Others can't see my free/busy calendar

[bcasdi]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel Email Client: Exchange When I set up a new calendar event, I can see the free/busy status of invitees by clicking on the "scheduling" tab of the "New Event-Calendar" pop-up window. This includes invitees where some are Mac OS X users and others and are Windows users.

When one of these Windows users sets up a new calendar event, they can see the free/busy status of invitees who are Windows users, but that can't see the free/busy status of either of the two OS X users (this includes me).

I've confirmed that the "public server folder" under the advanced tab of Exchange's "Edit Account" window is set to the same server as is listed in the "Exchange Server" field under the "account settings" tab of the same window. What should I check next?

Thanks.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

When I set up a new calendar event, I can see the free/busy status of
invitees by clicking on the "scheduling" tab of the "New
Event-Calendar" pop-up window. This includes invitees where some are
Mac OS X users and others and are Windows users.

When one of these Windows users sets up a new calendar event, they
can see the free/busy status of invitees who are Windows users, but
that can't see the free/busy status of either of the two OS X users
(this includes me).

I've confirmed that the "public server folder" under the advanced tab
of Exchange's "Edit Account" window is set to the same server as is
listed in the "Exchange Server" field under the "account settings"
tab of the same window. What should I check next?

This would probably be a problem with your account and not with
Entourage. The Exchange client does not control what the Exchange server
presents about your availability.

To test this, have one of your Windows users log in to his account using
Outlook Web Access (OWA) and see if he can see your free/busy
information there when inviting you to a meeting. If not, consult with
your Exchange administrator.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

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[Bill Bryson]

Are you using Entourage Web Services Edition (version 13.x)? If so, when an
EWS user changes permissions on his/her calendar to let anyone else see it,
it appears that EWS is turning off free/busy access to that Mac user's
calendar. For example, Sally uses her EWS client to modify her calendar so
that John can access it as Reviewer. After she has changed her calendar
permissions to allow John access as a Reviewer, no one can see her free/busy
from that point on because the "free/busy" attribute is turned to "None".
See below from my previous post:

We've discovered that when we use EWS to modify calendar permissions
(Exchange 2007) that this causes an issue where the free/busy info is not
available to other users.

When we go into Outlook 2007 to look at the user's calendar permissions they
are all reset to "Custom". On examination, we've see that in the Read
section that the setting is set to "None" and grayed out. Normally for the
permission levels listed the setting should be "All Details" (this applies
to Reviewer, Editor, etc).

Note the the free/busy is turned off because the Default setting is changed
also
with the setting switched from "Free/Busy time" to "None" and grayed out.

EWS steps on all the permission levels for all items in the list ­ changing
Read access to None/grayed out. Normally "Read" at minimum is set to
"Free/Busy time".

It appears that at least in our Exchange environment that the free/busy is
being set to None for all levels of permission when EWS is used to change
the permissions. We've verified this on several EWS installations.

Any recommendations?

 

[Bill Bryson]

Can anyone else verify that access to free/busy is turned off when an EWS
user makes a change to grant permission to his/her calendar?

This should be easy to verify if you have access to Exchange 2007.

1. Using EWS, change permissions on your calendar. For example, grant
Reviewer access to a colleague.
2. From another computer also connected to the same Exchange server, have
your colleague, create a meeting and invite you.
3. In the scheduling assistant while creating the meeting event, does the
free/busy show for you?

 

[Bill Bryson]

Has anyone tried to verify that they have a free/busy issue when calendar
permissions are changed using EWS?

I get the impression that the people who answer the lion share of questions
on this forum do NOT have access to Exchange. Is that true?

I would really like to know if free/busy is being stepped-on in some one
else's Exchange environment. The WebDAV version of Entourage (12.2.3) does
not have the issue.

 

[Bill Bryson]

What version of Entourage are you using? Is it version 13.0.x or 12.x.x? We
are experiencing a similar problem with free/busy that is caused when an
Entourage 13.0.x user changes his calendar permissions. Free/busy is no
longer available for that person is no longer available for others.

