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-created a meeting that was missing from 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.
Quite a common occurrence whenever admins or users create a Shared Calendar in 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 still 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)
Shift 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 then you might face this issue again so it’s best to remove all invalid meetings manually.
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
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 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.
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 strategies mentioned here gave readers the exact steps to take at the user and 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.