Outlook calendar keeps disappearing: how to get it back

Check Outlook on the web first

Sign in at outlook.office.com (work or school) or outlook.com (personal) and open the calendar. A Microsoft support moderator on Microsoft Q&A calls the web version the most accurate view of your calendar data, because it reads the mailbox directly.

• Everything is there: your data is safe. The desktop app is hiding it or hasn’t synced. Work through the view, new Outlook and shared calendar sections.
• Items are missing there too: they were deleted, moved or removed by a retention policy. Go to Appointments that disappear.

Which kind of disappearing is it?

What you see	Go to
The whole Calendar view or icon is gone in classic Outlook	Calendar view missing
Your calendar list is empty or blank in new Outlook	Calendar missing in new Outlook
A colleague’s calendar drops off the list after restarting	Shared calendars
Single meetings or appointments vanish	Appointments that disappear

Calendar view missing in classic Outlook

1. Select Calendar on the navigation bar. Depending on your version it’s on the left edge or along the bottom of the window.
2. If you want the calendar beside your email, choose View > To-Do Bar > Calendar, as Microsoft’s To-Do Bar page describes.
3. If the calendar opens but looks empty or filtered, open the View tab and select Reset View, then confirm. This clears filters and custom column settings for that view.
4. If the views are still wrong, close Outlook, press Win + R, type outlook.exe /cleanviews and press Enter. Microsoft support staff recommend this to rebuild the default views; any custom views you made are lost.

If the problem started after you installed an add-in, test with outlook.exe /safe, which starts Outlook with add-ins turned off. To go further and reset more of Outlook’s settings, see how to reset Outlook to default settings.

Calendar missing in new Outlook

1. Select the Calendar icon on the far-left bar.
2. In the folder pane, expand My calendars and make sure the tick box next to your calendar is selected. Clearing and reselecting it can make a blank calendar redraw.
3. Remove any filter you set, such as categories, Show As or colour filters, from the calendar’s filter options.

If the calendar disappeared when you switched from classic Outlook, check whether it was a local calendar saved only on your PC. Microsoft support staff explain that new Outlook doesn’t show calendars that aren’t synced to a mail server. Open classic Outlook, export that calendar with File > Open & Export > Import/Export to a file, then add it to new Outlook from Add calendar and the upload option. If you need classic Outlook back for this, see how to get classic Outlook back.

Shared calendars that vanish after a restart

Classic Outlook has a setting that changes how shared calendars sync with Exchange Online. Microsoft says these “shared calendar improvements” are now on by default in recent versions, and lists known limits, including that events more than a year older than the upgrade aren’t included in the synced copy, and that the same shared calendar can no longer be added twice.

1. Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings, select your Exchange account and choose Change.
2. Select More Settings and open the Advanced tab.
3. Change the Turn on shared calendar improvements box (turn it on if it’s off, or off if it’s on), select OK and restart Outlook.

On Microsoft Q&A, a Microsoft moderator suggested turning the setting on, while many users with hybrid Exchange setups reported that turning it off stopped their shared calendars disappearing. Try one state, then the other. If the box is greyed out, your organisation sets it by policy. Removing the shared calendar and adding it again after a fresh restart also helps some people. For shared mailboxes rather than calendars, see how to add a shared mailbox in Outlook.

Appointments that disappear

Look in Deleted Items first. In classic Outlook, sorting the folder by From and looking for your own name helps, because deleted appointments use the same icon as email. Select the item, choose Home > Move > Other folder and pick Calendar. In new Outlook and on the web, right-click it and select Restore.

Already emptied? In classic Outlook, select Deleted Items, then Home > Recover Deleted Items from Server, tick the items and choose Restore Selected Items. Microsoft notes that items restored this way land back in Deleted Items, so move them to the calendar afterwards. In new Outlook, use Recover items deleted from this folder at the top of Deleted Items. How long items stay recoverable depends on your organisation’s settings.

Old appointments vanishing on their own? That’s usually a retention policy. In Exchange Online, a one-off calendar item’s age is counted from its end date, and a recurring series from the end date of its last occurrence; a series with no end date never expires. Ask your IT team which policy applies to the calendar folder.

Meetings disappearing from one device only? Microsoft’s Exchange troubleshooting lists a damaged mobile sync relationship and third-party add-ins that change calendar items as causes. Remove the account from the phone and add it again, and disable calendar add-ins on the PC to test.

If it keeps happening

• Turn off Use Cached Exchange Mode briefly in File > Account Settings > Account Settings > Change to see whether the calendar appears when Outlook reads the server directly, then turn it back on.
• Create a new Outlook profile from Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles and add your account to it. This rebuilds the local cache without touching mailbox data on the server.
• In an organisation, an administrator can pull Exchange Online calendar diagnostic logs to see who or what deleted a meeting. Microsoft notes those logs are kept for 31 days, so ask soon.

Related guides

• How to reset Outlook to default settings (classic and new Outlook)
• How to Add a Shared Mailbox in Outlook (Windows, Mac, Web and Mobile)
• Classic Outlook download: how to get it back on Windows 11 and 10
• Outlook Tips and Tricks: 12 Ways to Manage Email Faster in Outlook for Windows

Official sources:

• Microsoft Support: Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook
• Microsoft Support: How to enable and disable the Outlook calendar sharing updates
• Microsoft Learn: How retention age is calculated in Exchange Online