Syncing calendar and contacts from BT mail (@btinternet) account between webmail and Outlook

[DJG_Shef]

I am using the new Outlook for Windows and have successfully linked my BT email account to receive and send emails (using IMAP settings). However, the calendar and contacts don't show up in Outlook (or vice versa if created in Outlook).

Is this a general limitation (i.e. that only mail can sync with another client, not contacts, etc.) or is there something I can do?

(Gmail syncs everything)

[David500 · Accepted solution]

I've been using the new Outlook for Windows for a while but hadn't added my BTinternet account. I've just added it and noticed the following note:

 

I'm not affected as I don't use BTinternet Contacts or Calendar. I think it's  that BT email is classed as "other" as my contacts or calendar are with 1 of the named emails and are available.

[David500]

The "Learn more" link in screenshot above is here 

[DJG_Shef]

Thanks for confirming this limitation.

It might be worth adding that Outlook can create and sync contacts and a calendar within the Microsoft ecosystem i.e. I can create contacts (or import them), create, maintain and share calendar appointments (as my @btinternet identity) and so have the functionality I need (up to now I have used Google for calendar and contacts and my BT mail for email).

The only think I need to remember is: if I stop using Outlook, my calendar and contacts are in Outlook and not synced back to BT mail.

[DJG_Shef]

Update which my be helpful to some.

If I create a calendar entry in BT mail on the web, it will sync to both New Outlook (PC) and to Outlook on Android.

If I create a calendar entry in Outlook for my work account or Google account and invite my BT mail identity, then, once they have accepted, it will appear in all calendars (Outlook and BT mail web), though it might take some hours to sync.

What doesn't work (and is partly controlled by Microsoft) is that if I use Outlook, which has my BT mail account connected, to create an event on my BT calendar, it will not show up on the BT web calendar. This is because Outlook creates its own calendar for the BT mail account, which is not synced with BT.

Phew! So complicated.

[davidh5]

I am really sorry but I am not following the detail of this.  I am a @btinternet email user.  I use Office 365 with Outlook on a Mac and the Outlook app on an iPhone.

I have added BT email as an account on both Mac and iPhone.  Email all works as it should.

For my calendar, on the Mac, I do not see an option to toggle on the @btinternet account. Only option is an 'On my computer' option which seems to just be a compilation of all calendars listed, rather than anything new. When I receive an invitation to a meeting, I can accept that invitation using a gmail account. Equally I can set up a new meeting in my gmail calendar and that gets sent out.

For my calendar on the iPhone Outlook app, same scenario. No option to link up to @btinternet calendar. Instead I use gmail calendar.  And that obviously does sync between iPhone and Mac.

In summary, I am not really seeing any calendar functionality from @btinternet account. So - in the case where people use an app (on a phone) and an email client (on PC or Mac)  is there any point in the fact that BT web access has a calendar and a contacts function but it cannot sync with anything?

I only see the way out of this as having a second gmail account (as example) to provide the calendar function. Hope I have understood correctly from my experience and the answers here. Thanks you!

[facp0013]

I am using new Outlook on Windows 11 PC and my iPhone - I can view my btinternet 'calendar' in Outlook or via the native calendar app on my iPhone and I can manually add calendar events on both but when I receive a calendar event invitation with an ICS attachment my btinternet email doesn't give me an option to Accept or do anything with the ics calendar invite - it doesn't seem to know what it is.

This is currently causing me a serious problem as all my business contacts are using this email address and sending me calendar invites I can't reply to.

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing the issue or how I solve it?      

[DJG_Shef]

This isn't the same issue as my original post, though I think it is related.

I think you can fix your issue by using Google/Gmail as your mail client and setting up your @btinternet address to both send and receive using Gmail's system. Gmail should then be able to add and sync your calendars.

I'm afraid I have to ask people to send invites to another address because of this issue 😞 There is some discussion on this in the Microsoft Outlook community but no solutions that I've found yet.

I think the problem with Outlook is that it handles mail accounts fine and can even handle contacts at a push, but the only calendar you can use is an Outlook version that is created outside of the BT calendar system.

I hope that makes sense and good luck.