Identical rules... some work... some don't...?

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

I run OL 2002 under XP.

I have a bunch of extremely simple rules to move messages I
receive to particular folders.

The rules are all of precisely this form:

If words "XXXXXXXXXX" appear in the subject

and

If words "YYYYYYYYYY" appear in the body

then

Move message to folder "ZZZZZZZZZZ."


all but one of these works just fine.

The one that fails simply does not move the message to the
new folder.

I have re-written that rule perhaps a dozen times but with
no luck.

Eventually, rather than typing in the criteria, I started
using Cut & Paste to avoid the remote possibility that I was
somehow making typing errors.

Still, no luck.

What should I look at next? That is, what might cause such
an extremely simple rule to fail when a bunch of others work
just fine?

Many thanks,

 

[Diane Poremsky {MVP}]

does it work with just one condition in the rule?

--
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[Kenneth]

does it work with just one condition in the rule?

Hmmm... interesting...

Yes, the rule works with either condition included, but not
with both.

Thanks for any further thoughts,

 

[Kenneth]

Hmmm... interesting...

Yes, the rule works with either condition included, but not
with both.

Thanks for any further thoughts,

Hi again Diane,

It seems that I have this matter resolved, but I still don't
understand what was going on...

The incoming messages that I wanted to sort to folders in
Outlook are notifications from my image creation backup
software. (Which happens to be Acronis Echo.)

I have Echo set to email my account after each image (on 7
systems) is created.

If the message body contains the word "successfully" and the
subject contains the name of the system, the message is
moved to the appropriate folder (where I can periodically
review things.)

Otherwise, the message stays in my Inbox to inform me to
check into the problem.

As you know, for one of the Echo machines, I just could not
get the (extremely simple) rule to work properly. This
despite the fact that the rule works if modified to test
either of the two criteria.)

Moments ago, I thought to modify things on the sending end,
that is, from Echo on the offending machine.

I deleted the emailing information, and re-entered it.

Then, I generated an image, the email was sent to my
account, and the rule now works as intended.

I am baffled, but happy to have things working properly.

At first, I had thought that perhaps Echo had been inserting
an invisible character (call it "X") so that I was receiving
"ExhoXMachine1" but in Outlook was testing for "Echo
Machine1."

But were that the case, the test you suggested (of using one
criterion only) would have failed.

So, just for my own understanding, might you have any
thoughts on what might have caused this odd situation? (Or
was it simply gremlins...?)

Many thanks,