Version 1.5 of Smarter Event Booking is currently being validated by Microsoft and will be available in the Microsoft Marketplace shortly. Until then the Marketplace installs the previous version; the update follows through the app catalog.
Troubleshooting for Smarter Event Booking
What goes wrong in practice — and why. For general questions about using the solution, the “Getting started” guide is the better place.
Problem areas
“Could not load events” or a message about missing columns
By far the most common problem — and almost always a question of permissions, not of data.
What causes it
The app creates its SharePoint lists and their columns itself. When an update adds a column, it is added on the next load. Both require the person opening the page to hold theManage lists permission. Without it the app cannot create anything, and what follows is a chain of secondary errors.
The fix takes a minute
A site owner opens the page once. The app creates the missing columns while they are there, and it works for everyone else afterwards — their permissions stay untouched.
If that is not possible
The message names the list and the column. Those columns can also be created by hand underSite contents → List → Settings. The spelling has to match exactly, otherwise the app will not find them.
Older versions reported this misleadingly
Before version 1.3.7 the setup swallowed this error and reported success although no column had been created. All you saw was “Could not load events”. Anyone running an older version and seeing that message should update first.
Features that need an approval
Three features reach into Microsoft Graph. They are not active straight after installation: an administrator has to approve them in theSharePoint Admin Center → Advanced → API access.
Mail.Send
Without approval no confirmation email goes out — while the registration itself still succeeds.
Calendars.Read
Without it, “Show my calendar” in the calendar view stays empty.
User.Read.All
Without it the participant export still runs, but the additional profile columns stay empty.
Check instead of guessing
The configuration holds two tests under Email: one sends a test message through Mail.Send, the other reads your own calendar through Calendars.Read. Both report plainly whether the approval is missing.
No confirmation email arrives
Four causes, best checked in this order:
Is a template set at all?
A template can sit on the event and on the date. The one on the date wins. If neither is set, no mail is sent — deliberately.
Are notifications switched on?
Configuration → Email → “Enable email notifications”. The tab states underneath what is actually being sent right now.
Is Mail.Send approved?
The same tab holds the test: a button that sends you a test message and says plainly what is failing.
Did it land in junk?
The mail goes out through Microsoft Graph from the mailbox of the person who triggered it. Check the junk folder before digging further.
The calendar entry hangs off the template
The ICS attachment comes from the [Ics] placeholder. Leave it out of the template and the mail still goes out — just without a calendar entry.
Outlook invitation from a shared mailbox
When the confirmation arrives as an Outlook invitation, much depends on the Exchange permissions for the shared mailbox. The setup is described inGetting started.
No confirmation in the inbox
In invitation mode the meeting request is the confirmation; there is no additional mail. Outlook often puts requests straight into the calendar and removes them from the inbox – the appointment is in the calendar, and the acceptance sits in the shared mailbox.
Lots of “Meeting Forward Notifications”
People have “Send on Behalf” instead of “Send As”. Exchange then treats the invitation as a forwarded meeting and notifies the mailbox. Fix: grant “Send As”.
Sent mails missing from the mailbox
By default the copy stays with the person who sent it. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, on the mailbox under “Sent items → Edit”, switch on both options; the change can take up to an hour.
The confirmation arrives as a mail with attachment after all
If Exchange did not accept the invitation – usually a missing permission on the mailbox – the app sends the confirmation as before, as a mail with a calendar file. Check “Send As” for the person affected.
Licence messages
On first start the app creates a 14-day trial licence. After that the site collection needs a licence from AppSource — billed per site collection, not per user. There are plans for up to five and for all site collections in a tenant.
Where the status is
Configuration → General → License information. It states which type was detected: full, professional, trial, expired trial or none. The value is cached for up to 24 hours, so a freshly bought licence can lag a little.
“Licensing server not available”
This is nearly always a network matter: the call tohttps://smarterapplicensingfunction.azurewebsites.net/ is being blocked. Open that address in a browser. If it errors there, ask IT to allow the URL.
An event is not showing up
It is rarely gone — usually filtered. In order:
“Visible to” is filled in
If anyone is listed in that field, only those people and groups see the event. Emptying it makes it visible to everyone again.
The date has passed
Past dates are hidden from the registration view. The “Past events” area in the toolbar still lists them, per event.
A filter is active
The category picker, the search box or the date filter in the toolbar narrow the list — and they survive a page change.
In the overview web part
There, “Show only open events” and the list of configured Event Booking pages apply on top.
People register for dates, not for events
An event without a future date drops out of the registration view even though it still exists. A new date brings it back.
Diagnostics and error reports
When a problem resists categorising, the log in the browser console is the next stop.
Turning on the detailed log
Append ?debug=true to the page address — or, more precisely,?logLevel=4 for everything and ?logLevel=1 for errors only. The setting applies to that page visit and overrides what the configuration holds.
Sending an error report
Configuration → Email → Error reports takes the address a report should go to. The report opens the reporting person's own mail client and needs no Mail.Send approval of its own.
What helps us when you report something
The exact wording of the message, the page address, the version from the app catalog and — if you have it — the browser console output with ?debug=true.
Questions about this product?
Our support team is happy to help with any questions about Smarter Event Booking.