Symptoms

When you send a meeting request, you can put Distribution Lists (DLs) on the To line as required attendees. When the recipient accepts this meeting invitation, your original meeting item shows that recipient as an Optional attendee instead of Required.

Cause

More information. When a meeting organizer updates a meeting by adding or removing an attendee, the following notifications are no longer displayed in Outlook on the web: Send updates only to added or deleted attendees. Send updates to all attendees. These options were removed from Outlook on the web, and the code logic was moved to the server. How do you make meeting attendees optional in Outlook's Calendar? The only way I can find is to bring up the 'contacts' directory search for attendee then I see 3 options for attendee at the bottom of the contacts dialogue box. Is this the only way?

When Outlook receives a meeting acceptance, the sender of the acceptance is compared to the recipients in the meeting attendee list. If that recipient is not listed, it is assumed to be 'optional' and added to the list of attendees.

Status

This is by design.

How To Invite Optional Attendees In Outlook

To work around this issue in Outlook 2003 or later versions, expand the DL as soon as it is added to the meeting list. If the DL contains other DLs nested in it those will also have to be expanded.

Symptoms

Cause

Status

How To Invite Optional Attendees In Outlook

More Information

Add Optional Attendees In Outlook Meeting Invite