Why is Schedule out of office missing in my Teams?

The feature relies on the automatic-replies setting of an Exchange or Microsoft 365 mailbox. Personal and free Teams accounts without such a mailbox do not get the option, and some tightly managed organizations restrict it. If your work account misses it, check with your admin.

Does out of office in Teams also set my Outlook auto-reply?

Yes. It is the same setting under the hood. Whatever message and time period you save in Teams shows up in Outlook's automatic replies within a few minutes, and changes made in Outlook flow back to Teams the same way.

My Teams status is stuck on out of office. How do I clear it?

Open the schedule screen again (profile picture, Set status message, Schedule out of office), switch the automatic-replies toggle off and save. If the arrow still shows, check Outlook for a leftover automatic reply and your calendar for an event still marked as out of office, then restart Teams.

Can people outside my company see my out-of-office reply?

Only if you enable it. The schedule panel has a separate checkbox for replies outside your organization, with its own message text, and you can restrict it to your saved contacts instead of all external senders.

Set out of office in Microsoft Teams

Jovana Avramovic

Published August 10, 2026

Out of office in Teams does three things at once: it switches your status so people see you are away before they message you, it shows an automatic reply in chat, and it writes the same automatic reply into Outlook. You set it once and both apps are covered.

Here is how to schedule it, what the sync with Outlook means in practice, and how to fix the classic problem of a status that refuses to go away.

Schedule out of office from your profile picture

Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of Teams.
Choose "Set status message".
Click "Schedule out of office" at the bottom of the panel.
Turn on the toggle next to "Turn on automatic replies" and write your message. People see it when they message you in Teams and when they open your profile card.
If people outside your company should get a reply too, tick "Send replies outside my organization" and write that version. You can limit it to your contacts or send it to all external senders.
Tick "Send replies only during a time period" and set the start and end date and time, so the whole thing switches itself off when you are back.
Click "Save".

Without the time period, the status and the replies stay on until you remember to turn them off manually. Set the dates and forget about it.

Teams schedule out of office panel with automatic replies toggle, message field, and time period dates

The same screen through Settings

Click "Settings and more" (the three dots next to your profile picture), then "Settings", then "General".
Scroll to the "Out of Office" section near the bottom and click "Schedule".
Fill in the same panel as above: automatic replies, message, optional external reply, time period, Save.

What the Outlook sync means

Teams and Outlook share one automatic-replies setting on your mailbox. Schedule out of office in Teams and the same message and dates appear under Outlook's automatic replies within a few minutes, and the other way around. You never need to set it twice, but it also means you cannot have different messages in the two apps.

During the scheduled window Teams shows the out-of-office arrow on your avatar, and anyone who starts a chat with you sees your reply text before they even send a message.

Keep your calendar in sync with approved leave

The reply is a one-off, but blocking the calendar repeats with every vacation. If your team tracks leave in Time Out Zone, subscribe once to your personal ICS calendar feed in Outlook: every approved absence then appears as an all-day event in your Outlook calendar, which is the same calendar Teams shows.

In Outlook, that is "Add calendar", then "Subscribe from web", then paste your private feed link. Teams picks it up automatically because both apps read the same mailbox calendar.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Schedule out of office missing in my Teams?: The feature relies on the automatic-replies setting of an Exchange or Microsoft 365 mailbox. Personal and free Teams accounts without such a mailbox do not get the option, and some tightly managed organizations restrict it. If your work account misses it, check with your admin.
Does out of office in Teams also set my Outlook auto-reply?: Yes. It is the same setting under the hood. Whatever message and time period you save in Teams shows up in Outlook's automatic replies within a few minutes, and changes made in Outlook flow back to Teams the same way.
My Teams status is stuck on out of office. How do I clear it?: Open the schedule screen again (profile picture, Set status message, Schedule out of office), switch the automatic-replies toggle off and save. If the arrow still shows, check Outlook for a leftover automatic reply and your calendar for an event still marked as out of office, then restart Teams.
Can people outside my company see my out-of-office reply?: Only if you enable it. The schedule panel has a separate checkbox for replies outside your organization, with its own message text, and you can restrict it to your saved contacts instead of all external senders.