How to Access and View Someone’s Calendar in Outlook: Complete Guide

What is the Need to Access Someone’s Calendar in Outlook?

Microsoft Outlook offers the best scheduling tool to efficiently manage appointments, meetings, and events. This also lets users share their calendars with team members and link them with emails for better collaboration. Hence, this helps users stay more organized. Here are more reasons why someone might need to access shared Calendars:

• When working in a Team, team members can easily check each other’s availability and coordinate without hassle. 
• It gets easier for managers or assistants to schedule meetings and appointments without conflicts. 
• Also, event planning, resource booking, and more can be organized with more efficiency. 
• A shared calendar also lets managers track the leave and absence of team members and allocate work accordingly. 

Similarly, there are many such professional and individual reasons why users need to view someone’s calendar in Outlook.

Understanding Outlook Calendar Sharing Permissions

You may be wondering if shared calendars can violate users’ privacy and security. But this is not true. Although owners can share the calendar, they have control over who can view or edit it. This control is ensured by different access levels of Outlook Calendar sharing permissions. Hence, one cannot access or view the calendar without the owner’s permission.

To access someone’s calendar in Outlook, you must know the main permission levels granting limited access:

• Reviewer (View Only)- This allows users to only view the calendar event and cannot make any changes to it. Best for checking availability.
• Contributor (Add Items Only)- Users can add items like appointments and more to the calendar, but are not allowed to edit existing events. This is mainly for assistants.
• Editor (Full Editing Rights)- This permission grants full editing access to users, so they can add, edit, and delete events in the calendar. It is granted to managers or team leads.
• Owner (Full Control)- It grants full control as an owner of the calendar. They can do everything, view, edit, delete as well as modify permissions. Owner permission is granted basically to personal assistants or department heads.
• Free/Busy (Default for Most Users)- Users are only allowed to see if someone is free or busy without knowing event details. It is assigned to know general team availability.
  

There are such permission levels to maintain access to Calendar events within the team. Hence, assigning the right permission level helps maintain balanced access and functionality. Let us proceed to learn how to view someone’s calendar in Outlook.

How to Request to Access Someone’s Calendar in Outlook?

The first step to open someone’s calendar is to send a Calendar Access Request in Outlook. Here is how you can request access in Outlook for Desktop and Web.

On Outlook Desktop App

If the Calendar is private and you need access, follow the steps below to request access:

1. Open MS Outlook and go to Calendar View.
2. In the toolbar: click on Open Calendar > From Address Book.
3. Type and search for the person’s name whose calendar access you want.
4. Right-click on the name > select ‘Request Permission to View Calendar.’ (If Calendar is private)
5. You will see a permission request email. Click ‘Send’.
6. Finally, the calendar owner receives the request.

On Outlook Web (OWA)

1. Open Outlook Web App > Calendar.
2. Go to the left pane: click on Add Calendar > Add from Directory.
3. Search for the person’s email address > Select their calendar.
4. You will get a prompt to request permission.
5. At last, click on Request Access to send the request email.

Once the request is approved by the owner, you will get a confirmation mail and the shared calendar will be added to Calendar Pane.

Note: One can also skip these complications of permissions and access, by simply saving Outlook Calendar locally. Many users prefer to save Outlook Calendar to PDF, which is a universally compatible format. PDF will also serve as a backup in case of accidental deletion or corruption.

How to View Someone’s Calendar in Outlook?

As soon as the shared calendar appears in your Calendar pane, you can open and view others’ schedules. Explore the steps depending on which platform you use Outlook.

For Microsoft Outlook (Desktop App)

1. Run MS Outlook and open to the Calendar section.
2. Click on Open Calendar (in the toolbar).
3. Select the From Address Book option from the drop-down.
4. Search for the shared calendar by the person’s name in the directory.
5. When found, select the person and click on OK.

Now, you can view the shared calendar in the Outlook Calendar pane with the necessary permissions.

For Outlook Web App (OWA)

1. Firstly, login to Outlook Web.
2. In the left pane, click on the Calendar icon.
3. Click on Add Calendar and then, select From Directory.
4. Search shared calendar by the person’s email address.
5. Finally, to view, click Add when the calendar is found.

Further, you can view and access someone’s calendar in Outlook Web App. 

For Android and iOS (Mobile)

1. Launch the Outlook mobile app.
2. Tap on the Calendar icon (at the bottom).
3. Next, choose Add Shared Calendar.
4. Find the shared calendar by person’s name or email address.
5. At last, tap on Add to view the calendar.

How to Open Shared Calendar in Outlook?

If you have already added the shared Calendar to the list, here is how you can open it in a few simple steps:

1. Open Outlook and go to the Calendar tab.
2. Again, click on Open Calendar.
3. Choose From Address Book from the drop-down.
4. Now, find and select the shared calendar and click OK.

You can now perform actions as per the granted permission in someone’s calendar. 

Issues Faced While Trying to View Someone’s Calendar in Outlook

Even if the calendar is shared by the owner, you might face various errors like-

• Outlook Calendar Missing
• Outlook Calendar Not Showing Appointments
• Cannot Open Shared Calendar in Outlook
• Events Disappearing from Outlook Calendar

This causes inconvenience for users and creates unnecessary chaos. Therefore, users can try alternative ways to view someone’s calendar in Outlook without needing permission.

How to Get Full Access to Someone’s Outlook Calendar?

Aryson Software provides the most reliable PST Converter Tool to batch convert PST files to ICS. ICS (Internet Calendaring and Scheduling) is a standard file format to backup and share Calendar files. As per experts, one of the best ways to access and share Calendar is to save Outlook Calendar to ICS format. Although this can be done manually, for bulk conversion you must employ professional software. The software lets users choose the Calendar folder from the preview section and save them locally. Wondering how?

Mentioned below are the steps to save Outlook Calendars to ICS format:

1. Download and install Aryson PST Converter. 
2. Run the software and click on Next.
3. Click on the Select Files/Select Folder button.
4. Browse and select PST files. Click Open.
5. Once added to the wizard, click Next.
6. Preview all folders within selected files.
7. Choose the Calendar folder and click on Next.
8. From saving options, opt for ICS format. 
9. Specify the saving folder for ICS and click Convert. 

Now, you can open and access someone’s calendar in Outlook without waiting for permission. Run the free demo tool of the software to get familiar with its functionalities.

Conclusion

MS Outlook makes it easy for users to share and access Calendars. However, the shared calendar can only be viewed with appropriate permission. We have discussed step-by-step procedures on how to view someone’s calendar in Outlook. Another solution for this purpose is the PST Converter Tool, which lets users save Outlook Calendar locally and share with ease. The tool ensures easy access across different ICS-supported platforms like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions-

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