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Outlook is Microsoft’s email and calendar service. With the integration, you connect a resource in anny with a calendar of your personal Outlook account and keep both sides in sync automatically (two-way synchronization). You find an overview of all calendar integrations in the article on calendar integrations. With Outlook you can in anny:
  • Automatically create your resource’s bookings as appointments in your Outlook calendar
  • Import appointments from your Outlook calendar into anny as blockers or bookings, so busy times cannot be double-booked
  • Optionally have a Teams meeting created for each synced appointment
The integration is especially useful when a resource is coupled to your personal calendar, for example for consultants, trainers or a personally managed room.

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Typical use cases

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How the Outlook connection works

The connection is established through your Microsoft account: you sign in with Microsoft once and grant anny access. anny only requests read and write access to your calendars and your basic profile, no access to emails, contacts or files. After the synchronization starts, anny first imports all future appointments and bookings. After that, changes are synced in real time: Microsoft actively notifies anny of changes in the calendar, and anny transfers booking changes to the calendar immediately. Synchronization runs from today up to around 13 months into the future; the period is automatically extended every month. Past appointments and bookings are not imported. If your authorization expires, for example because you changed your password or revoked access, the integration deactivates itself. Admins are notified by email, and Reauthorize appears in the integration row.

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Connecting Outlook

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Requirements

Before you connect Outlook, make sure you have the following:
  • A Microsoft account with an Outlook calendar (a personal account; for shared resource and room calendars of your organization, there is the Microsoft 365 Workspace integration)
  • Editing rights for the resource in your anny account
  • Optional: your own sub-calendar in Outlook, if you want to keep the anny appointments separate

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Setting up the connection

1

Open Connect Outlook

Open your resource settings, switch to the Integrations tab and, in the Personal calendar integrations section, click Connect Outlook.
2

Authorize your integration

Click Authorize and sign in with your Microsoft account. After a successful sign-in, the confirmation “Successfully authenticated” appears.
3

Choose a calendar

In the Calendar field, choose the calendar to sync with the resource. All calendar activity runs in this calendar. You can also create your own sub-calendar in Outlook and select it here.
4

Adjust the settings

Define how appointments and bookings are imported (see Settings & options), then click Start sync.
Once synchronization has started, anny imports all future appointments and bookings. After that, all changes are synced in real time.
Connect each resource with its own (sub-)calendar. If you connect the same calendar with several resources, duplicate entries can occur; the Error diagnosis points out such overlaps.

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Settings & options

When you switch from Create appointments as blockers to bookings, anny offers the option Convert existing blockers to bookings: all future blockers previously created from appointments are then converted to bookings with the default service when you save and activate.
Via the three-dot menu of the integration you reach the Error diagnosis. It checks, among other things, the calendar’s reachability, automatic replies, overlaps with other calendar connections and the real-time connection.

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Limitations

The Outlook integration does not support:
  • Past appointments: synchronization runs only from today, up to around 13 months into the future.
  • Multiple resources per connection: each integration connects exactly one resource with exactly one calendar. For further resources, you set up a separate connection each time. However, an integration on a parent resource also syncs the bookings of its child resources.
  • Shared resource and room mailboxes: the Microsoft 365 Workspace integration exists for that.
  • Appointments with the status “free”: these are not imported by default (changeable via Sync all events).
  • Double connection of the same calendar: a second Outlook connection of the same resource with the same account and calendar cannot be activated.

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Disconnecting

When you deactivate the integration, synchronization stops immediately; already synced appointments and blockers remain. When deleting, anny asks whether All synchronizations (including past ones) or Only future synchronizations should be removed: blockers and bookings created from appointments are deleted, and appointments created from bookings are removed from your Outlook calendar. Appointments originally created in Outlook and bookings originally created in anny remain.
You can do both under Integrations: deactivate via the toggle in the top right, delete via the three dots → Delete.

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FAQ

Appointments marked as private or confidential are always imported anonymized and appear in anny as “Not available”. In addition, via Title of bookings in anny you can anonymize all imported appointments.
As blockers by default: the time is then not bookable in anny. If you disable Create appointments as blockers and choose a Default service for bookings, real bookings are created instead, including the customer (appointment organizer) and participants.
In real time. Microsoft actively notifies anny of calendar changes, and anny transfers booking changes immediately. After the first connection, importing all future appointments can take a few minutes.
Yes. Series appointments from Outlook are imported as individual blockers or bookings. Changes to individual appointments of a series or deletion from a certain date onward are also carried over.
If the appointment came from an anny booking, the booking is canceled and the customer notified. If the appointment created a blocker, the blocker is removed.

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Troubleshooting

Your authorization has expired, e.g. after a password change or because access was revoked. Click Reauthorize, sign in with your Microsoft account and then reactivate the integration via the toggle.
Most common cause: the appointment is set to “free” or “working elsewhere” in Outlook and is therefore skipped. Activate Sync all events if these appointments should also be imported. Also check whether the appointment is in the connected calendar, starts in the future and whether the integration is active. The Error diagnosis in the three-dot menu shows further possible causes.
The same calendar or the same resource is probably connected more than once, e.g. via a second Outlook connection, a Microsoft 365 rule or an ICS import. Run the Error diagnosis; it shows such overlaps. Then remove the extra connection.
anny could not establish the real-time connection to Microsoft or the authorization failed; the affected admins were notified by email. For temporary disruptions, anny retries automatically several times. Check the authorization and reactivate the integration via the toggle.