Skip to content
Blink Brief
Language:

Guide · Office and email

How to export your calendar from new Outlook or Outlook on the web as an .ics file

By Blink Brief · Updated  · How pages are made

New Outlook and Outlook on the web can't save a calendar as a file. Publish it instead: go to View › Calendar settings › Calendar › Shared calendars, choose the calendar and its permissions under Publish a calendar, select Publish, and open the ICS link that appears in a browser. The link downloads the calendar as calendar.ics. When you have the file, select Unpublish. If you still have classic Outlook for Windows, File › Save Calendar exports a file directly.

Short answer

  • New Outlook or Outlook on the web: Publish a calendar › copy the ICS link › open it in a browser › calendar.ics downloads › Unpublish.
  • Classic Outlook for Windows: select the calendar › File › Save Calendar › More Options (Date Range, Detail) › OK › Save.
  • Outlook for Mac: legacy Outlook exports only an .olm archive, and Microsoft documents no calendar export for new Outlook for Mac, so use Outlook on the web with the same account.

New Outlook has no calendar export (yet): what Microsoft says

Microsoft's article on exporting a calendar to Google Calendar covers only classic Outlook: it applies to "Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2024, Outlook 2021" and uses File › Save Calendar, which new Outlook doesn't have. New Outlook's export to a .pst file (Settings › Files › Export) doesn't help either: Microsoft says "Calendar and contacts items saved in .pst files is not available in new Outlook at this time."

Saving a single event as .ics is on Microsoft's roadmap as item 560533, "Outlook: Save calendar events as .ics", with a rollout start of May 2026. When we read it on 2026-11-04 it was still marked "In development". Until it ships, publishing is the way to get a file out of new Outlook.

The steps are the same in new Outlook for Windows and in Outlook on the web:

  1. Select Calendar in the navigation pane.
  2. On the View tab, select Calendar settings, then Calendar › Shared calendars.
  3. Under Publish a calendar, choose the calendar from the dropdown, then choose the permissions (see the next section).
  4. Select Publish. An HTML link and an ICS link appear below.
  5. Copy the ICS link. Microsoft describes it as the link for people who subscribe; the HTML link only shows the calendar in a browser.
  6. Paste the ICS link into a browser's address bar and press Enter. The file downloads.

Microsoft doesn't document this download, so we tested it on 2026-11-03 with a published Outlook calendar: the ICS link returned the calendar file with no sign-in (102 events), and in the browser engines behind Chrome and Safari it downloaded as calendar.ics. Rename it to something you'll recognize. Anyone who has the link can download the same file, which is why the last step is to unpublish.

Check the .ics file before you import or share it

To check it by hand:

  1. Open the file in a text editor, such as Notepad or TextEdit.
  2. It should start with BEGIN:VCALENDAR. Each event starts with BEGIN:VEVENT.
  3. Look at the SUMMARY: lines: they hold the event titles. DTSTART: lines hold the start dates.

To show these events as "Busy" in another calendar without their titles, run the file through the free Busy Calendar tool before you import it. It reads the file in your browser and gives back a copy where every title is "Busy" and the notes, locations, attendees and links are removed. The copy is a snapshot: it doesn't update when your Outlook calendar changes.

Which permission level to publish with: busy only, titles, or all details

The permissions you pick when you publish decide what the ICS link, and so the downloaded file, contains. Microsoft's publish steps don't name the choices in the dropdown, and an organization's admin can limit them. Two Microsoft pages name the same 3 levels in different words, so the words in your dropdown may differ:

  • Time only: "Can view when I'm busy" in the steps for sharing a calendar; "Show calendar free/busy information with time only" on the admin page.
  • Titles and locations too: "Can view titles and locations"; "Show calendar free/busy information with time, subject, and location".
  • Everything: "Can view all details"; "Show all calendar appointment information".

Choose by what you need the file for:

  • To move or back up the calendar: publish with all details, or the file will lack the titles and notes you want to keep.
  • To block your time in another calendar: free/busy (time only) is enough, and nothing private is in the link. If the other calendar can subscribe, you don't need a file at all; How to show “busy” across your Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars covers subscribing from Google Calendar.

