---
title: "Calendar invitation files (.ics) in meeting emails"
description: "Meeting emails carry a calendar invitation file (.ics) that adds the meeting to the recipient's calendar. Administrators can switch the files off for the whole organisation when teams schedule in their own calendar first"
category: administration-security
section: platform-settings
alsoIn: [structure-governance/meetings]
tags: [admin]
type: Reference
lastUpdated: 2026-10-19
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/administration-security/meeting-calendar-invitation-files
---

# Calendar invitation files (.ics) in meeting emails


Every email Talkspirit sends about a meeting carries a calendar invitation file (.ics) by default. Your email application reads the file as a meeting invitation, adds the meeting to your calendar, then updates or removes that entry when the meeting changes. An administrator can switch the files off for the whole organisation under **Administration → Organisation → Notification emails → Configure**, on the **Meetings** tab. The emails themselves keep going out.

The switch exists for teams that create their meetings in their own calendar first. Each file Talkspirit attaches then duplicates an event they already hold.

## Which meeting emails carry a file?

With the files switched on, these emails carry one:

| Email | What the file does in your calendar |
|---|---|
| **Meeting scheduled**, sent to the participants when a meeting is created | Adds the meeting |
| **Participants invited**, sent to people added to an existing meeting | Adds the meeting |
| **Meeting updated**, sent when the date, time, location or video link changes | Replaces the entry in place: the file names the same event with a higher version number, so nothing is duplicated |
| **Meeting cancelled** | Removes the entry |
| **Reminder**, sent 48 hours before the meeting starts | Carries the invitation again, so a meeting you had not added yet can still be added |

Editing the title, the description, the agenda or the notes of a meeting sends no email and no file: only a change to where and when people meet does.

A recurring meeting sends one file per occurrence. Each occurrence is a separate entry in your calendar, and the file never carries the recurrence rule itself.

## When an email carries no file

Even with the files switched on, Talkspirit leaves the file out when a calendar already holds the meeting:

- If the organiser has connected their own Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook account, that calendar sends the invitation to the participants and the Talkspirit email is a notification without a file.
- Changes and cancellations of such a meeting reach the participants through the organiser's calendar event, and Talkspirit sends them no **Meeting updated** or **Meeting cancelled** email. This holds for every participant, whether or not they have connected a calendar of their own; only the organiser still receives the email. When the organiser has no connected calendar, or has disconnected it since, there is no calendar event to carry the change, so everyone receives the email with its file.

Both cases come from [Synchronising meetings with an external calendar](/en/structure-governance/allow-external-calendar-synchronization): the organiser's connection is what delivers the meeting, and a participant's own connection does not. The organisation-wide switch below does not change it.

## Turn the files off for your organisation

You need administrator rights.

1. Click your organisation name in the top-right corner, then select **Administration**.
2. In the left menu, under **General settings**, select **Organisation**.
3. In the **Notification emails** section, click **Configure**.
4. Open the **Meetings** tab, then under **Calendar invitations** switch off **Attach calendar invitation files (.ics) to meeting emails**.

The change saves immediately and a confirmation reads **Calendar invitation setting updated**. There is no Save button. Switch it back on the same way.

![The Calendar invitations card in the Meetings tab of Notification defaults, with the switch Attach calendar invitation files (.ics) to meeting emails turned on](/images/administration-security/meeting-calendar-invitation-files/01-calendar-invitations-switch.png)

## What the switch changes

The switch removes the file and nothing else.

| | Files on (default) | Files off |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting emails: scheduled, invited, updated, cancelled, reminder | Sent, with a file | Sent, without a file |
| In-app notifications | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Calendar synchronisation (connected Google or Outlook account, ICS feed) | Unchanged | Unchanged |

The switch is organisation-wide: there is no per-member version of it. The **Send notification emails** switch, just above **Configure** on the same page, sits above this one: with it off, no meeting email is sent at all, whatever the calendar files are set to. See [Disable notification emails for your organisation](/en/administration-security/disable-email-notifications-for-your-organization).

## Teams that schedule in Outlook or Google first

If your team already holds its meetings in Outlook or Google Calendar and then creates them in Talkspirit, for example after a migration, every file adds a second entry next to the one they already have. The second entry can even carry a different name when whoever created the meeting in Talkspirit gave it a different title.

Turn the files off. The emails keep telling everyone what changed, and the entry they already hold stays the only one in their calendar.

> **Tip:** Turn the switch off before the first meetings are scheduled in Talkspirit. A file that has already been received is already in the recipients' calendars, and the switch does not remove it.

## What's Next?

- [Synchronising meetings with an external calendar](/en/structure-governance/allow-external-calendar-synchronization)
- [Scheduling, starting, editing, and deleting a meeting](/en/structure-governance/how-to-open-schedule-edit-or-delete-a-meeting)
- [Adding a videoconference link to a meeting](/en/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-videoconference-link-to-a-meeting)
- [Disable notification emails for your organisation](/en/administration-security/disable-email-notifications-for-your-organization)