Rule works... sometimes...?

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

I run OL2002 SP3 with XP.

I have a very simple rule (if these words appear in the
subject line, and these appear in the body, move the message
over to this folder) that works intermittently.

Of course, one might think that there are some subtle
differences that I am missing in those incoming messages,
but, as it happens, they are automated, and are identical.

(These are messages that are sent out by our imaging
software, and if the images creation has succeeded, the
message is to go to a particular folder, if the process
fails, I have the notification messages stay in my Inbox
where I will see 'em.)

What should be my next diagnostic step on this?

I will add that I have deleted and re-built the rule many
times, and cut and paste the various criteria from the
incoming messages.

Also, just yesterday, two messages failed to move, and I
tried to run the rule manually. When I did, they moved to
the proper folder.

This morning, again two messages that should have moved
remained in the Inbox. I ran the rule manually expected the
messages to move as they had yesterday, but no luck. They
just sat in the Inbox.

Thanks for any thoughts on this,

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have a very simple rule (if these words appear in the
subject line, and these appear in the body, move the message
over to this folder) that works intermittently.

What is the format of the messages (Plain Text, HTML, Rich Text)? Do you
have any rules other than the one rule? Please post the exact text of the
rule and an example of a message you think should be acted upon by the rule.

 

[Kenneth]

What is the format of the messages (Plain Text, HTML, Rich Text)? Do you
have any rules other than the one rule? Please post the exact text of the
rule and an example of a message you think should be acted upon by the rule.

Hi Brian,

The incoming messages are Plain Text.

I have a total of 8 rules (6 of which serve the function I
have described, but for information about other systems.)

Here is the problem rule:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
with Acronis K06 in the subject
and with ' successfully.' or 'successfully' or
'successfully' in the subject or the body
move it to the K06 folder.

and this is one of the messages that gets stuck:

From: (e-mail address removed)
To: (e-mail address removed)
Subject: Acronis K06

completed successfully
Description create incremental backup archive
from DATA (F
to file: \\server\IMAGES\K06-DATA(1)-.tib
Compression normal
Ask for first media No


Please let me know if you have further thoughts, and accept
my thanks,

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have a total of 8 rules (6 of which serve the function I
have described, but for information about other systems.)

Here is the problem rule:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
with Acronis K06 in the subject
and with ' successfully.' or 'successfully' or
'successfully' in the subject or the body
move it to the K06 folder.

You should be able to make this more simply

Apply this rule after the message arrives
with 'Acronis K06' in the subject
and with 'successfully' in the subject or the body
move it to the K06 folder.

and this is one of the messages that gets stuck:

Try adding the "stop processing more rules" action to this rule and all
those that preceed it in the list of rules.

 

[Kenneth]

You should be able to make this more simply

Apply this rule after the message arrives
with 'Acronis K06' in the subject
and with 'successfully' in the subject or the body
move it to the K06 folder.


Try adding the "stop processing more rules" action to this rule and all
those that preceed it in the list of rules.

Hi Brian,

I just deleted the rule, and rebuilt it with "stop
processing more rules."

It works, but...

Prior to doing that, I looked at the destination folder and
saw that the old rule (that I posted) worked properly
yesterday five times...

Strange.

Please accept my thanks for your kind help,

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

It works, but...

Prior to doing that, I looked at the destination folder and
saw that the old rule (that I posted) worked properly
yesterday five times...

I think that there has been interaction between your rules because more than
one rule was attempting to work upon each message. That's the purpose of
the "stop processing" action. Once a rule acts upon a message, the
remaining rules do not. Without "stop processing", each rule will attempt
to act upon each message. If you have rules whose action is to move
messages, it is usually a good idea to include the "stop processing" action
as well.

Please accept my thanks for your kind help,

You're welcome.