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I would like to be able to create an ICS file with multiple events that user will be able to import in their default Exchange Calendar. I need to support Outlook desktop client, Office 365 web interface and Apple iPhone Mail/Calendar.

Note that issue only occurs with ICS files that contain multiple events. Single event ICS works as expected.

Following multi-event ICS file:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//bobbin v0.1//NONSGML iCal Writer//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20180327T080000Z
DTEND:20180327T110000Z
DTSTAMP:20091130T213238Z
UID:1285935469767a7c7c1a9b3f0df8003a@yourserver.com
CREATED:20091130T213238Z
DESCRIPTION:Example event 1
LAST-MODIFIED:20091130T213238Z
SEQUENCE:0
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SUMMARY:Example event 1
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20180328T120000Z
DTEND:20180328T130000Z
DTSTAMP:20091130T213238Z
UID:1285935469767a7c7c1a9b3f0df8003b@yourserver.com
CREATED:20091130T213238Z
DESCRIPTION:Example event 2
LAST-MODIFIED:20091130T213238Z
SEQUENCE:0
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SUMMARY:Example event 2
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

works fine in Office 365 web interface and Apple iPhone Mail/Calendar. However, when it is imported in Outlook 2016 it creates a new "Untitled" Calendar and puts events in it instead of default user calendar.

This seems to be a known issue referenced previously on SO:

ICal import creates new calendar When Open the ics file

Have ICS file with multiple events save to my Calendar, not Other Calendars

Answers range from "it cannot be done" to the opposite.

One of the posts in the first link mentions removing X-WR-CALNAME from ICS fixes the problem. I never had this in ICS to begin with.

Another post on the same page mentions that adding X-WR-RELCALID:XXXXXX fixes it. I tried putting it in and it makes no difference at all. I am not sure if value for X-WR-RELCALID should be set to something specific - I just set it to some GUID.

If someone successfully resolved it - can you post an ICS sample and what version of Outlook did it work with?

Joe Schmoe
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  • Did you resolve this issue? – Kamal Kant Jun 25 '19 at 10:06
  • I never resolved the issue. In our case we ended up using MS Exchange API and impersonation to create meetings directly in attendee calendar. We treated multi-day meetings as several single day meetings. NOTE: be careful using impersonation because it allows impersonating account COMPLETE access to everything in mailbox and calendar, you can't limit it to calendar only which is a bad design IMO. – Joe Schmoe Jun 25 '19 at 21:40
  • Same problem here – Frederic Torres Sep 18 '20 at 16:33

0 Answers0