Rules not recognized at times

[dbuelke]

I have many of my regular email sources directed to specific folders with
Create Rules. However, I'm having emails occasionally dumped into my Junk
Mail folder or held in the Inbox, despite having created rules for these
senders previously. Some of them now have 3 or 4 recreations as I often just
create a new one on the fly without checking. As far as I can tell they have
exactly the same address and each one has a single format [From sender and
Move To specified folder] with no other options selected, but occasionally
Outlook 2003 doesn't seem to recognize rules that are already there and
misdirects them. I've run the Detect and Repair a couple times and gone
through them to manually delete extras. I can't see a pattern about their
recurrence either. Any ideas?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

I'd start with cleaning up your rules first. Then run scanpst.exe against
your pst-file to check it for errors See if it still happens then.
See http://www.msoutlook.info/question/77

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I have many of my regular email sources directed to specific folders with
Create Rules. However, I'm having emails occasionally dumped into my Junk
Mail folder or held in the Inbox, despite having created rules for these
senders previously.

Outlook's Junk E-mail filter runs before rules, so if it detects something
as junk, it will move it to the Junk E-mail folder before the rules ever get
a chance.

 

[dbuelke]

As I started the cleanup process, I noticed some of the rules show (For
other machine) behind the rule, yet they are all marked "For this machine
only" on the selection list. I'm on a peer-to-peer network, but I receive
all my email on this one computer. How does this aberration arise?

Don

I'd start with cleaning up your rules first. Then run scanpst.exe against
your pst-file to check it for errors See if it still happens then.
See http://www.msoutlook.info/question/77

I have many of my regular email sources directed to specific folders with
Create Rules. However, I'm having emails occasionally dumped into my Junk
Mail folder or held in the Inbox, despite having created rules for these
senders previously. Some of them now have 3 or 4 recreations as I often
just
create a new one on the fly without checking. As far as I can tell they
have
exactly the same address and each one has a single format [From sender and
Move To specified folder] with no other options selected, but occasionally
Outlook 2003 doesn't seem to recognize rules that are already there and
misdirects them. I've run the Detect and Repair a couple times and gone
through them to manually delete extras. I can't see a pattern about their
recurrence either. Any ideas?

 

[dbuelke]

Thanks Brian,

I can understand routing to the Junk folder for a few of them that come
from bulk mailings, such as company reports and the like; but if I've marked
them as Safe Senders, shouldn't they be exempted from Junk mail filter?
Nonetheless, there are other emails from individuals who mail on a regular
basis that will sporadically hang in the Inbox, even though there is a rule
to send them to, say, the Joke folder. Could this be because they are
sending a Bcc. at which Outlook hesitates? Do I have to mark each of these
senders as Safe Senders as well as writing the rule for them?

Don

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I can understand routing to the Junk folder for a few of them that come
from bulk mailings, such as company reports and the like; but if I've
marked
them as Safe Senders, shouldn't they be exempted from Junk mail filter?

That's the theory.

Nonetheless, there are other emails from individuals who mail on a regular
basis that will sporadically hang in the Inbox, even though there is a
rule
to send them to, say, the Joke folder. Could this be because they are
sending a Bcc. at which Outlook hesitates? Do I have to mark each of
these
senders as Safe Senders as well as writing the rule for them?

I don't believe Bcc is a factor. There are multiple reasons why rules may
not or appear to not work. We'd need to know more about your rule
definitions and the failing messages.

 

[dbuelke]

Here is my typical rule selection process:

Right click on senders address, select Create Rule from drop down display.
In Create Rule window I only select the first box (From xyz) and the last
(Move to email folder). select the appropriate folder and click OK. The
Success box opens to verify the rule and offers to run this rule on messages
already present and I usually opt for that. [BTW, that only works about half
the time as well--sometimes it picks up the new message and moves it and
other times it runs through the process but leaves the message there.]

That's how almost all my rules are created. Today I went through and
cleaned house again and had several that were from family members that I had
triplicated over a period of only a few months. They all indicated the same
address, all checked only with [For this Machine Only] and [From people or
distribution list] on the first screen and [Turn on this rule] on the last
screen. None of the other options is checked.

Running the scanpst.exe repaired 17 errors. Maybe that will take care of
it. But I'm still interested in follow-up on these issues.

