How to Stop Exchange Server from Recreating Meetings?

Not knowing how to stop the Exchange server from recreating meetings can be quite frustrating. No one wants their calendar to be full of cutters. However, that’s exactly what happens if your Exchange server re-creates a meeting that is no longer part of your calendar.

Users have to continuously decline and dismiss old meeting requests manually and can’t seem to find a setting that fixes this issue permanently.

This is quite a common occurrence whenever admins or users create a Shared Calendar in an Exchange Server environment.

Don’t worry as here in this blog we have come out with a bunch of different ways which can be done at the user level and also include admin-grade interventions as well.

What Users Should Do to Stop Exchange Server from Recreating Meetings?

Check your Outlook Calendar for any lingering meeting invites. This is a common occurrence when an employee changes roles inside an organization.

The Calendar app maintains all the residual meetings as per the previous role. You can find its traces in the mail folders (which include but are not limited to Inbox, Sent Items, and even Deleted Items)

Move all the wrong upcoming meeting requests to the trash/junk/deleted folder and empty the said folder manually.

If you wait for the 30-day auto-delete action then there is a high chance that you might face this issue again. Therefore, it’s best to remove all invalid meetings as soon as you see them.

Put an End to Recurring Meetings that are Corrupt

Identify faulty meetings and delete them before they become an issue if possible clear out your entire calendar. You can do this with the help of Outlook’s CleanFreeBusy switch to reset the calendar’s free/busy data:

outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy

While doing this also ensure that there are no miscommunications between your devices that have access to this calendar otherwise it may recreate the sync.

See if you have Delegated Your Calendar to Someone Else

It is possible that another person unknowingly adds their own meetings in your calendar, Stop all calendar sharings and revoke the permissions you granted previously.

Update your App and/or Device Software and Stop Exchange Server from Recreating Meetings

Delaying a critical app update for too long may also be a reason why your Exchange server re-created a meeting that was missing from your calendar.

Like during the iOS 7.x 8.x fiasco where time zone mismatches led to meeting events alerts being pushed before or after their scheduled time. So beware when the next time you move calendars or transfer contacts from Exchange to Gmail on an iPhone device.

Clear the calendar cache in Outlook by deleting the .ost file in %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook.

Disconnect all third-party Calendar apps.

Exchange Server Re-created a Meeting that was Missing from your Calendar Ask Admin to Do the Following

Here is a list of admin-level fixes used to stop this Exchange Server malfunction

Disable the Calendar Repair Assistant (CRA)

Open a New PowerShell instance and Type:

Set-Mailbox username -CalendarRepairDisabled $true

Admins can also prevent the Exchange Server from auto-processing meeting updates:

Set-CalendarProcessing username -AutomateProcessing None

Other than that make sure that all machines are on the latest cumulative updates (CUs) and users have access to the service packs to ensure server stability.

If there are Calendar folder-level issues run the following cmdlet to detect and fix them:

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox username -CorruptionType Calendar

Admins can also make use of the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) to ensure no policy forces calendar items to be retained.

Use the Exchange Admin Center to review and modify delegate access settings that could be causing unintended calendar modifications.

If you operate a hybrid environment, it might be a good idea to review sync logs. After that also, run the Hybrid Configuration Wizard to ensure proper calendar synchronization between on-premise and cloud.

Exchange Server Event Logs may contain critical information on calendar-related errors so check it as well.

You can also use free Microsoft SaRA to fix the errors at the admin level.

Best Practices to Prevent Exchange Server from Recreating Meetings?

When you forcefully stop new meeting creation in your Exchange Server it comes under a major change in its regular operations. So that is why recommended that you back up all the critical data for safekeeping.

Manually doing all the backup yourself is not a good idea as it can waste a lot of time and may lead to errors so instead use a purpose-built SysTools Exchange Export tool to pull out all the essential data.

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As the tool allows for an individual workload selection you can keep calendar items out of selections during the download and save the rest of the data.

Here are the steps to use this tool in brief.

• Launch the Tool on your workstation.
• Select Exchange and the File format you want the data in.
• Scroll to the Workload section select and apply the date filter if need be.
• Use the Source screen to validate the Exchange Server Credentials.
• Validate the destination path where you will keep the Exchange Server Data.
• Use the Mapping Screen to get the users via Fetch, Import, or Download.
• Select the users, prioritize any, validate, and start.

Keet a backup at the admin level (with this tool) and also instruct the users to do so at their level.

Other than a Backup as a user you must be aware of the standards and procedures of working with Outlook calendars. So that no user-generated issues creep in.

Conclusion

Now you know exactly how to stop Exchange Server from recreating meetings that no longer belong to your schedule. The procedures you get here show the steps to take at both the user and the admin level. If you apply the tips given here correctly you can easily put an end to the errors. Whenever the Exchange server re-creates a meeting that was missing from your calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do to ensure that the Exchange Server does not cause sync issues any time in the future?

• Keep a backup of your calendar so you can delete and restore from a recent error-free instance.
• Ensure that every device on which you use an Exchange calendar is synced with each other.
• Only delegate calendar control permissions when absolutely necessary and revoke them as soon as possible.

Why do I see the links of meetings that I didn’t make on my calendar?

• Someone else added your name to the meeting list instead of another person.
• You might have scheduled a meeting in the past that you forgot about.
• Someone else has access to your calendar and is managing the meeting creation.
• The Exchange server is not yet updated or is undergoing an issue.
• These, among many more niche, scenario-specific instances, may cause new meetings to appear in your calendar.