Cannot import .ics file into Outlook (new) app

WORKING WORKAROUND for New OUTLOOK on Windows 11 (Home64) Desktop.

1. Download the ICS file. (download folder)
2. Create a NEW email going to yourself or anyone. (same or different account does not matter. just need the draft created)
3. Attach the step 1 downloaded ICS file to your NEW email. DO NOT SEND!!

4 CLICK ON THE ATTACHMENT in the NEW EMAIL for the drop-down menu.

5. Select ADD TO CALANDER from that drop-down menu! - You will not get the dialog to select a calendar. it will show a progress bar in the email/drafts attachment "box". and IT WILL WORK and add it to the DEFAULT calendar.

6 VERIFY the event was added to the Calander.

7. DELETE DRAFT EMAIL.. again you do not have to send it! THe import procedure just works from here though.

THIS IS PATHETIC the SO BASIC - ASSOCIATION FUNCTIONALITY FOR RIGHT CLICKING AN ICS FILE FOR IMPORTING T OCALANDER FROM EXPOROER OR ANYWHERE - OUTLOOKS FAILS! AND STILL AFTER MANY YEARS of UPDATES/FIXES NOW.

IDK if this is part of the issue. BUT MY PRIMARY CALANDER IS NOT MY MICROSOFT ACCOUNT. IT IS MY GOOGLE/GMAIL ACCOUNT AND CALENDER. I don't know how to make that different to try the reverse.

When I try the right-click Open/Open With.. i got the OUTLOOK eVENT DIALOG box ( (after Looking for the BURIED NEW OUTLOOK DIALOG windows NOT brought to TOP.) BUT I THEN CAN NOT SELECT A CALENDAR TO IMPORT TO>. THE DROPDOWN IS NOT POPULATED OR ENABLED for the process to be completed. The workaround above BYPASSES this all together. and is done the NEW EMAIL COMPOSE DIALOG SCREEN DIRECTLY ITSELF.

But you do have to go through the step of creating an email nd attaching the ICS.. vs IMPORT EVENT/FILE dialog.

Hi,

I am having several problems with my outlook (new) app.

1. I cannot import .ics files into the app as no calendar is available in the "Upload from file" window. I have verified that Outlook (new) is the default for .ics files.
2. I cannot sync my Outlook app calendar on my laptop with my Calendar app on my Iphone 10. I get an error message when I try to sync it via Icloud.

PS: I am using a gmail account for my outlook.

Any suggestions?

Best, Finn

Yes, return to old outlook. That's what I did. The new outlook is missing functionalities, broken features that are simply unacceptable. This looks like a rushed product when there was no need. In the long run, I do think Microsoft is pushing for all Office apps to be web based, this "new outlook" and "new teams" are just the beginning.

Thank you!!! Yours is the first I have seen to address the specific problem I've been having, and I really appreciate it, though sadly your tips aren't working for me either.

I used TextEdit to delete a huge number of old calendar events and tried again. Unfortunately, though it seemed to successfully import using the browser version of Outlook in Chrome, I do not see any new calendar nor do my events seem to be populating in my existing default, "Calendar." (I was forced to choose "Calendar" as the destination, I was not given any other options in the drop-down)

I tried using the desktop version of New Outlook as well, and simply got the error message "Sorry we couldn’t import some of your file(s). Please try again later." This time, however, New Outlook did not report how many events the .ics file contains, but simply says "preview not available," which is curious.

For good measure, I also tried emailing the downsized .ics file to myself, and that did not work either. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Honestly, I am probably giving up on viewing my calendar via Outlook. I can import and view all my calendars just fine in using my 3rd-party task management software, Sunsama, so I am just using that exclusively.

I found a solution for this:

Save the iCal Attachment (.ics File)

• When you receive an email with an iCal attachment, save the attachment to a location on your computer where you can easily find it (e.g., Downloads folder or Desktop).

Open Outlook Calendar

• Open New Outlook on your desktop.
• Click on the calendar icon located at the bottom left corner to switch to the calendar view.

Import the iCal (.ics) File

• • In the Outlook Calendar view, click on the “Add Calendar” option in the left-hand pane.
    • From the dropdown menu, select “Upload from file.”
    • Click on “Browse,” locate your saved .ics file, and select it.
    • Choose the calendar where you want the events to be imported. If you have multiple calendars, select the appropriate one.
    • Click “Import” to add the events to your calendar
    • Go to your calendar and confirm you can see the meeting that was imported

Neither the TheThirdSpy's online nor Fabio's within-Outlook solutions worked for me. I also tried emailing the .ics file to myself. In all cases, I get an error trying to import my GCal .ics file. The error message says "Couldn't import calendar. Try again later."

Anyone else having the same issue I am, and any workarounds for it? Could it be that my .ics file is simply too big? It contains over 14k events, according to the MS message when I try to import it.

In my experience, Outlook does not handle well .ics files with too many events in them.
I had an .ics file with about 11k events in it. I always got the "Couldn't import calendar. Try again later." error.

I edited the file (any text editor works as it's just a text file) and reduce it to about 1.8k events.
Just delete any number of rows as long as you start with: BEGIN:VEVENT and end with: END:VEVENT.

To my surprise, the smaller file was imported (into a new, empty calendar), although it took quite a lot of time with no progress indicator.

It also seems to be a two step process... First it seems to parse the file and load it somewhere. Then, you have to "Save" it, and then it will take again some time... until you see the events in your calendar.

I hope this helps!

PS My guess is that the same applies for "Add calendar \ Subscribe from web" option. Which fails for me with the url from where I downloaded the 11k ics file. It's probably too big to handle and the error messages are not helping at all.

New Outlook is so frustrating. I am on this thread for the same issue. I did the workaround of emailing the ics to myself and that did work but I should not have to do this. Simple things like importing/exporting or the File menu are gone. I'm not sure which genius product owner decided that by making New Outlook worse, it will be a much better user experience.