Don

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Here is my typical rule selection process:

Right click on senders address, select Create Rule from drop down display.
In Create Rule window I only select the first box (From xyz) and the last
(Move to email folder). select the appropriate folder and click OK. The
Success box opens to verify the rule and offers to run this rule on
messages
already present and I usually opt for that. [BTW, that only works about
half
the time as well--sometimes it picks up the new message and moves it and
other times it runs through the process but leaves the message there.]

Add the "stop processing more rules" action to any rule you want to act
exclusively on a message. Without that action, Outlook will attempt to
apply all rules to every message. When it finds a rule that applies, even
if that rule moves a message to a folder, Outlook will retain a copy in the
Inbox so that subsequent rules can also be checked. If no other rule
applies, you can have a copy of a message left in the Inbox and it looks
like the rule that was applied didn't work.

That's how almost all my rules are created. Today I went through and
cleaned house again and had several that were from family members that I
had
triplicated over a period of only a few months. They all indicated the
same
address, all checked only with [For this Machine Only] and [From people or
distribution list] on the first screen and [Turn on this rule] on the last
screen. None of the other options is checked.

When I want to test for a specific address or domain, I usually use the
"with specific words in the sender's address" condition, rather than the
"from people or distribution list" condition. The latter can act upon the
display name of the sender and not the address itself so somethimes the test
doesn't trun out as you wish.

 

[dbuelke]

Thanks Brian,

The sun has risen on the issue!

Here is my typical rule selection process:

Right click on senders address, select Create Rule from drop down display.
In Create Rule window I only select the first box (From xyz) and the last
(Move to email folder). select the appropriate folder and click OK. The
Success box opens to verify the rule and offers to run this rule on
messages
already present and I usually opt for that. [BTW, that only works about
half
the time as well--sometimes it picks up the new message and moves it and
other times it runs through the process but leaves the message there.]

Add the "stop processing more rules" action to any rule you want to act
exclusively on a message. Without that action, Outlook will attempt to
apply all rules to every message. When it finds a rule that applies, even
if that rule moves a message to a folder, Outlook will retain a copy in the
Inbox so that subsequent rules can also be checked. If no other rule
applies, you can have a copy of a message left in the Inbox and it looks
like the rule that was applied didn't work.

That's how almost all my rules are created. Today I went through and
cleaned house again and had several that were from family members that I
had
triplicated over a period of only a few months. They all indicated the
same
address, all checked only with [For this Machine Only] and [From people or
distribution list] on the first screen and [Turn on this rule] on the last
screen. None of the other options is checked.

When I want to test for a specific address or domain, I usually use the
"with specific words in the sender's address" condition, rather than the
"from people or distribution list" condition. The latter can act upon the
display name of the sender and not the address itself so somethimes the test
doesn't trun out as you wish.

 

[dbuelke]

Sorry, one more thing... where does that (For other machine) tag arise and
what is its significance?

Here is my typical rule selection process:

Right click on senders address, select Create Rule from drop down display.
In Create Rule window I only select the first box (From xyz) and the last
(Move to email folder). select the appropriate folder and click OK. The
Success box opens to verify the rule and offers to run this rule on
messages
already present and I usually opt for that. [BTW, that only works about
half
the time as well--sometimes it picks up the new message and moves it and
other times it runs through the process but leaves the message there.]

Add the "stop processing more rules" action to any rule you want to act
exclusively on a message. Without that action, Outlook will attempt to
apply all rules to every message. When it finds a rule that applies, even
if that rule moves a message to a folder, Outlook will retain a copy in the
Inbox so that subsequent rules can also be checked. If no other rule
applies, you can have a copy of a message left in the Inbox and it looks
like the rule that was applied didn't work.

That's how almost all my rules are created. Today I went through and
cleaned house again and had several that were from family members that I
had
triplicated over a period of only a few months. They all indicated the
same
address, all checked only with [For this Machine Only] and [From people or
distribution list] on the first screen and [Turn on this rule] on the last
screen. None of the other options is checked.

When I want to test for a specific address or domain, I usually use the
"with specific words in the sender's address" condition, rather than the
"from people or distribution list" condition. The latter can act upon the
display name of the sender and not the address itself so somethimes the test
doesn't trun out as you wish.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Sorry, one more thing... where does that (For other machine) tag arise
and
what is its significance?

Rules contain more attributes than you can see in the Rules wizard. One of
those things is the name of the PC on which they were created. If you move
a PST from one PC to another and incorporate it into Outllook, your rules
may show that because the PC's names don't match.