Last Updated: July 2020.
Here’s a question we got from a reader:
I use my Outlook calendar to manage my business meetings and appointments, tasks and contacts; but also my personal appointments, as well as reminders to call friends on their birthday. As such i keep constantly getting reminders and notifications from Outlook on overdue appointments, meetings and tasks which is kind of overwhelming. Once i get a reminder, i typically dismiss it one by one, or dismiss them all. I guess my question is how to disable Outlook calendar reminders so i won’t need to get rid of them manually. I am using Outlook 365 on a Windows 10 computer.
Thanks for the nice question. Although you are using Windows, i have added another section that will be helpful for macOS users.
Disabling appointment reminders on Windows
Completely cancel reminders and notifications
Please proceed as following:
- Open Microsoft Outlook.
- From the upper menu bar, hit File.
- Now hit Options.
- Navigate to the Advanced tab.
- In the Reminders section, uncheck the Show reminders box as shown below.
- Hit OK.
Cancel specific meeting notifications
You are able to get rid of reminders for appointments as well as individual or series of meetings. This will work both for meetings scheduled by 3rd parties or yourself.
Kindly proceed as following:
- In Outlook, navigate to your calendar and double check your meeting.
- In the Reminder combo box, select None, as shown in the screenshot below.
- If you would like to modify a recurring meeting, hit the Recurrence button and adjust the reminder value.
- Once done, hit Save and Close.
Turning off calendar reminders in macOS
Outlook for macOS also allows you to suppress reminders for both individual or recurring appointments and meetings, or for all your calendars.
Disable reminders for specific appointments
- Open Outlook for macOS.
- Navigate to your Calendar.
- If your appointment /meeting/recurrence is already set, double click on it.If the meeting doesn’t yet exist, you’ll need to first create it.
- Set your meeting or appointment reminder to None, as indicated below
- Close and save your appointment.
Disable Reminders for all Outlook calendars
If opting out from reminders of specific event doesn’t meet your specific needs, then you can stop all Outlook notifications by proceeding as described below.
- Open Outlook for MAC.
- On the top macOS bar hit Outlook.
- Then hit Turn off reminders.
Additional reader questions
Mute notifications in Microsoft Teams
Look into our tutorial on stopping Microsoft Teams desktop notifications.
Shared calendar notifications
You can turn off notifications from shared calendar using the procedures shown above.
Reminders fire too soon, what to do?
Outlook allows you to set a default reminder timing for your calendar meetings and appointment only.
Please proceed as following:
- In Outlook, hit File
- Then hit Options
- Select Calendar
- Set the default reminder time to any time below the default 15 minutes.
- Hit OK.
In case of further questions, feel free to leave us a comment.