Microsoft Places
Microsoft Places Troubleshooting Hub
Error Messages and Solutions
We are excited to see how Microsoft Places will transform hybrid working by surfacing real-time insights on ‘where people are’ (or plan to be) when booking a workspace.
But here’s the kicker: Microsoft Places is still very new and is evolving rapidly, and there’s limited information available when it comes to trouble-shooting. For example, this known issues page from Microsoft provides little information.
In this article we’ll be sharing issues we’ve encountered and the fixes we’ve found that worked for us.
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Microsoft Places promises to be a game changer for hybrid working:
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Problems Working With Places
Check out the issues we’ve encountered and fixes that worked for us! Click the down arrow to view the fix.
Problem: I’m trying to book desks via the map but can’t see any desks
Fix: Try zooming in on the map. Desk availability indicators only appear once you zoom in. Check out this video for more information: https://www.essential.co.uk/blog/videos/booking-desk-using-places-2026/
Problem: I can’t see any desk bookings I’ve made in Outlook calendar
Fix: Check the filters applied to your Outlook calendar. Desk bookings are now listed under Reservations, which is unticked by default, so you’ll need to enable this filter to see your bookings. Check out this video for more information: https://www.essential.co.uk/blog/videos/booking-desk-using-places-2026/
Problem: We have desks on our map in Places, but they don’t show up, while deskpools do. I can select the desk in the map, but there is no visual on the map.
Fix: You most probably have the category in the IMDF set to desk. Change it to workspace and this will fix the issue.
Problem: Getting “You don’t have permission to do this” when accessing the Places Space Management Portal
Fix: You may have previously been a member of a Places admin group, but this has now been superseded by three new Places admin roles, which you must now be a member of.
Read more here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/places/configure-admin-roles
Problem: “Buildings not showing in users’ weekly work plan view”
Problem: “Expected ‘Section’, found ‘Floor'”
Along with the new desk type, a new section type has been introduced.
Sections act as a neighbourhood or zone and are a subdivision of the floor.
It is now a requirement that workspaces and desks must be parented to a section and cannot be parented directly to the floor, which was previously possible.
Rooms can optionally be parented to a section or directly to a floor.
Problem: “No levels were found correlated to directory floors for the building”
Fix: This issue indicates there is no feature with a directory_id linked to the floor.
To resolve this:
First, generate a CSV of all buildings, floors, and resources from Places. Then import your IMDF using Import-MapCorrelations. This generates a mapfeatures.csv, which must be manually updated with data from your initial CSV. Once updated, import the IMDF again with the modified mapfeatures.csv. Finally, save the newly correlated IMDF and use New-Map, ensuring it references the correlated IMDF rather than the original.
