Member Avatar for whiskeyjar2005

Hello - we are running Exchange 2003, and Windows server 2003 on our Exchange server, and Outlook 2003 for all of our e-mail clients. Anyone who goes into Outlook to schedule a new meeting is unable to see the calendar of the person they are scheduling to attend; the entire line next to their name (under the "scheduling" tab) is coming up as a white background with black diagonal lines. According to the color codes at the bottom of the screen, this indicates that no information is available. However, if the calendar for the person is viewed by selecting "calendar" from the main Outlook screen and then selecting "show shared calendar", the calendar appears just fine.
Any ideas? Please help; I have a lot of frustrated people. :sad:
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jaffar_m_n

Dani AI

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Short diagnosis and what to check first

As observed (Scheduling Assistant shows no availability while the shared calendar itself opens), that pattern usually means Outlook cannot read the mailbox’s published free/busy data rather than the calendar items being missing. Outlook 2003 gets availability from the SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY system public folder on Exchange 2003, so a problem with that public-folder data/replication/permissions or with free/busy publication will produce the hashed/“no information” rows. See Microsoft’s troubleshooting guidance for free/busy issues. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical triage (order matters)

  1. Scope: confirm whether the symptom affects everyone or only certain invitees.
  2. Server-side (if many users are affected): in Exchange System Manager check System Public Folders → SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY → your administrative-group folder. Verify the folder has a replica on the public-folder database used by clients and that Default has appropriate permissions so free/busy messages can be read/published. Also check the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant / free‑busy publisher for errors. These are the most common root causes. (learn.microsoft.com)

Client-side and time-range gotchas

Outlook/OWA publish intervals and the number of months published matter: Outlook clients typically publish a small forward window (the common default is two months), so availability beyond that window will show “no information” unless users increase their publish range or republish. Also remember OWA and mixed-version Exchange deployments can behave differently—mixed environments often require careful public-folder replica and legacyExchangeDN routing checks. ()

If the attendee is a room/resource

For resource mailboxes verify calendar-processing settings and calendar-folder permissions (Default/Anonymous/Default permission levels), and if a resource’s free/busy looks corrupt follow Microsoft’s guidance to refresh the resource free/busy (the MFCMapi “Local Data / Sniffer” cleanup is documented but should be done by an experienced admin). If local profile resets (as some members tried) help a single user, but the underlying public-folder or System Attendant issues must still be fixed for everyone. (learn.microsoft.com)

If these checks don’t resolve it, collect: which organizer client/version, which attendee mailbox server/version, whether the SCHEDULE+ FREE/BUSY folder has a replica on the expected public-folder store, and any System Attendant or public‑folder replication errors — then escalate to the Exchange admin with those specifics.

Member Avatar for txskibum

Im having the same problems past April 1, 2006. Everything before 4/1/06 is ok... After 4/1, i have the issue you are having... Did you ever find a fix????
Hit me back at

Dale

Member Avatar for jabuette

I'm having the same problem now only I'm trying to view a conference room. I did have the problem with viewing the schedule for a person but I did a run command "outlook.exe /resetfolders" and the users problem was fixed. How do I refresh the schedule for a conference room controled by exchange 2003. BTW... I know of the refresh option inside the scheduling page but it didn't work.

Member Avatar for esutp

I am having same problems, some users when arranging meeting are unable to see the schedule, its coming up with a shaded bar, but when calendar is opened on its own the scheduling can be seen.

Can any one help?

Member Avatar for jaffar_m_n

i am having same issue anyone help

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