How to fix the issue when a user is unable to view free busy information in Outlook 2010
In this article, I have given a simple steps to fix the issue when a user is unable to view free busy information in Outlook 2010. This information is required for a user or any person who is troubleshooting issues with Outlook calendar.
Introduction
Free Busy information is a feature given by Microsoft in outlook to manage time for the users. In outlook, calendar is one of the features which helps a user to check if he can send a meeting invite to another user working in the same organization or any other.
Due to some settings configuration in outlook, user who is sending an invite would not be able to view the free busy information of the receiver, that's when it becomes important to change the settings in the outlook of the user to see the free busy information.
This is also important to let the other users know about your free busy information which indicates your appointments and engagements for the day. Especially, the users of the high profile whose time is very important and has to be organized.
Their time is organized by their sub ordinates like secretary, personal assistant by using shared calendar option in their outlook. To know more about shared calendar option and related troubleshooting, please see my other article by clicking the link below.
How to take print out of shared calendar in Outlook 2003
Here, a user gives permissions to manage time i.e., daily meetings and appointments to their sub ordinates like personal secretaries, assistants, etc. This is usually used by the high profile employees of a company like AVPs, VPs, CEOs, Chairmen, Presidents, Board of Directors, etc., whose time is very precious and the same is organized and managed well by their sub ordinates.
Below, I have given the simple, easy and less time consuming steps to change the settings.
This is a very often faced scenario/ issue taken care by executives at Help Desk departments. This information is useful for the common users and for the technical support engineers who help their clients to fix the issue.
This article would help the employees working in Technical Help desk department to help users when they don't have time to go through the lengthy process of going through their knowledge base for troubleshooting steps while the user is on call. I am trying my best to make their job easy. Please find steps defined below and the best practices practised by the top professionals in MNCs. I have given the steps for outlook 2010. This is also helpful for the people preparing for interview as I have tried to make it look very simple and effective.
Please use the following steps to fix the issues with free busy information not showing up in Outlook 2010.
Step 1 - Click on File
Step 2 - Click on Account Setting
Step 3 - Click on Account Setting again
Step 4 - In the Account Setting window highlight your email address
Step 5 - Click on Change
Step 6 - Click on More Settings
Step 7 - Go to the Security Tab
Step 8 - Uncheck "Encrypt data between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server.
Step 9 - Click on Apply
Step 10 - Click on OK, Next, Finish and Close
Step 11 - Now reopen the outlook and you should be able to see the free busy information.Conclusion
Technical support engineers can make best use of these simple steps to fix the issue and save their FCR to contribute to best experience to the customers in no time without having to contact the higher support levels.
Common users can fix their issues themselves by following these steps without calling the Help Desk Engineers.
In short, using these simple steps to fix the issues in outlook would add a lot of value to the firm by saving the man power efforts which in turn would help the organization to save revenue.
