What are the Top 13 Respond to a Meeting Request Tips in Outlook?

Microsoft Outlook is essential for day-to-day business operations—but most teams only scratch the surface of what it can do. When Outlook is optimized and supported by professional IT services, it can drastically reduce scheduling headaches and improve team coordination.

At LI Tech Advisors, we help businesses—from accounting firms to growing teams across Long Island—manage Outlook more effectively through automation, training, and proactive IT support.

Whether you're cleaning up canceled meetings, tracking who’s attending, or recovering deleted invites, the following tips are designed to help your business stay productive and in sync.

For a quick walkthrough, here’s a helpful video on handling meeting requests in Outlook—perfect for onboarding or team refreshers:

Here are 13 Outlook calendar tips—paired with insights on how LI Tech Advisors can support your systems and workflows:

1) Automatically hide canceled meetings

Use View Settings → Filter → Advanced → Subject doesn’t contain “Canceled:” to reduce clutter. We configure this for clients as part of Outlook policy management.

2) Track meeting attendees

1. Click the Calendar icon
2. Open the meeting
3. Go to the “Tracking” button under the Meeting Occurrence tab

3) Accept a declined or deleted meeting

1. Open it from Deleted Items and click Accept/Tentative
2. If emptied, contact the organizer for a resend

4) Send updates without requiring responses

1. Edit the meeting → Attendees group → Responses → Uncheck “Request Responses”

5) Accept a previously declined meeting

1. Find it in Deleted Items → Open → Click Accept

6) Respond to a meeting request

Open the request → Use the Respond group to Accept, Decline, Tentative, or Propose New Time.

7) See who declined a meeting

Use the Tracking button again to see all responses. To cancel a meeting: select it from your calendar → Click “Cancel Meeting” → Send cancellation.

8) Can you un-decline a meeting?

Only accepted or tentative meetings appear on your calendar. If declined, request a resend or use IT recovery tools—something our support team can handle.

9) Filter canceled meetings

1. Calendar → View Settings → Filter → Advanced tab
2. Add filter: Subject doesn’t contain “Canceled:”

10) Send meeting updates

1. Double-click the meeting → Edit → Send Update

11) Delete without sending a cancellation

1. Go offline → Delete → Cancel message → Remove from Outbox → Go back online

12) Change your response to a meeting

Open the meeting and edit your response in the Meeting dialogue window → Click Send Update.

13) Recover deleted meetings

1. Folder → Recover Deleted Items → Select → Recover

Our managed IT services in Long Island make Outlook work for your business—not against it. We support everything from Microsoft 365 optimization to security and automation setup.

Ready to take control of your calendar and reduce email chao