How to Unmerge Calendars in Outlook 365? 4 Top Ways

Having several calendars in a single view in Outlook may cause problems when distinguishing events that are personal, work, shared or imported. Often, it should be said, the calendars have not been really merged by Outlook; rather, the calendars are shown within the same view by way of overlaying or merging calendars. Microsoft Outlook gives its users the ability to have several calendars displayed at the same time in either of two views that is merged or split. If you need to keep yourself organized, you might want to know how to unmerge calendars in Outlook 365. Below you will find a detailed guide about both manual and automatic ways to separate the calendar in Outlook efficiently.

Why Do Calendars Appear Merged in Outlook 365?

Before moving to the solutions, know why calendars appear merged in Outlook. We will also cover why you need to unmerge calendars in Outlook 365. Let’s go through the reasons given below:

• Multiple Calendars are Selected: When several calendars are checked in Outlook, their events appear together in the same calendar interface.
• Overlay View is Enabled: Outlook’s overlay mode displays events from multiple calendars on a single calendar grid.
• Work and personal Calendars are viewed: Selecting both work and personal calendars can place their events in the same view.
• Shared Calendar in Added: A shared or another user’s calendar may be displayed alongside your primary calendar. When both are selected, events from each calendar appear together.
• Events were imported Into One Calendar: Calendar events from different sources may have been imported into the same calendar application.
• Multiple Calendars were consolidated into one ICS File: Exporting all the calendar data into one single file can result in events from different schedules being stored together.

Now, know why you should separate calendars in Outlook

• It keeps work, personal, and project schedules separate.
• Separating Calendars helps to identify overlapping appointments across different schedules.
• Manage and update events according to their specific calendars
• Breaking calendars focuses on one schedule without unnecessary events from other calendars.
• Maintain a clear schedule and manage important events more effectively.

How to Unmerge Calendars in Outlook 365? 4 Best Methods

In this section, we have discussed several techniques to separate calendars in Outlook. Users can choose them depending on the cause. Here are some of the methods mentioned below:

• Professional Way to Break Combined Calendars
• Unmerge Calendars Manually ( DATA Level)
• Turn Off Overlay View to Separate Calendars in Outlook
• Separate Calendar in New Outlook and Web Outlook (OWA)

Let’s discuss each of them in detail for better user understanding.

Method 1: Direct Solution to Separate Calendars in Outlook 365

While manual methods work well for visual overlays or small event lists, they become tedious and error-prone when dealing with large, merged calendar files containing thousands of entries. If you have a single combined ICS/iCalendar file that you need to break down for importing into Outlook, manual moving is not an ideal solution. Instead, using the standalone SysTools ICS Splitter Tool is the best way. This tool helps users to unmerge Calendars in Outlook 365 by breaking the calendar file into multiple chunks for better organization. The reliable software also offers multiple splitting options such as by size, category, events, and many others. It can also fix ICS file too large errors without any difficulty. The software is user-friendly for both technical and non-technical users.

Working Steps of the Tool

1. Download the aforementioned tool and choose the split ICS option.
2. Then, click on the Add file or Add folder option to upload the ICS file.
3. To unmerge calendars in Outlook 365, choose the splitting options.
4. Then, a message will pop up saying the splitting process is complete. Click the OK button.
5. Now, click on the View Report button to check the status of the process.

Method 2: How to Unmerge Calendars in Outlook 365 Manually? (Data Level)

If the user has added the ICS file or the calendar of the other user in the default calendar folder, then overlay view won’t be able to distinguish between them and hence, all the events will converge to one calendar. To fix this issue, follow the steps given below:

1. In Outlook 365 Calendar, go to the View tab on the top ribbon
2. Then, click on Change View and select List
3. After this, select all the imported events belonging to the secondary calendar schedule
4. Then, Right-click the highlighted events and go to the Move option and choose Other Folder.
5. Next, select an existing calendar folder or click New to create a new folder named “Secondary Calendar”.
6. Finally, click on the OK button to transfer the items

Method 3: Turn Off Overlay View to Separate Calendars in Outlook

The most frequent reason why people need help to unmerge calendars in Outlook 365 is that they have mistakenly activated the function called “Overlay View.” With this function turned on, Outlook displays multiple calendars under one tab. Turning it off returns each calendar to its own tab. The steps are:

1. Firstly, open Microsoft Outlook 365 on your desktop
2. Then, navigate to the Calendar View by clicking on the calendar icon on the left-hand side
3. Now, locate the calendars listed in the left pane under My Calendars
4. Then, look at the calendar view area. If multiple calendars share a single grid, click the left arrow (←) on the tab of the secondary calendar.
5. After this, right-click on the tab header of the secondary calendar and uncheck Overlay
6. At last, both calendars will immediately display side-by-side as two separate calendars in Outlook.

Method 4: How to Unmerge Calendars in New Outlook and Web App?

New Outlook for Windows and New Outlook on the Web have been redesigned with a sleek, web-friendly user interface that is meant to help with schedule management. It is important to note that these two new applications show overlaps in schedules differently from the older versions of desktop applications. This guide will show you how you can split your calendars in New Outlook. The following steps are:

1. Launch the New Outlook for Windows or log in to Outlook on the Web (OWA)
2. Navigate to the Calendar icon on the left panel
3. Next, on the left sidebar under My Calendars, ensure all relevant calendars are selected
4. Now, look at the top-right toolbar above the grid display and click on the View option
5. Lastly, select the Split View (or toggle off Combine View depending on your build version).

Limitations of Manual Methods

• Manually splitting the calendars can lead to missed events, wrong moves, or accidental duplicates.
• Sorting through hundreds of merged entries item by item takes excessive manual effort.
• Moving the calendar entries manually to unmerge calendars in Outlook 365 can be error-prone.
• These manual ways can be time-consuming when handling large calendars with multiple items.

Conclusion

In this write-up, we have covered how to unmerge calendars in Outlook 365 using 5 methods. These solutions include both manual and automated ways. Here, we have also listed common reasons to separate calendars in Outlook. Furthermore, for large ICS files, we have suggested you to choose the professional solution. This tool will help to break ICS files into small parts easily without losing its data.