Family Calendar Missing

Heres the message i got from msft support.  This was a deliberate change and broke functionality on iphone and even the Outlook client!  I understand they are trying to make this better, but took a big step back instead!  No advance notice either!!

their reply:

We received an update from our engineers, and they mentioned that they have made a change to the functionality and access of the Family Group Calendar in Outlook.com. 

The change added the ability for the calendar to send invites and be available as part of an Outlook group that also includes a family mailbox and a family email address you can use to send email to your family members as a distribution list. The calendar is fully supported in Outlook.com and the Outlook mobile app.

Unfortunately, the change also removed some functionality that allowed the calendar to be viewed as a shared calendar in other applications like the Windows 10 Mail app and the Outlook desktop app, as well as some third party apps. None of the events or information was lost in the move to the new calendar. The Family group calendar now appears in the Outlook.com groups’ area on the left navigation in Outlook.com and in the groups area of the Outlook mobile app. It is also added to your favorites automatically.

To view the new calendar, go to Outlook.comon the web and you will find it in the left navigation of the calendar area as “Your family” in the groups section. On the other hand, you can download the Outlook mobile app for iOS or Android, where it is located with mailboxes and folders in the groups sections of your Microsoft account. 

Note: As part of the move to the new calendar, your calendar may have been deselected. Please check your calendar left navigation and select it if it was turned off to make sure you could see your events.

We are also actively investigating the best way to expose the calendar to a wider range of Outlook applications and other apps. For more details regarding the change, and to see how to use the calendar, please see this Support Article:

Use shared family calendars in Outlook.com: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-shared-family-calendars-in-outlook-com-7d21512a-eac5-4597-816b-6bf5ff8554ed

We are all in for big improvements that will be helpful to all or for the majority of our customers. If you’d like to see a feature in Outlook.com, we recommend that you post a feedback to our Product Group at this link: https://outlook.uservoice.com/.

That's quite disappointing to hear. First, I couldn't use our family calendar in Outlook (desktop client). Now I can't use it in either the desktop client or Mail/Calendar for Win 10. Also, the events are no longer added to the calendar in the system tray. This is a huge step backwards. I might as well use a third-party web service because there is now zero integration of the family calendar into Win10 or desktop clients.

I have now raised this as an issue on User Voice. It would be helpful if everyone with the problem upvoted the suggestion.

It should be live later today on: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/910579-outlook-com-on-the-mobile-web/suggestions/41346613-re-instate-access-to-family-calendar-in-all-client

Hi.

My family and I have created a Microsoft family group. When clicking the 'plan family events' link in the family home page we are all taken to our personal calendars but there is no 'Family Calendar' under the 'Other Calendars' list. Can someone please suggest a cause of this issue and/or a remedy?

The family calendar has never been visible for any of us and we created the family group approx. 48 hours ago.

Thanks.

Ross

Same issue for our family starting today. Using that calendar for 2 years. Just disappeared

So after chasing the Microsoft "Support" for almost a month here's the reply I got:

"Thank you for reaching us - Technical support for Microsoft 365.

We would like to inform you that the family group calendar only appears in Outlook.com and Outlook mobile. That is the reason why the family calendar is not shown on your downloaded Outlook app on desktop. 

Here is the article for more reference (question "Can I see the family group calendar in other applications?"): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-shared-family-calendars-in-outlook-com-7d21512a-eac5-4597-816b-6bf5ff8554ed#:~:text=%20Schedule%20an%20event%20on%20the%20family%20group,of%20the%20event%20and%20select%20Save.%20More%20

If you have any question please contact us back any time. 

Thank you and have a good and safe day!"

Looks like I'm shifting to Google, this is ridiculous! They don't even know it was appearing in the desktop apps up to a couple of months back.