This documentation describes how to properly cancel and remove meetings and recurring meetings organized by a departed employee from the calendars of all attendees and resource calendars (e.g., conference rooms) in Microsoft 365.

Important Prerequisite: The departed employee’s mailbox must not be permanently deleted yet. Execute these steps as part of the offboarding process, before the account is completely removed from Microsoft 365.

Method 1: The Best Practice Approach (PowerShell)

This is the official and most efficient method. It automatically sends cancellations to all attendees and frees up previously booked rooms.

Step 1: Check Prerequisites & Install Module

Launch PowerShell as an Administrator. If you haven’t already, you need to install the Exchange Online module:

Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement -Force

Step 2: Connect to Exchange Online

Log in with your Administrator account (Global Admin or Exchange Admin):

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName [email protected]

Step 3: Delete Meetings (Remove-CalendarEvents)

Use the Remove-CalendarEvents cmdlet to cancel the meetings. Here are two typical use cases:

Use Case A: Standard Cleanup (1 Year)

Employee John Doe is leaving the company. All of his future meetings for the upcoming year should be canceled.

Remove-CalendarEvents -Identity "[email protected]" -CancelOrganizedMeetings -QueryWindowInDays 365

Use Case B: Preview Affected Meetings (WhatIf)

If you are unsure and want to see which meetings would be deleted without actually executing the command, use the -WhatIf switch:

Remove-CalendarEvents -Identity "[email protected]" -CancelOrganizedMeetings -QueryWindowInDays 120 -WhatIf

Step 4: Disconnect Session

For security reasons, always disconnect your session after successfully completing your tasks:

Disconnect-ExchangeOnline -Confirm:$false

Method 2: The Manual Workaround (Web Interface / GUI)

Use this method only if you lack PowerShell permissions or if you need to manually manage a specific, single recurring meeting.

Step 1: Convert to a Shared Mailbox

  • Open the Microsoft 365 admin center.
  • Go to Users > Active users.
  • Click on the departed employee’s name.
  • Select the Mail tab and click on Convert to shared mailbox.
Step 2: Grant Full Access Permissions

  • Scroll down in the user’s Mail settings to Mailbox permissions.
  • Click on Manage mailbox permissions.
  • Add your own Admin account under Read and manage (Full Access).
Note: It can take up to 60 minutes for the permissions to fully synchronize across the cloud.

Step 3: Open Mailbox and Cancel the Series

  • Open Outlook on the web (OWA) with your Admin account.
  • Click on your profile picture in the top right corner and select Open another mailbox…
  • Enter the email address of the departed employee and open it.
  • Switch to the Calendar view.
  • Locate the recurring meeting in question.
  • Right-click it and select Cancel -> Cancel series.
  • Send the cancellation. The meeting will now be removed from all attendees’ calendars.
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