Tip 963: Which Calendar does the To-Do Bar use?

We get a lot of questions about missing appointments on the To-Do Bar appointment section:

My To-Do Bar is not showing my appointments. Under my 'To-Do Bar' options everything is checked.

In addition to missing appointments, some users complain that the wrong appointments are shown.

This is always a problem when there is more than one calendar in the profile.

The easiest way to verify which calendar is considered the default calendar by Outlook is to double-click on one of the dates in the navigation calendar in the To-Do bar.

This will take you to the default calendar. If this is not the calendar you expected to be your default calendar, you can either change the default data file in Account Settings, Data Files or move your appointments to the default calendar.

Note that in some cases, you should not (or can't) move appointments to a different folder.

Multiple .pst files

When you have multiple pst files in your profile, the "wrong" calendar may be shown on the To-do bar. This is because the To-Do bar uses the default calendar in the default data file. If you want to see a calendar in a different data file on the To-Do bar, you'll need to change the default data file in Account Settings, Data files.

If you have two calendar folders in your default data file, the To-Do bar uses only the default calendar. How do you know which calendar folder is the default calendar? It's the one Outlook creates when it creates the default data file. When you create a new appointment while viewing the Inbox, the appointment is saved to this calendar.

If you want appointments from the second calendar visible on the To-Do bar, you'll need to move or copy the appointments to the default calendar. You cannot make the second calendar default.

To move appointments

Switch to a list view. In Outlook 2010 and 2007, you can do this from the View ribbon, Change Views. In older versions, use the All Appointments or By Category view.

Select all appointments and drag or using the Move to Folder command.

Published March 7, 2012. Last updated on October 6, 2013.

Related posts:

How to move your appointments from your default Outlook Calendar into the Hotmail Live Calendar using the Outlook Connector.Tip 928: Move Outlook's Calendar into Windows Live CalendarTip 558: Move an IMAP *.PSTI’m hoping this will be my next-to-last post about the problem of Outlook2010’s handling of multiple accounts when an IMAP accountTip 830: Outlook 2010, IMAP & Send to commandsTip 892: Show More Appointments on Outlook's Calendar