Resources appearing as free even though they have a meeting at the same time

Question

Resources appearing as free even though they have a meeting at the same time

My resources are appearing as free even though they have a meeting, this only occurs if im looking at a future meeting/ in a day diferent then today or before, and yes the setting "alow conflits" is turned off,
thanks

3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva

Thank you for posting your question in Microsoft Q&A.

Based on your description, it seems you are encountering an issue where resource calendars are not showing booked meetings as "Busy" when checking availability for future dates or different days, even though "Allow Conflicts" is disabled on the resource. This issue might be caused by misconfiguration or corrupted data in the resource mailbox settings.

To troubleshoot it, you could try to follow these steps:

1.Recheck the Calendar Configuration

The resource mailbox uses an automated "attendant" to accept or decline meeting requests. If this is not set to AutoAccept, requests may remain in a "Tentative" state and won’t properly block the time slot in the Scheduling Assistant.

To verify it, you could use the command below:

Connect to Exchange Online
Verify it configuration:

Get-CalendarProcessing -Identity "Your room" | Select-Object AutomateProcessing

The value should be AutoAccept. If it's something else (like AutoUpdate), it can cause inconsistent behavior.

To reconfigure the setting, you can run the following command:

Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "Your room" -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept

2.Using MFCMapi to Repair Free/Busy Data

Some booking issues may stem from corrupted Free/Busy data. In such cases, it's recommended to refresh this data using MFCMapi.

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References:

Resources in Exchange don't respond to meeting requests - Microsoft Support

Release MFCMAPI September 2025 (25.0.25267.02) · microsoft/mfcmapi · GitHub

To address this behavior more effectively, could you please provide additional information in response to the following questions:

1.Does this behavior occur in Outlook Web App (OWA)? OWA typically retrieves live data directly from the server. If availability appears correctly in OWA but not in desktop Outlook, the issue may be related to local sync. In that case, updating Outlook to the latest version might help.

2.Is this behavior consistent across all resource mailboxes in your tenant, or is it isolated to a specific room?

Please understand that our initial reply may not always immediately resolve the issue. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

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

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Hin-V 7,060 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-03T07:06:40.8166667+00:00

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva

I hope you are doing well.

Have you had a chance to check the replies provided?

Any update would be appreciated.

If you want any further support, let me know in the comment section. I truly hope you can find the definitive solution to your concern.

Answer 2

Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva 0

Hi @Hin-V

Thank you for the response,

the value provided by

Connect-ExchangeOnline
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement
Get-CalendarProcessing -Identity <Removed PII> | Select-Object AutomateProcessing

was "autoAccept"

Cant seem to figure how to use MFCMAPI because it need outlook app, i only have the web license

Thanks and hope to ear more from you soon.
Best regards,

<Removed PII>

Hin-V 7,060 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-03T10:04:46.64+00:00

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva
Thank you for your responding.
Please understand that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your comment to cover your organization domain name, IP in the description. Please notice to hide these personal or organization information next time you commnent result or some information to protect personal data.
Just to confirm, is this behavior consistent across all resource mailboxes in your tenant, or is it isolated to a specific room?

I’ve tested on my side and noticed that after creating a meeting room, it may take around 5–10 minutes for the server to sync and update the Busy status. However, if a second meeting is scheduled during an already booked time, it will be automatically declined due to the disabled “allow conflicts” setting.

Any update would be appreciated.

If you want any further support, let me know in the comment section. I truly hope you can find the definitive solution to your concern.
Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva 0 Reputation points

2025-10-03T10:18:18.33+00:00

Hi @Hin-V ,

Thanks for the info — I didn’t know that! 😊

It’s actually affecting all resources, not just one. I find it strange that this only happens with future meetings. Past and current meetings are synced normally, and the availability appears correctly for meetings that are happening today or have already occurred.

For example, if I create a meeting on September 1st and schedule it for November 1st, the room still appears as free, even though the meeting was created a month ago. This reinforces the idea that the issue only affects future bookings.

