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Microsoft Exchange Integration

Connect Tymeslot to an on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server over Exchange Web Services. Covers the EWS endpoint, domain logins versus mailbox addresses, self-signed certificates, and the read-only limits.

Luka Breitig — Software Engineer & AI Developer
Luka Breitig

Software Engineer & AI Developer

📋 Before you begin

  • An on-premises Exchange Server (2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition) reachable over HTTPS
  • The EWS endpoint URL, which almost always ends in /EWS/Exchange.asmx
  • A login your server accepts for Basic authentication — either your email address or a DOMAIN\username login
  • The mailbox address whose calendar you want to block on — separate from the login, and explained in step 2

Exchange or Outlook — which one do I need?

Tymeslot has two Microsoft calendar integrations, and they cover different products. Pick by where your mailbox lives, not by which client you use to read it.

Exchange (this page) is for a server your organisation runs itself. It speaks Exchange Web Services with a username and password.

Outlook Calendar is for Microsoft 365, Exchange Online and personal Outlook.com accounts. It signs in with Microsoft and speaks the Graph API. If your mailbox is hosted by Microsoft, use that one — this integration will not reach it.

👁️ What this integration does, and does not, do

An Exchange calendar is read-only. This is the one way it differs from every other calendar Tymeslot connects to, and it is worth understanding before you set it up.

It does block your availability

Meetings in your Exchange mailbox remove the matching times from your booking page, and appear on your Tymeslot dashboard calendar.

It does not receive bookings

Tymeslot never writes to Exchange, so an Exchange calendar is never offered as the calendar your confirmed bookings are added to.

You will want a second calendar

If Exchange is your only connected calendar, bookings have nowhere to be written. Connect a second calendar you own — Google, Outlook, or any CalDAV server — and Tymeslot will use that one as the booking target while Exchange continues to block your busy time.

1 Find your EWS endpoint

The endpoint is the same for every mailbox on the server and follows this pattern:

https://mail.example.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

Replace mail.example.com with the hostname you use for Outlook Web App. If you are unsure, your Exchange administrator will know it; it is the same URL Outlook itself uses for Autodiscover.

The path matters

A URL that stops at the hostname, or points at /owa, will not work. Tymeslot reports "EWS endpoint not found" when the address it was given is reachable but is not an EWS endpoint — the usual cause is a missing /EWS/Exchange.asmx suffix.

Self-hosting Tymeslot on that same network is the exception. A host that resolves to a private address is refused by default, as protection against server-side request forgery. Set ALLOW_PRIVATE_IPS_FOR_CALENDAR=true on your Tymeslot deployment to permit an Exchange server on an internal network. This applies to self-hosted installs only — on the managed service at tymeslot.app our servers have no route to your network, so a private address cannot work there whatever you configure.

2 Prepare your login and mailbox address

The form asks for these separately, and on many servers they are not the same string.

Username and password

Whatever your server accepts for Basic authentication. On many deployments that is your email address; on others it is a domain login such as CONTOSO\alice. If you can sign in to Outlook Web App with it, it will work here.

Mailbox address

The SMTP address of the mailbox, such as alice@contoso.com. Exchange needs a real address to answer a free/busy question, and a domain login is not one — which is why this is asked for even when it duplicates the username.

Internal-only domains are fine

Tymeslot does not require the mailbox domain to be a public one. Addresses ending in .local, .corp or .internal are accepted, because on-premises mailboxes routinely use them.

3 Add the calendar in Tymeslot

  1. 1 Go to [Dashboard][Settings][Integrations].
  2. 2 Click [Add Microsoft Exchange].
  3. 3 Enter the EWS endpoint, your username and password, and the mailbox address. Leave Verify TLS certificate ticked unless step 4 applies to you.
  4. 4 Tymeslot lists the calendar folders it found in the mailbox. Tick the ones you want on your dashboard and click [Save].

Folder selection does not narrow your busy time

Exchange answers free/busy questions for a whole mailbox, not per folder. The folders you tick control what appears on your Tymeslot dashboard calendar; your availability is blocked by everything in the mailbox either way. If you keep genuinely unrelated appointments in a separate Exchange calendar, they will still remove times from your booking page.

4 Self-signed or internal-CA certificates

Plenty of on-premises Exchange deployments present a certificate issued by an internal certificate authority, or a self-signed one. Tymeslot refuses those by default, the same as any HTTPS client would.

If the connection test reports a certificate problem, untick Verify TLS certificate on the connection form. The connection stays encrypted; Tymeslot simply stops checking who signed the certificate.

Prefer a trusted certificate where you can

Turning verification off means a machine positioned between Tymeslot and your Exchange server could present its own certificate and read the traffic, credentials included. On a private network you control this is usually an acceptable trade. Across the public internet, install a certificate from a trusted authority instead.

🔧 Troubleshooting

"Authentication failed"

The server rejected the username or password. Try the other login form — if you used your email address, try DOMAIN\username, and the other way round. Note that Tymeslot authenticates with Basic authentication only; a server configured for NTLM or Kerberos exclusively will reject every attempt, and your administrator would need to enable Basic authentication on the EWS virtual directory.

"EWS endpoint not found"

The URL was reachable but is not an EWS endpoint. Check it ends in /EWS/Exchange.asmx.

A certificate error

See step 4. Tymeslot distinguishes a refused certificate from an unreachable server, so if the message names the certificate, the network path is fine and the fix is the verification checkbox.

Connected, but no events appear on the dashboard

The first sync runs shortly after you connect rather than instantly. If the calendar is still empty after a few minutes, confirm you ticked at least one folder, and that the mailbox address is the one holding the appointments.

The connection is refused from a private network

A server on a private address is refused by default. See the note in step 1; this applies to self-hosted installs only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this work with Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online?

No, and it should not be used for one. Microsoft is retiring the EWS endpoint for Exchange Online, so a Microsoft-hosted mailbox belongs on the Outlook Calendar integration, which uses the Graph API and signs you in with Microsoft. This integration is for servers your organisation runs itself.

Which Exchange versions are supported?

Exchange Server 2016, 2019 and Subscription Edition. Older versions expose EWS as well and may work, but they are not tested. Any server presenting a standards-compliant EWS endpoint with Basic authentication has a good chance of connecting.

Why can't bookings be written to my Exchange calendar?

The integration is read-only, so Tymeslot never creates, edits or deletes anything in your mailbox. It blocks your availability and shows your meetings, and confirmed bookings are written to another calendar you connect. A future release may add the write path.

Do recurring meetings block every occurrence?

Yes. Tymeslot asks Exchange for your busy time directly rather than inferring it from the individual meeting entries, which is what makes a weekly stand-up block every week rather than only the first. Your dashboard calendar may show the series once while your booking page correctly blocks each occurrence.

Does my administrator need to change anything?

Usually not. EWS is enabled by default on a standard Exchange installation. Two policies can get in the way: EWS access restricted by throttling or client-access rules, and Basic authentication disabled on the EWS virtual directory. Both are things your Exchange administrator can check.

Can I connect a shared or resource mailbox?

Only if you have credentials that authenticate directly to that mailbox and its address is the one you enter as the mailbox address. Tymeslot does not currently authenticate as one account to read another account's mailbox.

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