 

[Glen Martin]

Are you using Entourage Web Services Edition (version 13.x)? If so, when an
EWS user changes permissions on his/her calendar to let anyone else see it,
it appears that EWS is turning off free/busy access to that Mac user's
calendar. For example, Sally uses her EWS client to modify her calendar so
that John can access it as Reviewer.  After she has changed her calendar
permissions to allow John access as a Reviewer, no one can see her free/busy
from that point on because the "free/busy" attribute is turned to "None".
See below from my previous post:

We've discovered that when we use EWS to modify calendar permissions
(Exchange 2007) that this causes an issue where the free/busy info is not
available to other users.

When we go into Outlook 2007 to look at the user's calendar permissions they
are all reset to "Custom".  On examination, we've see that in the Read
section that the setting is set to "None" and grayed out.  Normally forthe
permission levels listed the setting should be "All Details" (this applies
to Reviewer, Editor, etc).

Note the the free/busy is turned off because the Default setting is changed
also
with the setting switched from "Free/Busy time" to "None" and grayed out.

EWS steps on all the permission levels for all items in the list ­ changing
Read access to None/grayed out.  Normally "Read" at minimum is set to
"Free/Busy time".

It appears that at least in our Exchange environment that the free/busy is
being set to None for all levels of permission when EWS is used to change
the permissions.  We've verified this on several EWS installations.

Any recommendations?

I have replicated this issue in our environment. We have Exchange
2007 SP1 Rollup 8. In the testing which I describe below, I am using
Outlook 2007 and Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition, Version 13.0.03
(091002). Steps to reproduce the issue are as follows:

* In Outlook, grant sharing permission to another user on your
Calendar. For this example, we'll grant the user "Free/Busy time,
subject, location" permissions. Verify that on the permissions tab,
with that user selected, in the Read section, the radio button for
"Free/Busy time, subject, location is checked. After clicking "Apply",
verify that the user can in fact see your free/busy. We have now set a
baseline for expected functionality.

* Now, in Entourage, check the sharing permissions on your Calendar.
For the user to whom you have granted permissions, the permissions
level will show as "None." Now let us use Entourage to modify the
sharing permissions. Set it to "Reviewer" for example, and click
"OK."

* At this point, the user to whom permissions have been granted will
be unable to see your free/busy information. (This is true regardless
of what permission level is set in Entourage.) Looking at the
Calendar sharing permissions in Outlook, none of the Read permission
items are checked.

This is a serious bug in Entourage, and the only way that I know of to
repair the damage is to properly set the permission with an Outlook
client.

Glen Mark Martin
ITS Systems
The University of Texas at Austin
https://blogs.utexas.edu/glenmark

 

[Bill Bryson]

I have replicated this issue in our environment. We have Exchange
2007 SP1 Rollup 8. In the testing which I describe below, I am using
Outlook 2007 and Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition, Version 13.0.03
(091002). Steps to reproduce the issue are as follows:

* In Outlook, grant sharing permission to another user on your
Calendar. For this example, we'll grant the user "Free/Busy time,
subject, location" permissions. Verify that on the permissions tab,
with that user selected, in the Read section, the radio button for
"Free/Busy time, subject, location is checked. After clicking "Apply",
verify that the user can in fact see your free/busy. We have now set a
baseline for expected functionality.

* Now, in Entourage, check the sharing permissions on your Calendar.
For the user to whom you have granted permissions, the permissions
level will show as "None." Now let us use Entourage to modify the
sharing permissions. Set it to "Reviewer" for example, and click
"OK."

* At this point, the user to whom permissions have been granted will
be unable to see your free/busy information. (This is true regardless
of what permission level is set in Entourage.) Looking at the
Calendar sharing permissions in Outlook, none of the Read permission
items are checked.

This is a serious bug in Entourage, and the only way that I know of to
repair the damage is to properly set the permission with an Outlook
client.

Glen Mark Martin
ITS Systems
The University of Texas at Austin
https://blogs.utexas.edu/glenmark

Glen,

Thanks for the feedback. I was beginning to wonder... Ironically the
people granted access to a person's calendar are the only ones that can't
see free/busy when the EWS user adds/modifies permission on his/her
calendar.

Here is an example I posted in another post: