How to Put Your Outlook Calendar on the iPhone Lock Screen

Add the Outlook account to the iPhone

This works the same for a personal Outlook.com or Hotmail address and for a Microsoft 365 work or school account. Microsoft’s own instructions use the Exchange option for all of them, and the sign-in happens on Microsoft’s page inside Settings, so no other app sees your password.

1. 1
   Open Calendar Accounts

   Go to Settings, then Apps, then Calendar, then Calendar Accounts, and tap Add Account. On iOS 17 and earlier the path is Settings, then Calendar, then Accounts.

2. 2
   Choose Microsoft Exchange

   Pick Microsoft Exchange rather than Outlook.com, type your email address and a short description such as Work, and tap Next, then Sign In.

3. 3
   Sign in and accept

   Enter your password on Microsoft’s page. A work account may ask for a code from the Authenticator app and show a permissions screen; tap Accept.

4. 4
   Turn on Calendars and save

   On the list of services, make sure Calendars is on and tap Save. Mail and Contacts can stay off if you only want the events.

Microsoft lists these steps in Set up an Outlook account on the iOS Mail app, and Apple covers every provider in its guide to calendar accounts. Open Apple’s Calendar app afterwards and tap Calendars at the bottom: the Outlook calendars sit under the account’s description, and a meeting you accept on the laptop shows up there after the next sync.

When a work account will not add

Some companies allow their mail and calendar only inside the Outlook app. Then adding the account in Settings fails at sign-in, or the phone is asked to install a management profile first. That is the company’s rule, and only the Microsoft 365 admin or IT desk can change it, which Microsoft says on the same help page. Ask them whether the built-in Calendar app is allowed for your account.

If the answer is no, the Outlook app’s own widgets are the only way to see those meetings outside the app. Look for them in the widget list after installing Outlook. A personal Outlook.com calendar is never blocked this way, so a second account for family plans can still go on the wallpaper.

How to put Outlook on the Lock Screen with Calendarly

With the account on the phone, Calendarly reads the Outlook calendars like any other. You set it up once, and from then on the picture follows your calendar each morning.

1. 1
   Download Calendarly

   Get Calendarly from the App Store. It is free, runs on iOS 16.6 or later and needs no account of its own.

2. 2
   Allow calendar access

   Calendarly asks when you set up your first calendar layout. It reads the calendars Apple’s Calendar app shows, so the Outlook ones are included.

3. 3
   Choose which calendars to draw

   Turn on your Outlook calendar and leave out the ones you don’t need in the morning, such as a room booking calendar or a colleague’s shared one.

4. 4
   Pick a layout in the Gallery

   Every layout is shown on a real Lock Screen. A day with times suits a calendar of calls; a week suits shift work and travel.

5. 5
   Adjust it in the Studio

   Change the background, the colours, the size and the space under the clock. The preview uses your own Outlook meetings as you go.

6. 6
   Tap Use as Wallpaper

   The first time, Calendarly adds its shortcut, Update Calendarly Wallpaper, and walks you through the Shortcuts automation that runs it each morning.

The automation runs at the time you choose, early in the morning for most people, and sets the new picture while the phone is still on the nightstand. Each event keeps its calendar’s colour, so work meetings and family plans are easy to tell apart, and all-day events such as a day off are drawn too. The calendar on the Lock Screen guide walks through the same setup screen by screen.

Layouts that work for a work calendar

• The day with times

  Start and end times beside each title, so the first glance answers what is next and when it ends. A daily schedule wallpaper goes further into it.

• The week

  Seven days side by side for rotas, travel and on-call weeks, as in the weekly schedule guide.

• The month

  Single Month View is free and marks the days with something on them, which helps when deadlines matter more than meeting times.

• Meetings and tasks together

  Outlook events with an Apple Reminders list or Todoist tasks under them, described in calendar and reminders on one Lock Screen.

96 of the 152 layouts are free. Calendarly Pro unlocks the others along with your own photos as backgrounds. The Month and Coming Up widgets for the Home Screen are free too, and they read the same Outlook calendars.

What the widget under the clock can do

Apple’s Calendar widget is quick to add: touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, choose Lock Screen, tap the row under the clock and pick Calendar. With the Outlook account on the phone, its Up Next widget shows the next timed meeting. Apple has the steps with pictures and a guide to customizing the Lock Screen.

The row is small, though. It fits one meeting in a few words, and Apple’s widget leaves out all-day events, so an out-of-office day or a deadline never appears there. That is the usual reason the calendar widget looks empty.

Both can stay on the screen at once: Up Next in the widget row tells you about the meeting that starts in ten minutes, and the wallpaper holds the rest of the day. For Outlook on the Home Screen, the Home Screen calendar guide covers the widgets there.

If Outlook meetings are missing

Open Apple’s Calendar app first. If a meeting is missing there as well, the gap is between Microsoft and the iPhone, and one of these usually closes it.

1. 1
   Check the Calendars switch

   Settings, Apps, Calendar, Calendar Accounts, then the Exchange account. If the account was first added for Mail, Calendars is often off.

2. 2
   Tick the calendar

   In Apple’s Calendar app, tap Calendars at the bottom. An unticked calendar is hidden, and its events are skipped everywhere, the wallpaper included.

3. 3
   Look at Fetch New Data

   On the Calendar Accounts page, tap Fetch New Data and check the Exchange account. Push sends changes as they happen; Manual waits until you open the Calendar app.

4. 4
   Sign in again after a password change

   A new work password or an expired sign-in stops the sync without much warning. Settings shows a prompt on the account; sign in there.

5. 5
   Run the shortcut

   The wallpaper is a picture made in the morning. After a meeting moves, open Shortcuts and run Update Calendarly Wallpaper, or add a midday time to the automation.

A meeting that a colleague added to a shared calendar comes through only if that calendar is shared with your account in Outlook. If one calendar of the account is missing, check it in Outlook on the web first. More update times are explained in the guide to a wallpaper that updates on its own.

Is it all right to put work meetings on the Lock Screen?

Anyone who picks up a locked phone can read what the Lock Screen shows, and that includes meeting titles. If your calendar holds client names or interview slots, leave that calendar off the wallpaper and keep only a personal one, or let the widget show just the next meeting. Calendarly itself asks iOS for the events, draws the picture on the phone and hands it to Shortcuts. The events are not sent to a server, and nothing in your Outlook calendar is changed. Turning off calendar access under Settings, Apps, Calendarly stops it reading anything.