Help Office Rules don't work consistantly

[Dab]

Why is it some rules just won't work in automatic mode?

I have a rule set up in my Outlook (2002) to check mail when it comes in and
if the email sources matches a contact in the outlook contacts folder, it
should move the message to a outlook folder. The rule doesn't work on it's
own, but if I run it manually, it works flawlessly.

I have several other rules defined and they all work just fine. There are
no stops or anything else in other rules that would prevent the rule from
running. I don't get it!

Outlook is running under XP and connected to and Exchange server and I'm
running in non-cache mode

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Why is it some rules just won't work in automatic mode?

I have a rule set up in my Outlook (2002) to check mail when it comes
in and if the email sources matches a contact in the outlook contacts
folder, it should move the message to a outlook folder. The rule
doesn't work on it's own, but if I run it manually, it works
flawlessly.

I have several other rules defined and they all work just fine. There
are no stops or anything else in other rules that would prevent the
rule from running. I don't get it!

Outlook is running under XP and connected to and Exchange server and
I'm running in non-cache mode

What happens if you add 'Stop processing more rules' to the rule that doesn't
appear to work?

 

[Dab]

Hi FH:

Thanks for your note.

I've always been curious about adding the stop command. I've used it in the
past and it seemed to cause more problems that it fixed, but I'll give it a
try.

Just wondering, as a general rule, should the stop always be used in a
particular rule - assuming that once you take the action in the rule, you
don't want any further action?

 

[VanguardLH]

Why is it some rules just won't work in automatic mode?

I have a rule set up in my Outlook (2002) to check mail when it comes in and
if the email sources matches a contact in the outlook contacts folder, it
should move the message to a outlook folder. The rule doesn't work on it's
own, but if I run it manually, it works flawlessly.

I have several other rules defined and they all work just fine. There are
no stops or anything else in other rules that would prevent the rule from
running. I don't get it!

Outlook is running under XP and connected to and Exchange server and I'm
running in non-cache mode

A prior rule has the stop-clause. If you have a rule that when it fires
should obviate the execution of any further rules against the same
message, you use the stop-clause. If you want to OR together several
rules (in the order listed) then you don't use the stop-clause. It is
up to you to analyze the effect of stopping on trigger (and omitting
further rules) or OR'ing together the rules.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Why is it some rules just won't work in automatic mode?

I've always been curious about adding the stop command. I've used it
in the past and it seemed to cause more problems that it fixed, but
I'll give it a try.

Just wondering, as a general rule, should the stop always be used in a
particular rule - assuming that once you take the action in the rule,
you don't want any further action?

Maybe.

What could be happening here is there's another rule that affects the message
that is keeping it from being moved. Doesn't always happen, I never really
spent the time to figure it out.

If it works with the Stop processing, just go through all the rules that
come after it and see if any of them would fire on the message.

I always do stop processing unless I have a rule that needs two layers of
actions.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Stop processing prevents you from applying any more rules to a message. It's
not accurate to say you are ORing rules together because you aren't (they
aren't AND'd together either) - each rule processes each message until a
matching rules tells it to stop checking more rules. if you have 3 rules
with conditions that match the message all three will do whatever action
each rule says to take. If the first has stop processing the rules wizard
doesn't check the message against other rules and moves onto the next
message.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





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[VanguardLH]

Stop processing prevents you from applying any more rules to a message. It's
not accurate to say you are ORing rules together because you aren't (they
aren't AND'd together either) - each rule processes each message until a
matching rules tells it to stop checking more rules. if you have 3 rules
with conditions that match the message all three will do whatever action
each rule says to take. If the first has stop processing the rules wizard
doesn't check the message against other rules and moves onto the next
message.

With the stop-clause:

if rule 1 fires do action 1
OR
if rule 2 fires do action 2
OR
if rule 3 fires do action 3
OR
....

The actions can be the same or different between each rule. Each rule
is a condition of the OR'ing. If you don't like the use of OR (which
provides for a short-circuit condition via the stop-clause) then use
SELECT, CASE, or SWITCH with the matching break-clause but most Outlook
users don't know those programming constructs.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

if there is a stop processing, its basically an ELSE as rules processing
stops if the message is acted on by rule 1.
if meets conditions of rule 1, do action 1, ELSE go to rule 2.
if meets conditions of rule 2, do action 2, ELSE go to rule 3.
if meets conditions of rule 3, do action 3, ELSE go to rule 4.

If you don't use stop processing it's basically AND:
if meets conditions of rule 1, do action 1 AND test it against rule 2.
if meets conditions of rule 2, do action 2 AND test it against rule 3.
if meets conditions of rule 3, do action 4 AND test it against rule 4.

you can use stop processing on some rules and not others - this will cause
messages that meet conditions in each rule to be processed by each rule. If
the action is move to a folder, you'll have a copy of each message in each
folder.
if meets conditions of rule 1, do action 1 AND test it against rule 2.
if meets conditions of rule 2, do action 2, ELSE go to rule 3. (Stop
processing)
if meets conditions of rule 3, do action 3 AND test it against rule 4.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[Dab]

Thanks to you folks for you input.

There still something funky going on. If I put a stop in any rule, it seems
that none of the rules work, even if the rule with the stop is the last one
in the stack.

So, I deactivated all my rules except the the original one that moves the
mail to a folder if it's from someone in my contact list. If I run it
manually, it works every time. It won't run automated, whether there's a
stop in there or not. It simply won't run in automated mode.

Had a similar problem with another machine where I'm trying to send an 'auto
reply' to emails that were sent to a particular address. My rule first
moves the message to a folder, then responds with a fixed reply. The rule
works fine if I run it manually, but when the rule is left to run on it's
own, the message is moved but no auto reply is generated. It's the only
rule on the machine so I don't think it's a rule conflict.

Very frustrating!

if there is a stop processing, its basically an ELSE as rules processing
stops if the message is acted on by rule 1.
if meets conditions of rule 1, do action 1, ELSE go to rule 2.
if meets conditions of rule 2, do action 2, ELSE go to rule 3.
if meets conditions of rule 3, do action 3, ELSE go to rule 4.

If you don't use stop processing it's basically AND:
if meets conditions of rule 1, do action 1 AND test it against rule 2.
if meets conditions of rule 2, do action 2 AND test it against rule 3.
if meets conditions of rule 3, do action 4 AND test it against rule 4.

you can use stop processing on some rules and not others - this will cause
messages that meet conditions in each rule to be processed by each rule.
If the action is move to a folder, you'll have a copy of each message in
each folder.
if meets conditions of rule 1, do action 1 AND test it against rule 2.
if meets conditions of rule 2, do action 2, ELSE go to rule 3. (Stop
processing)
if meets conditions of rule 3, do action 3 AND test it against rule 4.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]





EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
(e-mail address removed)

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

With the stop-clause:

if rule 1 fires do action 1
OR
if rule 2 fires do action 2
OR
if rule 3 fires do action 3
OR
...

The actions can be the same or different between each rule. Each rule
is a condition of the OR'ing. If you don't like the use of OR (which
provides for a short-circuit condition via the stop-clause) then use
SELECT, CASE, or SWITCH with the matching break-clause but most Outlook
users don't know those programming constructs.