Fix Microsoft Bookings Reminder Email Replies Not Delivered
Question details
The user is unable to receive customer replies sent in response to Microsoft Bookings reminder emails, despite successfully receiving replies to the initial booking confirmations.
- Product
- Microsoft Bookings
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- A customer receives an automated reminder email for an upcoming appointment and replies to it, expecting the business administrator to receive the message.
- Observed behavior
- The reply email is not delivered to the administrator's inbox, and Microsoft 365 message traces show no activity for these specific reminder replies.
Ensure you have administrator access to your Microsoft 365 tenant and the Microsoft Bookings business page. You will need Exchange admin permissions to run a message trace.
Verify Bookings Settings and Run a Message Trace
Check your business information and use the Microsoft 365 Exchange admin center to trace the missing emails to see if they are reaching your tenant.
A message trace will help determine if the email reached your organization's Exchange server and was blocked/filtered, or if it never arrived at all.
Open Microsoft Bookings and navigate to the 'Business information' page to confirm the correct administrator email address is listed.
Check the 'Services' settings to ensure that email and SMS notifications are properly enabled for the affected booking services.
Log into the Microsoft 365 Exchange Admin Center with your global or Exchange administrator credentials.
Go to 'Mail flow' > 'Message trace'. Start a trace using the customer's email address as the sender, and set the date range to match when they sent the reminder reply.
Review the trace report. If you see activity for new or updated bookings but none for the reminder reply, the routing is likely failing at the Bookings service level.
Escalate to Microsoft 365 Support
If message traces show no activity for reminder replies, the feature might be unsupported or experiencing a service degradation that requires Microsoft's intervention.
Switch to WPS Office for a Seamless Productivity Experience
While Microsoft 365 handles your booking and email infrastructure, you can still optimize your local document workflow. WPS Office provides a free, lightweight, and highly compatible alternative to Microsoft Office, letting you create and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files effortlessly without subscription hurdles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I receive initial booking replies but not reminder replies?
Microsoft Bookings may route initial confirmation emails differently than automated reminder emails. In some configurations or service builds, the 'Reply-To' header on reminder emails may not map back to the administrator's inbox properly, causing the reply to be dropped.
What does it mean if a message trace shows no activity?
If an Exchange message trace shows absolutely no activity for a specific email, it means the email never reached your Microsoft 365 tenant's Exchange servers. This usually indicates a routing issue on Microsoft's end or that the customer's reply was blocked before reaching your environment.
Can I change the 'Reply-To' address for Microsoft Bookings reminders?
By default, Bookings uses the email address specified in your Business Information settings. However, granular control over specific reminder email headers is limited, which is why reaching out to Microsoft Support is recommended if replies fail to deliver.
