Disable Calendar Notifications for Meetings Not Yet Accepted

[billbrowntkd]

Hello,

My goal is to not get a notification on my phone for meetings that people send me until I have actually accepted the meeting request. I do want notifications for meetings that I have accepted and are processed on my calendar as either tentative or accepted, but I do not want a notification when the meeting request is pending my input.

I am using MS Exchange at work for email. I have a Mac and VM running Windows. I used the Outlook in the VM to disable processing of notifications upon arrival for calendar events. On my Mac, I see the meeting request in my calendar and I do not get a reminder until I click accept on the invite. My Mac is working as expected and exactly as I want.

However, my phone, iPhone 6, is giving me an audible alert even though I have not yet accepted the meeting. How do I set up my phone to work as my Mac?

TIA,
Bill

 

[bear7962]

Not sure if I understand but the adjustments should be here to toggle off.

 

[billbrowntkd]

@bear7962: Thank you for your reply. I don't think that is the solution, though.

I do want notifications for meetings that I have accepted. If I turn off notifications completely, won't that turn off all notifications?

My Mac is working as expected and as I want. When I receive a meeting request, I want the request to stay in pending state without giving me a notification. Then, after I accept the meeting, I want a notification, (processed according to the configured Reminder alert setting). Of course, if I decline the meeting then I do not want a notification.

I just got the iPhone, moving away from the Samsung Galaxy. My Android Samsung was working like my Mac, which is exactly what I want. However, the iPhone is processing invitations on calendars for events that I have not accepted and sending me notifications. This is extremely annoying as I have lots of invitations for all hours of the day and night (global team calendar) and I do not accept all of them. With my iPhone, my workday is becoming unusable.

Any other suggestions?

TIA,
Bill

 

[J. A.]

Have you tried disabling notifications for Invitations, also selecting "None" as alert tone for Vibration?

 

[bear7962]

I was hoping turning off the invitation notification sounds would help you or invite notifications. It would not stop invites coming in and once accepted you can configure reminders appropriately. I did not mean turning off invite notifications. But someone smarter than me will be able to help, I am sure.

 

[billbrowntkd]

@J.A.: Thank you for your reply. I don't think it is the right solution, though.

If I disable notifications for Invitations, or select "None" as the alert tone for Vibration, how would I receive the alerts for events that I have accepted? Or am I missing something?

TIA,
Bill

 

[billbrowntkd]

Thank you for your replies. I do appreciate them.

Perhaps I should restate my goals, (which are working fine on my Mac and were working fine on my Samsung Galaxy):

When someone sends me a meeting request, I want the request to show up in my email pending my response. At this point, nothing should be alerting me of the upcoming event. If I do nothing, then I should never receive an alert.

However, if I accept the event then I want the event to show up on my calendar and I want to receive the alert for the event.

I do not want to disable sounds for notifications but, rather, I do not want the event to be processed until after I have accepted it.

Does this make more sense?

TIA,
Bill

 

[bear7962]

I think disabling the sound of the invite and perhaps not letting it appear in the lock screen would do what you want. The invites still come in and can be accepted and once accepted become events not invited and use the event notification setting.

 

[billbrowntkd]

@bear7692: I see what you mean. So I have Upcoming Events, for which I enable sounds, badges and banners. For the Invitations, I turn off everything, (I only need to see these in email).

So now, I no longer receive a notification when the invitation is sent to me. This is good. Thank you.

However, I still receive the notification for the event even though I have not accepted it. This is not good. The event is not on my calendar when I look in Outlook on my Mac and should not be on my calendar on my phone, either. But it is on my phone calendar, which is why (I guess) I am receiving the event notification.

The settings I have are:

(on Settings --> Notifications --> Calendar)
Allow Notifications: On
Show in Notification Center: 5
Upcoming Events: Badges, Sounds, Banners
Invitations: (all off)
Invitee Responses: (all off)
Shared Calendar Changes: (all off) [also tried all on]

Any ideas?

Thank you for your speedy responses today. Much appreciated.

Bill

 

[billbrowntkd]

Re-reading my original post, I see a point of clarification:

When someone sends me a meeting invitation, I see the request in my email (not my calendar) on my Mac. Only after I accept the meeting (or accept as tentative) does the meeting show up on my calendar, and only after it shows up on my calendar will I get the reminder notification. This is exactly how I want my devices to behave.