That’s why I believe this might be an update issue on Microsoft’s server side — it seems like the status is only updated at the meeting’s start or cancellation. I say this because I’ve noticed that when I schedule a meeting for, say, tomorrow, and then cancel it, the resource still shows as “busy” for a few seconds. This makes it seem like the server only updates the status at the start/end of a meeting or right after cancellation, which would explain why current and past meetings sync correctly, but future ones don’t.
Hin-V 7,060 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-03T10:55:00.6266667+00:00

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva

Since this issue appears in Outlook on the Web (OWA), could you please try signing in using a private/incognito browser window? This unusual behavior might be caused by cached data in the web app. If the issue does not occur in the private session, I recommend clearing your browser cache and then checking it again.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Warm thanks and have a nice day.
Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva 0 Reputation points

2025-10-03T10:57:42.5233333+00:00

Hi @Hin-V ,
Did that and unfortunately the problems maintains
Hin-V 7,060 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-03T13:01:28.67+00:00

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva
I’ve reviewed all the relevant articles, but unfortunately, I haven’t found a suitable approach or a clear explanation of the exact configuration that causes this behavior.

To resolve this, Microsoft’s support team will need to step in. A technical support engineer can perform a remote session to investigate the situation, verify the backend configurations, and run any necessary synchronization tools to resolve the problem. If the issue requires further attention, they can escalate it to a specialized team for deeper analysis.

Reference: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn
Apologies for redirecting you to the related development team support as the moderators in this community have limited resources to check the backend information, and to get the fast and better assistance we requested for it.

If you want any further support, let me know in the comment section. I'm always here to help.

Warm thanks and have a nice day.
Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva 0 Reputation points

2025-10-03T13:39:34.8466667+00:00

Hi @Hin-V Thanks so much for your help — I really appreciate it.

I already have a ticket open with Microsoft, but I was looking for some extra insight from the community. The more perspectives, the better!

Hope you’re having a great day. Once the ticket is closed and the issue is resolved, I’ll make sure to post the solution here so it’s easy to find for anyone facing the same problem.
Hin-V 7,060 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-03T14:23:23.63+00:00

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva

Thank you for sharing.

I hope this behavior will be addressed and resolved soon.

Feel free to share it here. It could really help others and add meaningful insight to our community discussions.

If you want any further support, let me know in the comment section.

Warm thanks.
Hin-V 7,060 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-10-08T10:52:45.4366667+00:00

Hi @Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva
Thank you for getting back.

It looks like this issue is related to a timezone mismatch or misconfiguration in the resource's calendar settings, which affects how availability is calculated and displayed in Outlook or Exchange.

The commands you provided focus on checking and setting the WorkingHoursTimeZone for the resource mailbox. This is a helpful step, especially if the root cause is a timezone discrepancy.

Exchange relies on free/busy information to display resource availability. If there is a delay in how this data is processed, particularly for future dates, it can cause resources to appear free even when they are already booked. This issue may be worsened if the resource’s calendar settings (such as working hours or timezone) are inconsistent with the Exchange server’s configuration.

That is why reconfiguring the WorkingHoursTimeZone could be an effective troubleshooting step. This is a valuable insight and a great contribution to the community, thank you so much for sharing it here.

If you have any additional concerns or questions, feel free to comment below. I’ll be more than happy to assist.

Big thanks again, and I hope you have a great day.

Answer 3

Manuel Bernardino Marques da Silva 0

Hi @Hin-V I hope you are doing fine
The resolution might sound stupid..
But its the most simple thing ever :D
The resource time fuse need to be the same as the user one you can check the fuse by doing the following in powershell
connect-exchangeonline

Get-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -Identity <resourceemail> | Select WorkingHoursTimeZone check the fuse
Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -Identity <resourceemail> -WorkingHoursTimeZone "GMT Standard Time" change it

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Resources appearing as free even though they have a meeting at the same time

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