Troubleshooting: Meeting Response (RSVP) Not Updated in Enrollment View

Overview

When users enroll in events—or when they are enrolled by an organizer—they receive an email invitation. From Outlook, users can respond to this invitation by accepting, declining, or marking it as tentative.

These responses are normally processed and displayed in the Enrollment List in SharePoint under the Reply column.

If the Reply column remains set to “Invited” even after users have responded, the response is not being processed correctly. This article explains the most common cause and how to resolve it.

Symptoms

• Users receive the event invitation email.

• Users successfully accept or decline the invitation in Outlook.

• The Reply column in the SharePoint enrollment view remains “Invited”.

• No updates are visible for accepted or declined responses.

Most Common Cause

This issue is usually caused by an Exchange mailbox rule configured on the mailbox used in the event email settings.

Why this happens

The system relies on the configured Exchange mailbox to receive and process meeting responses. If this mailbox has a rule that:

• Automatically moves replies (e.g. Accept / Decline messages)

• Redirects responses to a subfolder (such as Responses, Calendar, or a custom folder)

then the system can no longer detect and process these messages.

As a result, RSVP responses are ignored, and enrollment statuses are not updated.

Resolution

Step 1: Identify the mailbox used for event emails

• Check the email settings for your event or event platform.

• Note the Exchange mailbox configured for sending and receiving invitations.

Step 2: Review inbox rules on the mailbox

• Sign in to the mailbox in Outlook or Outlook on the Web (OWA).

• Navigate to Settings → Mail → Rules.

• Look for any rules that:

  • Move meeting responses

  • Sort responses into subfolders

  • Automatically process calendar-related emails

Step 3: Remove or disable the rule

• Delete or disable the rule that moves meeting responses out of the Inbox.

• Ensure that RSVP responses remain in the Inbox so they can be processed.

Step 4: Verify

• Ask a test user to accept or decline an event invitation.

• Confirm that the Reply column in the SharePoint enrollment list updates correctly.

Additional Notes

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• Avoid using automatic cleanup or sorting rules on this mailbox.

• If mailbox rules are required for other purposes, explicitly exclude meeting responses from those rules.

Summary

If meeting responses are not reflected in the enrollment view and remain stuck at “Invited”, the cause is almost always an Exchange mailbox rule that moves RSVP emails out of the Inbox. Removing this rule restores proper processing and ensures enrollment statuses update as expected.