Free/busy publishing shows 2 months but configured for 12 months

[R E A]

For a few users of Outlook 2003 connected to an Exchange 2003, the user's
free and busy information is published incorrectly.

If the Outlook user's free and busy publishing period is set to 12 months,
other users in the same Exchange administrative group see 2 months of that
user's data. The user's free and busy publishing period appears to be set to
the default setting of 2 months, even though it is actually set to 12 months.
The client Outlook setting has been verified that it is configured to
publish free and busy information for 12 months.

We have already started Outlook with the /cleanfreebusy switch but that has
not helped.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

"The user's free and busy publishing period appears to be set to the default
setting of 2 months, even though it is actually set to 12 months."
Care to explain this one? Which setting indicates 2 months and what other
setting indicates 12 months?

 

[Leon Hao [MSFT]]

Hi,

If I understood properly, your issue is: Outlook 2003 publishes your
Free/Busy time for only the next two months. The actual setting is 12
months instead.

First of all, please follow the steps below to double-confirm if the
setting is correct:

* Published Free/Busy Time
====================

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, click Calendar Options, and then
click Free/Busy options.
2. In the "Publish <2> month(s) of Calendar Free/Busy information on the
server" box, type how far ahead you want the server to publish Free/Busy
time.
3. Click OK three times to return to Outlook.

For the detailed information, please refer to the following KB article:

196885 Conditions that affect the display of Free/Busy time in Outlook
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;196885

Next, there are many possible situations that can cause this scenario:

* Situation 1
========

This issue occurs when you register the Auto Accept Agent to process
meeting requests for the affected mailbox.

To resolve this issue, you must include the period for which you want to
publish Free/Busy information in a registry entry. Configure this registry
entry on the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 server on which you have
installed the Auto Accept Agent. Configure the entry under the following
registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Excdo\Parameters

Name: FBPublishMonth
Value type: DWORD
Value data: The period, in months, for which you want to publish Free/Busy
information

For example, if you want to publish Free/Busy data for 4 months, type 4 in
the Value data box.

After you add this key, you must restart the Internet Information Services
(IIS) Admin Service and the System Attendant service for this change to
become effective.

For the detailed information, please refer to the following KB article:

917687 The published Free/Busy information for a mailbox is displayed for
the default period of two months after you have configured a longer period
in Outlook
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;917687

* Situation 2
========

This issue occurs where a Microsoft Office policy was used to set the
number of months that are in the free/busy publish range in Microsoft
Office Outlook 2003. Then, you direct book a resource in Outlook 2003.

If this is your situation, then please refer to the following KB article
for more information:

905817 The free/busy publish range reverts back to the default setting when
you direct book a resource in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;905817

Hope this helps!


Regards,

Leon Hao

Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
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[R E A]

It is actually set to 12 months in the Outlook client.

However when other people look at this user's availability, it appears to be
set to 2 months. (Everything past 2 months appears with cross-hatch marks.)

 

[R E A]

You have understood the issue correctly.

:

Hi,

If I understood properly, your issue is: Outlook 2003 publishes your
Free/Busy time for only the next two months. The actual setting is 12
months instead.

I have double-confirmed that the setting is correct. A help desk technician
confirmed it, and I confirmed it independently.

First of all, please follow the steps below to double-confirm if the
setting is correct:

We use the Auto Accept agent, but only for Conference Room resource
mailboxes. We do not use Auto Accept agent for end-user mailboxes. So I do
not think Situation 1 applies.

* Situation 1
========

This issue occurs when you register the Auto Accept Agent to process
meeting requests for the affected mailbox.

I will look more carefully at the issue in KB 905817.

* Situation 2
========

905817 The free/busy publish range reverts back to the default setting when
you direct book a resource in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;905817

I have read another web posting about a "stuck" free-busy message such as in
"http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250051" but that article does not say that
it is applicable to Outlook 2003. (That article also references some obscure
utility called gwclient.)

 

[Leon Hao [MSFT]]

Hi,

Please take a look into KB905817 and tell me if you need further assistance.

The suggestions per KB250051 is suitable for Outlook 2002, but it does no
harm to try if you have GWClient installed on your system.

Any questions, please let me know.


Regards,

Leon Hao

Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
====================================================
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that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
====================================================
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[R E A]

I am going to "close" this discussion for now. I will assume that the help
technician will resolve this either by applying the hotfix in KB905817, or by
running /freebusy, or by recreating the profile.

Thanks.

 

[Leon Hao [MSFT]]

Hi,

Thanks for your update on this issue.

We are going to close this thread. If you have any additional concerns, you
can post back whenever you want.

Thanks again for choosing Microsoft!


Regards,

Leon Hao

Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.