No available rooms for a meeting outside working hours in Outlook

Original KB number:   2932395

Summary

By design, when you try to start a meeting in which either the Start time or the End time is outside your working hours, and your working hours differ from the meeting rooms' working hours, no available rooms are displayed in the Room Finder pane.

For example, assume that your working hours are set as 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M., and that the meeting rooms' working hours are set as 9:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M. If you try to start a new meeting at 6:00 P.M., no available rooms are displayed.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, configure the working hours in Outlook Options to the same hours as the desired rooms by using one of the following methods:

Method 1

Use the Group Policy Management Console to change the Group Policy settings in the following location:

• Outlook Options\Preferences\Calendar Options\Working hours

Select Enable, and then specify the working hours to be the same hours as the rooms.

Method 2

Use the Office Customization Tool (OCT), and navigate to the following location in Features\Modify User Settings:

• Outlook Options\Preferences\Calendar Options\Working hours

Select Enabled, and then specify the working hours to be the same hours as the rooms.

Method 3

Use Windows PowerShell to run the following cmdlet:

Set-MailboxCalendarConfiguration -identity username -WorkingHoursStartTime hh:mm:ss -WorkingHoursEndTime hh:mm:ss

More information

For information about how to configure Group Policy for Microsoft Office, see Use Group Policy to enforce Office 2010 settings. Although the article is for Office 2010, the Administrative Templates information also applies to Office 2013.

For more information about the OCT, see Office Customization Tool in Office 2010 or Office Customization Tool (OCT) reference for Office 2013.