How to Access Shared Mailbox Calendars on iOS Devices

Accessing shared calendars on iOS devices is not officially supported by Microsoft or Apple, but it can be done. Please note that this process assumes that the calendar is a calendar in an Exchange Shared Mailbox. If it is a shared calendar, access can be provided on an iOS device, however for public folder calendars, access on an iOS device is not currently available. Public folder calendars are legacy Exchange technology and are not supported on mobile devices.

STEP 1: SET UP DIRECT ACCESS URL

Calendar publishing must be enabled. It is recommended that OWA be used for this. A user with full access permissions to the shared mailbox calendar must access the shared mailbox calendar directly using the direct access URL. For most shared mailboxes this URL would be as follows:

https://outlook.hs20.net/owa/email@domain.com, where ‘email@domain.com’ is the primary reply-to address for the shared mailbox. If the user is unsure of the primary reply-to address this can be found using the Address Book in Outlook or OWA.

STEP 2: CONFIGURE CALENDAR PUBLISHING

Once the user is in the shared mailbox using the direct link in OWA, calendar publishing can be configured.

Select the calendar link on the lower left side of the browser window.
In the calendar view select the “Share” link on the menu bar near the top of the window.
In the drop-down menu select “Publish this calendar to the Internet”.
Select the desired publishing detail. if you select availability only you’ll only see that a block of time is reserved. For this purpose it is recommended to select “full details”. Users must also select the duration of publishing desired. Restricted Access is the recommended access level. Choosing Public Access allows the use of search engines to find the calendar.

After the calendar is published, links will need to be sent to users that are to be given access to the shared calendar. From the same “Share” link, select “send links to this calendar” from the drop-down menu and send emails to the users that are to be given access.

The recipients will receive an email with a direct link and a subscription link. Selecting the subscription link on the iOS device will add the calendar to the list of calendars on the iOS device.

Please Note: Anyone who obtains this link will be able to access the calendar. Authorised users forwarding the link to unauthorised users may result in unintended access to the calendar. For this reason, calendars with sensitive data should not be shared.