New behavior between Recurring Zoom Meetings and Outlook (April 2025)
🔄 Background
Zoom meetings are often set to "No Fixed Time" for flexibility, allowing the same Zoom link to be used for all sessions without locking them into specific calendar dates/times. This setup is ideal for recurring events such as classes, team meetings, or ongoing projects.
🛠️ Previous Behavior (Last Year)
When a Zoom link was manually added to an Outlook appointment, it:
Changed the Zoom meeting name.
Converted it to a fixed-time meeting.
However, if the meetings were added through Coursedog and not edited in Outlook, they remained as "No Fixed Time".
âť— Current Behavior
Now, even if a Zoom meeting is set to "No Fixed Time", adding it to Outlook will automatically create a series of scheduled occurrences in Zoom tied to that meeting ID.
These occurrences might not show up in Zoom unless the user expands the date range (for events more than 3 months away).
This can create confusion for users who can't see their meeting unless they know a specific date.
Once occurrences are created, users can edit individual instances or the entire series. However, switching the meeting back to "No Fixed Time" can be unreliable and may cause unexpected behavior. Additionally, Coursedog’s nightly updates will recreate the scheduled times again.
Recommended workflow for finding and editing recurring meetings with a fixed time:
1) On your meetings page at https://dmuedu.zoom.us/meeting#/upcoming adjust the date range at the top of the page to include the date of one of the occurrences for the course link. There is a 3-month limit to the date range.
Note: The first click selects the start of the date range, and the second click selects the end of the date range. Click the same day twice to select that single day.
2) Hover over the meeting you want to edit and select Edit.
3) Select Edit this Occurrence or Edit Entire Series.
4) Make your changes and click Save when finished.
Reminder: Attempting to change a meeting back to No Fixed Time may cause unexpected results and is not recommended once the Zoom/Outlook integration has created multiple occurrences.
