLLAR" companies would talk to each other and fix the issue.
John Neu 105 Reputation points

2026-04-01T19:22:25.5166667+00:00

Same issue for us. Assigning the Default Apps .ics to Outlook New does not launch the calendar invite in Outlook New BUT instead we must go to Outlook New then must go to Calendar and 'surprise surprise' there we see a popup for "Add calendar .. upload from file.." and my user must choose her Calendar to add to and then IMPORT is highlighted and clicking Import then adds the Calendar appointment... oh and then we must kill that popup as well.. very annoying number of steps. . Of course, as pointed out by others, Outlook Classic is so much easier... If I put Default Apps .ics back to Outlook Classic, it then is just a simple click on the .ics and it opens in outlook classic.
Jayden-P 26,275 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-10T08:49:35.46+00:00

Dear all,

Please check the answer provided by MK for more information how to add .ics file.

Answer recommended by moderator

MK 50

I found this thread while searching for a solution to this extremely annoying behavior. I'm writing this from a burner account but I'm mainly writing because I have to deal with this on my work account.

With the old Outlook, you could double click on an .ics file and have the even pop up in your default calendar, automatically. With the new Outlook you need to follow the procedure as described by @Jayden-P . When you double click on an .ics file, the new Outlook will not show anything. You need to select the calendar tab, and only then you'll see the event import dialog. In it, you need to manually select the calendar you want to import the event into. And then you need to click on the Import button.

There are so many inefficient steps in this workflow compared to the old Outlook's behavior. For example, the new Outlook cannot even recognize that I have only one calendar, and I need to manually select it. My org blocks Feedback Hub so I don't know who to reach out to regarding this and similar issues, but if anyone from the development team is reading this - please can you fix it.

Gustav 0 Reputation points

2025-08-26T17:26:54.17+00:00

Thanks for the post. Helped alot!
Jayden-P 26,275 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-10T08:46:55.1333333+00:00

Hi @MK

Thank you for your sharing and helpful information.

I'm sure that it will help other people who have the same situation.

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Sam Knight 0 Reputation points

2026-04-22T20:56:31.4466667+00:00

I struggled, too, until I tried the solution, which then revealed the easy answer. Right click on the .ics file in your e-mail, the "Add to Calendar" option works. Would have been simpler to double click as before, but at least this is far easier than copying the information to a calendar entry.
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Robert Lloyd-Charles 0 Reputation points

2026-08-10T14:31:01.2466667+00:00

THIS is the correct answer. I had to create a new email and add the ICS files as attachments and then click the drop down, as Sam demonstrated.