This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I work in an industry where my clients may require urgent assistance outside of normal business hours. My business engages a third party to handle after-hours emergencies on behalf of the team, but we often receive complaints that clients cannot easily access the after-hours emergency contact number, despite it being available on our website and our after-hours voicemail. In most cases, clients will call the team and disregard the voicemail, then follow up with an email complaining that we're unavailable.
It would be beneficial to have the option to set up an automatic reply where the after-hours contact information is sent to clients when our staff are emailed between 5pm and 8:30am, 5 days per week.
I have tried using the rules feature and fiddled around with the automatic reply feature, but neither would allow me to set up a recurring automatic reply without setting a start and finish date/time. I also checked whether it's possible to synchronize an automatic reply with my calendar block-outs, but this wasn't possible either.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Using New Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
It is now May 2025, still no progress on this? I work part time and want a recurring message to go up Friday at 5pm and cease on the following Thursday at 8am. Ongoing. Rohena
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I need a daily automatic reply for after hours that I do not need to reset daily by changing weekdays.
We're in 2025 and we seriously still can't set a re-occuring automatic reply for the same time each day? Terrible.
Please consider adding a reoccurring feature. It would be a huge help.
I haven't worked part-time before but will have a special schedule for the upcoming weeks and just realised it's not possible to set a schedule for out of office replies the way I assumed it would be. This is unbelievable tbh! I can make a calendar event repeat with incredibly specific detail, but I can't schedule an out of office reply for two non-consecutive days?? Microsoft - what are you doing?!