If you have noticed that your slots are showing as Available even though your calendar has event scheduled for all-day to block off a full day, it may cause confusion.
Here’s a simple explanation of why this happens and how you can fix it.
You can also watch this video:
Issue: All-day events are set to "Free” by default
When you create an all-day event in Google Calendar, Outlook, or Microsoft 365, it’s automatically marked as Free instead of Busy. This setting means that even though your calendar shows an event for the whole day, your NeetoCal availability remains open for scheduling because the event doesn’t block your time.
Let’s go through an example:
If you create an event from 3 PM to 4 PM, it is typically marked as Busy.
But, if you change this event to an all-day event, the status switches to Free by default.
This default setting in Google and Microsoft calendars can cause unexpected availability in NeetoCal if you intend to block the entire day.
Why do calendars mark all-day events as “Free”?
Often, all-day events are used to mark time off, and these invites may be sent to managers or team members. If they accidentally accept the invite, their calendars will show them as busy all day, causing confusion and scheduling issues.
As a result, Google and Microsoft switched to Free as the default status for all-day events, allowing more flexibility but also creating this availability issue in NeetoCal.
How to fix this issue
To ensure that all-day events actually block off your time in NeetoCal, you need to change the event status to Busy when creating or editing the event. Here’s how:
When setting up your all-day event, go to the more options and find the status settings.
Change the status from Free to Busy.
Save the event with the updated status.
By making this quick adjustment, NeetoCal will recognize your time as unavailable, and your slots won’t appear open for scheduling.