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Outlook Calendar Auto-out of office email trigger

Roger West 20 Reputation points
2025-12-04T19:27:28.9933333+00:00

We can set rules for emails, so that certain actions happen when emails arrive. We can (manually) set out of office messages, and turn them on from the desktop client (I'm aware that exchange handles the recieving and sending of messages while the out of office message is turned on).

We can set calendar events on our calendar, and set the status as out-of-office.

Why is it, that we still cannot have an automation or rules set for calendar, so that when we create an event on our calendar that has the status set for Out of office, that we cannot have an automation that also asks, and then when the user chooses turns on the out-of-office automatic replies for the same time period?

Current (New) Outlook has a toggle button to turn on and off the setting, and a tick box to only send replies during a certain time period - all that would be required would be an automated macro or a setting in the event control that asks if you also want to turn on automatic replies during this event.

Users would likely only be able to do this for one event at a time with current programming (single datetime slot only - option to link greyed out otherwise). Surely this would not be a particularly hard bit of code to add in to the desktop itterations in 365 since they update so frequently?

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For business
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  1. Chris Duong 5,245 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-12-04T20:55:01.0966667+00:00

    Hi @Roger West,  

    Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Thank you for sharing your experience and taking the time to provide such detailed feedback. I truly appreciate your comments on how Outlook could improve the integration between calendar events marked as Out of Office and automatic replies. 

    Currently, the behavior you mentioned exists because calendar status (showAs = Out of Office) and automatic replies (OOF) are managed by two different components within Microsoft 365: 

    • Calendar status is primarily a client-side setting that controls how your availability appears to others. 
    • Automatic replies are a mailbox-level setting handled by Exchange on the server side and require manual activation by the user. 

    This separation ensures flexibility and compliance with organizational policies, but it also means there is no built-in mechanism to automatically link these two features. Additionally, factors such as multiple accounts, recurring events, overlapping schedules, and permission constraints make automatic activation more complex. 

      

    Given this situation, here are my recommendations that you may find helpful:      

    1/ Use Power Automate

    In the meantime, you might consider using Power Automate to create an automated flow. 
    Power Automate allows you to set up a flow with the trigger “When an event is created or updated” in Outlook. When the event has the status showAs = Out of Office, the flow can call Microsoft Graph API to update your mailbox’s automaticRepliesSetting, including: 

    • Enabling automatic replies (status = scheduled) 
    • Setting start and end times based on the event 
    • Customizing internal and external reply messages 

    In case you require more in-depth guidance or support for these steps, I’d recommend posting your query in the Microsoft Power Automate Community. This is a dedicated channel for Power Automate discussions. The reason I suggest posting a new topic there is that in the general Q&A Forum, resources and expertise on Power Automate are limited. In the Microsoft Power Platform Community Forum, you’ll find the most qualified group of respondents, and other partners who regularly read the forums can share their knowledge or learn from your interaction. 

    2/ Submit Feedback to Microsoft 

    As a forum moderator, I hope you understand that I don’t have the ability to modify or escalate product issues directly. However, I strongly recommend submitting your feedback through the Outlook · Community portal. This is the most effective way to ensure your voice reaches the product team and can be considered for future improvements.  

    User's image

    Once you've submitted your feedback, feel free to share the link here in the comments. I’ll be happy to upvote it to help bring more visibility.  

    Additionally, since many other users have expressed similar concerns but may not know where to submit feedback, if my response has helped you better understand the situation and guided you toward a possible next step, please mark it as the “Accepted Answer.” Your action will help pin this post to the top, making it easier for others in the community who are experiencing the same issue to find your feedback and support it.  

    Thank you again for your time and for raising this important usability concern. 

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have any extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".   

    Note: Follow the steps in our documentation to enable email notifications if you want to receive email notifications related to this topic.    

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