How to Get Birthday Reminders in Outlook
If your day runs on Outlook, it is a sensible home for birthdays too. Outlook builds a Birthdays calendar from your contacts. Here is how to turn it on, add birthdays, and make sure the reminder actually reaches you.
The short answer
In new Outlook or Outlook on the web, open Calendar, select Add calendar, then Birthdays, choose the account and check Turn on the birthday calendar. Birthdays saved on your contacts then show as all-day events that repeat every year, and you can add more with New birthday. Open one birthday to check its reminder. If you'd rather get the reminder by email with a message ready, Greetigo does that in any browser, free for up to 10 saved dates.
Turn on the Birthdays calendar
In new Outlook for Windows, and in Outlook on the web or Outlook.com:
- 1.Select Calendar in the navigation pane.
- 2.Select Add calendar, then Birthdays.
- 3.Choose the account to add it to.
- 4.Check Turn on the birthday calendar.
Birthdays already saved on your contacts are added, though Microsoft says it can take a few hours. To show or hide them, expand My calendars and select Birthdays. If you turn it on in new Outlook and switch back to classic Outlook, the calendar appears under My Calendars.
Add a birthday
- To a contact you already have: in People, right-click the contact, choose Edit, select Others, enter the birthday and save.
- From the calendar: select Birthday calendar, then New birthday, and enter the name and date. This creates a new contact.
- In classic Outlook: open the contact with Edit Contact, select Details in the Show group on the Contact tab, and enter the date in the Birthday box. Anniversaries go in the Anniversary box.
Outlook saves these as all-day events that repeat every year. Deleting a birthday from the calendar doesn't delete the contact. If a birthday you added to a contact never shows up, Microsoft suggests removing the contact and adding it again.
Check the reminder
Classic Outlook adds a reminder by default when you add a birthday or anniversary to a contact. Microsoft's help page doesn't say which reminder new Outlook gives birthdays, so open one and look.
In new Outlook, an event's reminder is in the Reminder dropdown in the Options group when you open it; for a repeating event, select View series first, so the change applies every year. Choose a time that leaves room to act: the day before for a message, a week before for a card that goes by post.
When Outlook reminders don't show up
From Microsoft's own troubleshooting:
- Turn calendar notifications on. In new Outlook, go to Settings > General > Notifications, and under Notify me about, set Calendar to On.
- Check Do not disturb. A Teams status of Do not disturb, or Windows Notifications, Focus Assist or Do not disturb, can stop Outlook's notifications.
- Check that Birthdays is selected under My calendars, or the birthdays won't show at all.
Birthdays in a spreadsheet, or for a team
Keeping birthdays in Excel? See birthday reminders from a spreadsheet. Tracking your team's birthdays and work anniversaries as a manager? See coworker birthday reminders.
Or get the reminder by email, with the message ready
Looking for a birthday reminder app for your PC? If you use Outlook, its Birthdays calendar is the built-in option; for the other free ones, see birthday reminders on a PC. Greetigo is another, and it runs in Edge, Chrome or any other browser on Windows, so there's nothing to install. Save a birthday once and it repeats every year. Greetigo emails you in the morning, your time: the day before by default, or on the day, or 1, 3, 7 or 14 days before, and you can pick more than one. If Outlook is your email, that's where the reminder lands, and it stays in your inbox until you deal with it.
Each reminder comes with a message already written: a free template with their name, or on Plus and Premium the AI-written draft you saved for that date. You review it, then send it from Greetigo or copy it into an email, a chat or a card. Nothing is sent until you click Send.
It's free for up to 10 saved dates. You can add dates by hand, paste a list of names and dates, or import a calendar (.ics) file, which Outlook can save. It's a one-time copy, not a sync. There's no Windows app, and the reminders are emails, not Outlook or Windows notifications. On a Mac there's a Mac app by direct download.