Confused about calendars

[timeshifter]

I'm confused about calendars and I need to get a handle on what's going on. Reason being is one particular client, a fairly high status individual who gets invited to lots of different meetings from organizations outside of his own, which consists of just a couple of people, one being a full time personal assistant. His calendar is really packed.

Frequently he'll receive an invitation to some kind of meeting. Organizers are looking for confirmation of attendance. Some calendar / email platforms make this easy, others do not.

I presume that if your audience is "captive" (i.e. an internal office meeting and everyone uses 365) then it's pretty straightforward. But what happens when a meeting organizer uses 365 (or Google Workspace or other) and invites a mix of internal and external users?

Here's what I've determined in my testing:
365 organizer to Google Workspace email user (works)
Google Workspace organizer to 365 email user (works)

So I guess those two combos have the interoperability baked in. But what about other platform users (i.e. @mac.com aka @icloud.com)?

That's my dilemma. This client uses an @mac.com email address. It's his only one and he's really attached to it. Everyone knows him by that address, etc.

I haven't found a way for him to accept invitations from 365 or Google Workspace.

Here's where it gets even messier. He has a Google Account that uses his long-held @mac.com address. But you guessed it... he can't log in. And we can't reset the password, apparently because it's so old he never had to put in a phone number or alternate address. I can try accepting invitations from Google with it but it wants us to sign in. Also, I can't trick it by logging in to a different Google account, it has to be that address.

Invitations from 365 seem to offer no way to let an @mac.com user accept invitation.

Any insights? Thanks!

 

[nlinecomputers]

Business email for business features. He can either get unattached to his email or live with the problems. If this were fixable for free email there would be no need for business-grade email.

 

[callthatgirl]

I get these frankenstein requests often, I tell them that they can only accept invites on their phone and they have to add the iCloud to their Outlook to sync. Then use overlay mode for calendars so he can see it all. The iphone already does this by default. They could accept them in Outlook if iCloud sync is working, but again, the calendars will never sync unless they use Code2 which could be a nightmare.

 

[britechguy]

In support of both @nlinecomputers and @callthatgirl, this is a case where the client needs to be educated that it's up to them to use a tool (or tools) suited to the task at hand, not try to bend other "favorite tools" that don't work well by hook and by crook. And it doesn't matter how "important" the client believes they are, or how attached they are to doing things a given way.

They're free to reject best practice advice, but they also have to live with the consequences of doing so. In the end, the choice is theirs, but so are the outcomes of that choice.

By the way, I've had to recover Google accounts that were long dormant on multiple occasions. I've started here: https://accounts.google.com/signin/...wName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=AccountRecovery

 

[timeshifter]

@callthatgirl I’m confused by what you’re saying about the iPhone. I’m testing that and it doesn’t appear to work. I can add the appointment to my calendar easily, but it doesn’t appear to notify the organizer that I’ve accepted their invitation?

 

[nlinecomputers]

@callthatgirl I’m confused by what you’re saying about the iPhone. I’m testing that and it doesn’t appear to work. I can add the appointment to my calendar easily, but it doesn’t appear to notify the organizer that I’ve accepted their invitation?

As far as I can tell Apple's native apps do not support that. The Outlook app does but I doubt it would work on an iCloud/iMac/Apple account as they are just IMAP which doesn't support that. I think you have to use the Gmail app to get that support on a phone. Setting up as IMAP doesn't provide that support as they don't support the protocols needed.

 

[callthatgirl]

Ah, gotcha. iCloud might not send accepts, just business apps most likely. I can test with you if you want.

 

[timeshifter]

Ah, gotcha. iCloud might not send accepts, just business apps most likely. I can test with you if you want.

If you get an opportunity to try that, that would be great!

 

[callthatgirl]

message'd ya

 

[timeshifter]

The Outlook app does but I doubt it would work on an iCloud/iMac/Apple account as they are just IMAP which doesn't support that.

You might be surprised

I think your suggestion is the solution. I've run a couple of quick tests. I set up my @icloud.com email account on Outlook for iOS. It was actually pretty easy, just had to create an app password. I'm able to respond on the Outlook for iOS app and the meeting organizer will mark me as RSVP'd. Worked for both 365 and Google Workspace organizers. Also got it to work from a plain @gmail.com address as a meeting organizer.

A few caveats. It deletes the message when you RSVP (but it can be restored from the trash). It puts it on the calendar in the Outlook iOS app, not his iCloud calendar (not that I would expect it to).

 

[nlinecomputers]

You might be surprised

I think your suggestion is the solution. I've run a couple of quick tests. I set up my @icloud.com email account on Outlook for iOS. It was actually pretty easy, just had to create an app password. I'm able to respond on the Outlook for iOS app and the meeting organizer will mark me as RSVP'd. Worked for both 365 and Google Workspace organizers. Also got it to work from a plain @gmail.com address as a meeting organizer.

A few caveats. It deletes the message when you RSVP (but it can be restored from the trash). It puts it on the calendar in the Outlook iOS app, not his iCloud calendar (not that I would expect it to).

If it is not going on the proper calendar that makes it kinda of worthless does it not?

 

[britechguy]

If it is not going on the proper calendar that makes it kinda of worthless does it not?

Not exactly. I've had to use utilities to sync Google Calendar and Contacts to Outlook. There's almost certainly got to be the equivalent to sync between Outlook and iCloud. This isn't an esoteric need, really.

 

[timeshifter]

If it is not going on the proper calendar that makes it kinda of worthless does it not?

Actually, it's quite valuable. The problem we're trying to solve is how to notify meeting organizers that you'll be attending. Adding his account to Outlook for iOS is (so far) the only way to do that.

I get that there's no convenience factor of having the event added to your normal calendar. In this case it's not an issue as he has a full time administrative assistant to keep an eye on that.