how to update recurring meeting in Outlook without losing history?

Anonymous

I have recurring client appointments, which I edit if eg. there is a cancellation or a no-show. I need to keep this history.

If I want to reschedule Client X to a different time going forward, then my only option appears to be changing the end date of the recurring series and starting a new one. But that removes all changes made to earlier occurrences.

The only other "solution" seems to be downloading a csv, and uploading it again - what a palaver. Surely there must be an easier way to edit "all occurrences from this point onwards" as you can in the Google calendar?

I can see that this issue has been raised as far back as 2016 - what do we have to do to get it on the wishlist for the next upgrade to Outlook?

Come on Microsoft - Google can do this, so why can't you?

(Also curious why Outlook doesn't appear under the list of MS 365 & Office apps ??)

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Anonymous

2023-10-06T17:05:28+00:00

I did this to 3 meetings; it worked for 1 but not the other two. Weird.
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Anonymous

2023-10-09T20:45:56+00:00

Kia ora Lisa

It *seems* to work in the web version - see previous post from mimichwan.

Now we just have to wait for Microsoft to make it standard. Currently I'm having to view my email on my desktop and calendar on the web.

Or are you saying that it only worked for 1 out of 3 meetings for you on the web version? That would be exceptionally irritating.
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Anonymous

2023-10-26T14:16:36+00:00

It worked for me on the web which automatically updated my desktop Outlook app. I don't see why you would need to view your calendar on the web. You only need to go to the web to update the recurring meeting. It would be nice if the desktop app also had that option though I suspect it may have to do with corporate policies.
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Anonymous

2023-11-28T18:04:35+00:00

There used to be an option that allowed you to simply apply the change to future meetings. I'm not sure when it disappeared, but I remember using it 2 jobs back, so sometime around 2017 or maybe 2018. I thought it disappeared because I moved from Windows to Mac. I assumed it wasn't supported on Mac...you know they like to mess with Mac users. ;) But I asked my team, most of whom are on Windows machines, and they said they have the same problem.

I am surprised that fixing this isn't a higher priority. Retaining the history of meetings is really important and in some cases, legally necessary. What if someone needs to know when a specific decision was made, and the cadence of the recurring meeting was changed? They would have a hard time coming up with the correct answer if they relied on the current implementation.
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Anonymous

2023-11-28T23:00:23+00:00

Someone said they are able to retain the meeting history when they make the changes in the web version of Outlook rather than the desktop one.

This turns out to work well. You have the option of editing "this and subsequent occurrences" and no history is lost. The change then syncs into the desktop version and can be viewed there too. You just can't do the editing itself in the desktop.

My practice now is to use the web version for my calendar (it's one of my startup tabs) and the desktop version for email. This has resolved the issue for me. I recommend it as a workaround.

Now we just need Microsoft to bring the functionality of the web version into the desktop one as well.
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