How To Merge Outlook Calendars

When it comes to calendar providers, Microsoft Outlook is one of the biggest providers to date, used by thousands of individuals, companies, and large enterprises. While managing a single Outlook Calendar is easy, things get complicated when juggling two or more Outlook calendars. The question that comes to mind in this situation is, how to merge multiple Outlook calendars?

Most of the articles on how to merge multiple Outlook Calendars are quite outdated, so in this article, we’ll provide the best ways to merge Outlook Calendars (that actually work 😉)

How to Merge Outlook Calendars by Sharing and Importing?

The first method of merging two Outlook Calendars is by exporting the first Outlook Calendar and importing it to the second Outlook Calendar. For the sake of this example, let’s call the Outlook Calendar we’ll export Calendar A, and the Outlook Calendar we’ll import, Calendar B.

To merge two Outlook Calendars, Calendar A, and Calendar B, let’s follow these steps:

1. Open Outlook (Calendar A).
2. Click Outlook.
3. Select Settings and then click View All Outlook Settings.
   
4. Click Calendar (next to the calendar icon), then click Shared Calendars.
5. In the “Publish Calendar” section, find the link to the calendar you’d like to merge.
   
6. Click Calendar, then click Can view all details.
   
7. Click Publish.
   
8. Copy the ICS link (towards the bottom, below the HTML link).
   
9. Open the Outlook Calendar that you want to import this calendar to. (Calendar B).
10. Click Add Calendar.
    
11. Click Subscribe from the web.
    
    Paste the URL you copied from Outlook Calendar (Calendar A).
    
12. Click Import.

This process sends meetings from Outlook Calendar A to Outlook Calendar B. In order for this to be a proper merge, you’ll have to repeat the same steps to send calendar events from Calendar B to Calendar A.

Cons of Merging Outlook Calendars by Sharing and Importing

1. No Outlook Merge Privacy: In order to merge an Outlook Calendar with another, you have to share it and import it on the other calendar. This means that you can’t choose to hide private meeting details from being merged into the other calendar. This is concerning, as workspace administrators might have access to your meeting events and their details from imported Outlook Calendars.
2. Slow Calendar Merges: The initial calendar merge takes a couple of minutes. If you create an event in an Outlook Calendar, you’ll have to wait up to 24 hours for the event to be reflected in the imported Outlook Calendar.
3. Members can’t see that you are busy. Using the example of merging Outlook Calendar A to Outlook Calendar B, team members of Calendar B won’t be able to see that you are busy at the time slots of Calendar A, even though you have merged both Outlook Calendar. This happens because when they use the Find a Time feature on Outlook, Outlook only checks for busy slots on the primary calendar, not on the imported calendar.
4. Time consuming to set up. Merging two Outlook Calendars takes 10+ minutes, as you’ll have to follow 13 steps for each merge, and troubleshoot any possible issues.

How to Merge Outlook Calendars automatically?

Given that the first method of merging two Outlook Calendars was hard to set up and not reliable, has given the opportunity to the market to develop solutions that make it easier to merge Outlook Calendars.

One of the best third-party tools that allows you to merge Outlook Calendars is OneCal.

OneCal is a Calendar Automation app that allows you to merge multiple Outlook Calendars, in less than one minute. The best part is that the merge setups are customizable, allowing you to choose what event properties to merge.

How to Automatically Merge Outlook Calendars using OneCal

1. Connect your Outlook Calendars

2. Choose which Outlook Calendars to merge

With OneCal, you can merge one Outlook Calendar with another, or multiple Outlook Calendars at the same time. If you want to merge 4 Outlook calendars, you can do it in less than one minute.

3. Configure how events are merged during the merge process

OneCal allows you to choose which meeting properties you want to merge. Say you want to merge a personal and a work Outlook Calendar. You can strip out all private details from your personal Outlook Calendar, so nobody on the Work Calendar will be able to see the private meeting information.

Your Outlook Calendars are merged! 🎉

What are the Pros of Merging Multiple Outlook Calendar using OneCal?

1. Merge Outlook Calendars with Privacy in mind. Using OneCal, you can merge two or more Outlook Calendars in less than one minute. You can let OneCal merge your calendars, and you focusing on what matters.
2. Merge Outlook Calendars with Privacy in mind. It’s very important to keep private information not exposed when merging Outlook Calendars, that’s what makes the Outlook Calendar merge process OneCal offers very crucial, as you are in control of what to merge.
3. Real-time Calendar Updates: When merging two or more Outlook Calendars through Sharing and Importing, you have to follow a dozen steps, and in the end, the merge is not real-time. Using OneCal, you have peace of mind that your Outlook Calendars will stay merged in real-time.

Use OneCal to Merge Outlook Calendars

OneCal is by far the easiest and most reliable way to merge Outlook Calendars. It takes one minute to set, up and gives you peace of mind that your Outlook Calendars will stay merged, while you focus on growing your business, or what’s important to you.

You can sign up for a 14-day free trial, no credit card required, to experience a time-saving tool that merges your Outlook Calendars, allows you to share booking links, view multiple calendars simultaneously, and much more.