📭 Teams channel meetings: Stop invitations in your own inbox

You receive an invitation and a calendar appointment for every new meeting in a Teams channel – although nobody invited you personally? Then you are following the group behind the team in your inbox. You can turn this subscription off yourself in Outlook.

Every team in Microsoft Teams is based on a Microsoft 365 group. If you follow this group in your inbox, you receive a copy of all group emails and events in your personal mailbox – including invitations to new channel meetings. In Outlook, this setting is called “Follow in Inbox” and can be changed for each group individually.

🎯 At a glance

This is how you stop a team’s channel meeting invitations in your mailbox:

In Outlook, open the group with the team’s name.
Change the “Follow in Inbox” setting to no emails and no events.
Important: An option such as “Replies to you and events only” is not enough – you will still receive events.

You remain a member of the team and still see all channel meetings in the channel. If Outlook cannot find the group, your IT can help.

💡 Key concept

Following is not the same as membership. You remain a member as long as you are in the team. Following only determines whether copies of group emails and events also land in your personal inbox. All content stays in the team and the group.

🖱️ Step-by-step guide: How to turn off your group subscription

The steps differ depending on your Outlook version. Labels may vary slightly between versions.

🆕 Guide 1: New Outlook and Outlook on the web

For new Outlook for Windows and Outlook in the browser (outlook.office.com).

1	Select Groups in the navigation bar on the left.
2	On the Group Home tab, select the group card with the team’s name. Click on an empty area of the card, not on the name or an icon.
3	In the group, open the drop-down list for your follow preference (e.g. “Following” or “Follow in Inbox”).
4	Select the option that stops all group emails and events in your inbox (e.g. “Not following”).

💡 The change applies immediately to all new invitations from this group.

🖥️ Guide 2: Classic Outlook for Windows

For the Outlook desktop app (Microsoft 365, 2021, 2024).

1	In the navigation pane on the left, under Groups, select the group with the team’s name.
2	On the ribbon, select Group Settings.
3	Point to Follow in Inbox.
4	Select No Emails or Events.

💡 If there are several teams you no longer want invitations from, repeat these steps for each group.

⚠️ Please note

Do not select “Leave Group”: this also removes you from the team, and you lose access to channels, files and conversations.
Invitations you already received remain in your calendar. Remove them yourself as usual.
Personal invitations will still reach you – whenever the organizer adds you directly or turns on “Send personal invites”.

🔍 What if Outlook does not show the group?

Groups created directly in Microsoft Teams are often hidden in Outlook. In that case you will not find the group in the group list or in search and cannot change the setting yourself.

💡 For your IT

Your IT or an administrator can remove you from the group’s subscriber list or turn off automatic subscription for the whole team. Forward the article Teams channel meetings: Stop invitations to all members (for administrators) to them.

📅 Will I still see channel meetings?

Yes. Channel meetings still appear as a post in the channel. There you see the topic, date and time and can join via the post. If you want to attend a specific meeting and be reminded, add it from the channel to your calendar.

🎯 Teamsware recommendation

Decide yourself which teams fill your mailbox with appointments – and keep an eye on the others via the channel.

✅ For teams whose meetings you don’t need in your calendar, set “Follow in Inbox” to no emails and events.
✅ For teams where you must not miss an appointment, deliberately keep the subscription on.
✅ Stay a member of the team – do not leave the group.
✅ If Outlook cannot find the group: inform your IT.

💡 Memory aid

Following = copy in your inbox. Member = access in the team. If you stop following, channel meeting invitations no longer land in your mailbox – and you remain fully part of the team.

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