Appointment showing as tentative even after accepting it multiple times

Question

I am experiencing this weird issue with Outlook 2013: I have several appointments in my calendar, but no matter how many times I accept one of them (this happens to two appointments actually, the others seem to work just fine) it just goes back to Tentative after a few seconds.

It shows correctly on iOS however, which leads me to think that the issue might indeed be on the Outlook side. Any thoughts?

Some more information

I am using Outlook 2013 on Windows 8 and the default calendar app on iOS. Every action I do is performed in Outlook, I use the phone only to view information and not to act on appointments.

Behavior in Outlook: the appointment initially shows as tentative in my calendar before accepting it (correct behavior), then I accept it, it shows as accepted for a while before turning back to tentative (after a few seconds).

On iOS: the appointment is correctly shown as accepted.

Solution 1

This is not exactly a solution, just what I have found out about the problem.

As far as I can tell, this bug exists in Outlook since a long time. For example, I have found a reference to it from 2009 in the thread Exchange Calendar Invites Reverting to Tentative After Accepting:

We are using Exchange 2003 with the latest serivce packs, clients have Vista sp2 with Outlook 2007 sp1. The affected users do not have delegates. As long as the iPhone is not syncing the calendar, the meetings show as busy. When iPhone calendar is on, meetings revert to tentative within a few minutes. None of the solutions presented in any of these forums have worked.

I have not been able to find anybody who claimed to have solved this problem, except by disabling the option of introducing invites into the calendar as tentative.

However, the above text seems to hint that it is the iPhone resync that actually deranges the Exchange server.

One explanation is that the bad appointments were loused-up in the Exchange database by the iPhone resync, so that the iPhone shows the status as it understands, while Outlook shows the status as it understands. Thereafter, both iPhone and Outlook just continue to mishandle the appointment.

You could test this theory by trying to see if new appointments can go bad while the iPhone is turned off.

Solution 2

I was/am having the same issue. It only affected some appointments and there did not seem to be any exclusive pattern to the ones affected. I say 'exclusive' because although all affected meetings were recurring, not all recurring meetings were affected. However, I found that if I opened the series and accepted the meeting, it continued to show them as tentative. However, if I opened "just this one" and accepted, it oddly accepted the entire series.

Comments

[Kinnectus]

Does "Update Folders" change it back to normal and then it reverts back to tentative? Do you use Cached Exchange Mode? Is Outlook running "Online"?

[harrymc]

Are you using Exchange with delegates?

[user1301428]

@BigChris As far as I can tell, updating folders leaves the appointment in the current state, so no change in that. Yes, I use Cached Exchange Mode and Outlook is running online.

[user1301428]

@harrymc No I am not.

[harrymc]

Could you please explain some more about the situation. Are you using Mac & iPhone and where do you accept and what do you see before and after.

[user1301428]

@harrymc sure, question updated :)

[Daniel R Hicks]

It's Outlook. If it didn't behave strangely that would be strange.

[Kinnectus]

I've read up (and it's logical) that this happens when your iOS device synchronises. To rule this out try sending an appointment to yourself but make sure your iOS device is off -> Accept the appointment in Outlook (as normal) -> Wait a few minutes to see if the appointment reverts back to "Tentative" -> turn your iOS device back on and see if (after those few minutes of it not synchronising) the appointment gets reverted back. This may then narrow the problem to an iOS problem...

[user1301428]

@BigChris Tried this, and the appointment still shows as accepted even after syncing the calendar on iOS...

[user1301428]

Thanks for the answer. I have tried your test and the appointment still shows as accepted even after syncing the calendar on iOS. The weird thing is that this happens with just a few appointments, the others behave as expected. If this was an ActiveSync problem I would expect to see this happen to every appointment in the calendar.

[harrymc]

In the cases I have found, it was said that iOS uses incorrectly the Exchange protocol. Try to find some similarities between the bad appointments - this might be triggered by a very small detail. Or more likely, the iPhone did its resync exactly at the moment of acceptation on the PC, as I suppose that a later resync should not have any effect. Question: Does accepting them a second time work?

[harrymc]

And does restarting Outlook has any effect?

[user1301428]

No, no effects at all...

[harrymc]

Question: Does accepting them a second time work?

[user1301428]

Not even accepting them 10+ times :P

[harrymc]

One explanation is that the bad appointments were loused-up in the Exchange database by the iPhone resync, so that the iPhone shows the status as it understands, while Outlook shows the status as it understands. Thereafter, both iPhone and Outlook just continue to mishandle the appointment. You could test this theory by trying to see if new appointments can go bad while the iPhone is turned off.

[user1301428]

New appointments don't go bad even when the iPhone is turned on. So far I have seen this behavior with only two appointments. Well, I guess it's something that can just happen now and then.

[user1301428]

Please consider adding your last comment to your answer, it might help people stop bothering and just accept this behavior :D

[harrymc]

Done as requested. It must be a relatively rare occurrence that caused the problem. It might be the iPhone, but Exchange is also perfectly capable of having its own problems.