Sometimes rules work, sometimes they don't! :(

G

Guest

I have eighteen rules set up, of which I currently have 16 turned on.

I have trouble with one rule in particular, which is the fourth one to run.
This rule is where I keep adding the domains of all of the junque-mail
senders. Consequently, it has a dozen or so domains in it that it checks on
receipt, if it’s a junque sender it changes the category to “crap,†moves it
to the “Crap†folder and stops processing.

About half the time it works fine, it will move about 50% of the messages
from “junquesender.com†automatically, but the rest of the time I have to run
it manually to remove the remaining items from “junquesender.com†out of the
default “Junk E-Mail†folder.

I am using Outlook 2003 SP2, Version: 11.0 Build: 6568
 
V

Vanguard

Deina said:
I have eighteen rules set up, of which I currently have 16 turned on.

I have trouble with one rule in particular, which is the fourth one to
run.
This rule is where I keep adding the domains of all of the junque-mail
senders. Consequently, it has a dozen or so domains in it that it checks
on
receipt, if it’s a junque sender it changes the category to “crap,†moves
it
to the “Crap†folder and stops processing.

About half the time it works fine, it will move about 50% of the messages
from “junquesender.com†automatically, but the rest of the time I have to
run
it manually to remove the remaining items from “junquesender.com†out of
the
default “Junk E-Mail†folder.

I am using Outlook 2003 SP2, Version: 11.0 Build: 6568


Rules work best (and may only work) on items in the Inbox. It sounds like
you might have a rule to send some mails to the Junk folder and then later
you have another rule that attempts to move the item from the Junk folder
into the Crap folder. Move the Crap folder rule before the Junk folder
rule.

I don't remember how OL2003 works regarding the junk rule. If indeed it is
a rule that gets added when you enable junk filtering, are you not permitted
to reposition that rule to whatever position where you want it in the rules
list? Normally you want the severest rules (and typically which use the
stop-clause) listed first so they get exercised first.

It runs when you exercise the rule manually. When you run manually, you get
to pick in which folder to find items against which to exercise the rule.
Rules that run automatically (during a mail poll) only get exercised against
items delivered to the Inbox. So if the item has been moved out of the
Inbox by a prior rule then a later rule may not find that item to get
exercised against it. Usually when a rule works all by itself but not when
ran automatically it is because the item was no longer in the Inbox where
automatic rules are exercised or prior rules are interferring with a later
rule.
 
C

CMM

Do you have "Stop Processing Rules" set on that particular rule? How about
on some of the rules before it?

The Rules Wizard in Outlook is a crudely designed creature (and buggy to
boot!)... you have to sorta "visualize" how Outlook will process the rules
in an algorithmic fashion. Programmers will get it... most casual users
don't (and don't bother).
 
G

Guest

Thanks for the help! I think that my problem was that they were being sent
to the spam folder before going to the Crap folder. I got to looking and I
don't need both rules, so I just combined them.

I'll know in a couple days if it worked or not. Thank you!
 
G

Guest

try this:
This is frustrating, because the rules actually do work, but they don't
process automatically. You can clean out your corrupted registry entries, or
what ever is causing the problem by one command. But before you do that,
consider how many rules you have, and how easy it will be to recreate them.
It's super easy to export your rules to a file on your desktop, just click on
the options button from your rules and alerts screen, and export from there.

After your rules are backed up, simply click on START, RUN.
Type:

outlook /cleanrules

All of your rules will be gone, but you can import them back in easily, and
they WILL work. Take it from me, this is a great switch to clean out the
corruption. There's tons of other outlook switches which are both powerful
and helpful, that will accomplish a similar result in other areas with the
application. Check out the following URL:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP010031101033.aspx

Regards,
Chris
 

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