My Mac is behaving nicely, but my phone seems to be adding the event to the phone's calendar before I have accepted the meeting request. I think what I am looking for is a way for the phone to NOT process the meeting request, (i.e. add it to the calendar), unless I actually accept the invitation. The notifications seem to be working as expected since the request is already on the calendar (on my phone, but nowhere else).

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[bear7962]

Turn off Allow Notifications. Remember this is for invites not events.

 

[billbrowntkd]

@bear7962: Thank you for your reply. I did that and I no longer receive notifications for invitations. However, the invitation is still showing up on my calendar and so I am still getting the unwanted event notification before I have even accepted the invitation.

I am the same person to whom you replied via the other thread. I wasn't sure if these were different forums, reaching a different audience, or not so the post is duplicated. Sorry if that caused any confusion.

As I stated in my other post, I believe the problem may be how the calendar events are processed rather than with the notifications. Here is what I stated in the other forum:

"When someone sends me a meeting invitation, I see the request in my email (not my calendar) on my Mac. Only after I accept the meeting (or accept as tentative) does the meeting show up on my calendar, and only after it shows up on my calendar will I get the reminder notification. This is exactly how I want my devices to behave.

My Mac is behaving nicely, but my phone seems to be adding the event to the phone's calendar before I have accepted the meeting request. I think what I am looking for is a way for the phone to NOT process the meeting request, (i.e. add it to the calendar), unless I actually accept the invitation. The notifications seem to be working as expected since the request is already on the calendar (on my phone, but nowhere else)."

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[billbrowntkd]

Have you tried disabling notifications for Invitations, also selecting "None" as alert tone for Vibration?

Yes I tried this and it has the desired effect of NOT notifying me upon receiving the invitation. However, I am still getting the event notification even though I have not accepted the invitation.

So someone sends me an invite. I get the email but not the notification, (correctly). I do nothing. The event gets placed on my iPhone calendar, (but nowhere else - my laptop, my Android phone and Exchange - are all working properly). On my laptop, I do NOT get a reminder (event notification) because the event is not on my calendar. But on my iPhone, I get a reminder for the event that I never accepted.

I am guessing this is a limitation of the iPhone and something that clearly works better with an Android. So unfortunate because I was just beginning to really like this new iPhone. But I simply cannot work when team members invite me to meetings in the middle of my night and I get reminders for these unaccepted meetings.

BTW, using some sort of temporary "band-aid", like turning off notifications for the evening (every night), will simply not do. I am really sad to see that Apple has not solved this simple problem, (i.e. do NOT place events on my calendar until after I have accepted them).

 

[bear7962]

You can set DND (Do Not Disturb) for whatever hours you like and get no alerts of any kind. You can also set the iphone to not receive notifications of invites and also to none for the alert style if you do not want notification alerts of invitations. My phone does not enter any invites on my calendar that I have not accepted and I do not know why yours does. Perhaps it it you setting on Outlook.

 

[billbrowntkd]

Thank you @bear7692.

I am on-call so I need alerts in the middle of the night.

I tested again using GMail accounts only and I get the same behavior as you, the desired behavior of invitations NOT entering in my calendar until after I accept them. But when I send from GMail to my Exchange (work) account I get the undesired behavior of unaccepted events automatically getting added to my calendar but only on my iPhone. That is, my laptop and Android phone do not have these events saved on the calendar so they, correctly, do not give me reminders for these unaccepted events. My issue seems to be a relationship problem between the iPhone and the Exchange server.

FWIW, my laptop and Android had the default behavior of working the same way the iPhone is working. I would get reminders (notifications) for events that I did not yet accept. To modify this behavior, I had to use Outlook for Windows, (because the option does not exist in Outlook for Mac), to go into the Tracking Options and uncheck the box to process calendar events upon arrival. After unchecking this box, my laptop and Android did not process the invitation until after I accepted it, so it didn't show up on my calendar without clicking something after arrival. I did try checking this box again, verify the behavior, then unchecking and again verifying the behavior. Only my iPhone is still processing the Exchange events upon arrival and, therefore, sending me the undesired event notification even though I have not yet accepted it.

Does anyone have experience with Exchange and iPhone interaction in this way?

TIA,
Bill