Then use the check above: if it shows no titles you recognize, or no notes or locations where you expected them, publish again with more detail.

Classic Outlook: File › Save Calendar with a date range

Classic Outlook for Windows (Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2024 and Outlook 2021) still exports directly, with no link involved. Microsoft's steps:

  1. Open the Calendar and select the calendar you want to export.
  2. Click File › Save Calendar.
  3. Use the default name or type a name in the File name box.
  4. Click More Options.
  5. Click the Date Range arrow and choose how much to include, or click Specify dates.
  6. Click the Detail arrow and choose how much detail to include.
  7. Click OK, and then click Save.

Microsoft warns that "Whole calendar" or a large date range "might create a large iCalendar file".

Outlook for Mac

Microsoft's export page for legacy Outlook for Mac, which Microsoft said it would stop supporting in October 2026, says: "The only export option available at this time is the .olm archive file", and Google Calendar doesn't import that. Microsoft doesn't document a calendar export for new Outlook for Mac either. If the calendar belongs to a Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com account, sign in to Outlook on the web with the same account and use the publish steps above.

Unpublish when you're done

Go back to Calendar settings › Calendar › Shared calendars and select Unpublish next to the calendar. Do this as soon as the download works: while the calendar is published, anyone who has either link can read it at the level you chose, with no sign-in. Keep it published only if another calendar subscribes to the ICS link.

If your organization blocks publishing

With a work or school account, publishing needs an admin setting. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, under Settings › Org Settings › Services › Calendar, an admin turns on "Let your users share their calendars with people outside of your organization who have Office 365 or Exchange" and then "Allow anyone to access calendars with an email invitation". The second option is what lets people who don't sign in see a calendar, and the admin also picks the most detail they can see.

If you can't publish, or only at free/busy level:

  • Ask IT whether you can still switch to classic Outlook, and use File › Save Calendar.
  • Ask IT whether calendars may leave the organization at all. Moving a work calendar to a personal account may break a company rule even when it's technically possible.
  • If you only need your work hours to show as busy in a personal calendar, a free/busy publish, where it's allowed, is all you need.

Moving the other way, from an iPhone into Outlook? See How to export an iPhone or iCloud calendar as an .ics file. Tools that keep two calendars in sync instead of copying a file are compared in Calendar sync tools compared.

Questions

Can you export a calendar from new Outlook?

Not as a file. New Outlook and Outlook on the web have no command that saves a calendar as .ics, and Microsoft says calendar items can't be exported to a .pst file in new Outlook yet. Publish the calendar and download the .ics from its ICS link, or use File › Save Calendar in classic Outlook.

How do I export my Outlook calendar to an .ics file?

In classic Outlook for Windows: open Calendar, select the calendar, then File › Save Calendar › More Options, pick the Date Range and Detail, and click OK, then Save. In new Outlook or Outlook on the web: publish the calendar and open its ICS link in a browser, which downloads calendar.ics.

How do I export a calendar from Outlook on the web?

Open Calendar, then View › Calendar settings › Calendar › Shared calendars. Under Publish a calendar, choose the calendar and the permissions, select Publish, and copy the ICS link. Open that link in a browser to download the file, then select Unpublish.

Can I save an Outlook calendar invite as .ics in new Outlook?

Not yet, according to Microsoft. Its roadmap item 560533, "Outlook: Save calendar events as .ics", was still marked In development on 2026-11-04, past its May 2026 rollout start. Classic Outlook can save events with File › Save Calendar.

How do I move my calendar from old Outlook to new Outlook?

Microsoft's feature comparison (updated September 23, 2026) says new Outlook supports importing mail, calendar events, contacts and tasks from a .pst file. You can also save the calendar from classic Outlook with File › Save Calendar, but new Outlook imports an .ics file only into a Microsoft 365 Exchange account.

Sources

What this page sends