Rule Not Running - Or Not Doing What I Think

[JeffreyCox]

I have a rule; it's the third one down after "Clear Categories" and one other
that only processes when email comes in from another account. It says:
------------------------------
Apply this rule after the message arrives
throught the JeffreySpam account
and only on this machine
Move it to the jcox Inbox folder
and mark it as read
except if the subject contains JC Tech Website Request
or except if the message header contains 'amazon.com' or 'microsoft.com'
<< about 20 others listed here.
or except if it is marked as high importance
stop processing more rules
-------------------
Yet, an email from (e-mail address removed) did not stay in the inbox (which
should happend because of the 'microsoft.com' above, and, because 'stop
processing more rules').

Am I missing something, or, did filters just get more flakey in 2007?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

I find using @microsoft.com in the sender's address reliable and haven't
tried message header based rules. Try that change to your rule.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

If you have 2 minutes I would appreciate some feedback through this survey
link.
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[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Was it sent through the JeffreySPAM account or another?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, JeffreyCox asked:

| I have a rule; it's the third one down after "Clear Categories" and
| one other that only processes when email comes in from another
| account. It says: ------------------------------
| Apply this rule after the message arrives
| throught the JeffreySpam account
| and only on this machine
| Move it to the jcox Inbox folder
| and mark it as read
| except if the subject contains JC Tech Website Request
| or except if the message header contains 'amazon.com' or
| 'microsoft.com' << about 20 others listed here.
| or except if it is marked as high importance
| stop processing more rules
| -------------------
| Yet, an email from (e-mail address removed) did not stay in the inbox
| (which should happend because of the 'microsoft.com' above, and,
| because 'stop processing more rules').
|
| Am I missing something, or, did filters just get more flakey in 2007?
|
| Thanks in advance.

 

[JeffreyCox]

Thanks for the responses.

Yes, the email comes in via my JeffreySPAM account.

Here's the real kicker; today, it's working fine. Is the rules engine, kind
of like Advanced Find (see my other post) sometimes working and sometimes not?

Thanks again, everyone.

-- Jeffrey Cox / www.EnhanceYourOutlook.com

 

[JeffreyCox]

Oy! Outlook has stopped running rules again.

I have a rule (the third one from the top) that says "if the email comes in
through the SignUp's account, delete it, accept if it has the subject
"Website Signup" -- several emails have shown up in the inbox. If I go in
and manually "run now" the rule, it finds them and deletes them. Why are the
rules not running?

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Oy! Outlook has stopped running rules again.

I have a rule (the third one from the top) that says "if the email
comes in through the SignUp's account, delete it, accept if it has the
subject "Website Signup" -- several emails have shown up in the inbox.
If I go in and manually "run now" the rule, it finds them and deletes
them. Why are the rules not running?

Do any of the rules above it include 'and stop processing more rules'?

Honestly, I've rarely seen rules fail. And I've set up *alot* of rules.
What I do see quite often is that the order of the rules I set up, or the
text of the rule, are wrong thus making the rule seem not to work.

 

[JeffreyCox]

As for "stop processing," yes -- but their conditions are not met. In
addition, I've turned them off -- and yet the other rules still don't run.

I too have set up many rules over many years and have had no problems. This
one truly seems like something is wrong as:

I've noticed today some of the rules further down the list * are * running as I'm getting alerts (which is what those rules do).
I can manually run the rules that don't appear to be running (the one that moves emails coming in on the JeffreySpam account) and they work that way -- they just don't work when Outlook automatically sends / receives.

I semi-wonder if the rule is corrupt -- but if it was -- why can I run it
manually?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-- Jeffrey

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Oy! Outlook has stopped running rules again.

As for "stop processing," yes -- but their conditions are not met. In
addition, I've turned them off -- and yet the other rules still don't
run.

Move the problem rule to be first. What happens then?

 

[JeffreyCox]

Made no difference (moving the rule (/rules) to the top).
Also, deleted and recreated the rules from scratch; no difference.
They run fine manually; but won't run during send / receive.
- Side note: one or two emails will sometimes be missed by the manual run.
- Side note: I'd swear the Junk Filter is missing things also.

Related (and I wrote a separate post about this), the tray icon gets stuck
in different modes. i.e., if I put Outlook back on line (from work
off-line), it will continue to say "off line." It will also show "Send /
Receive" when Outlook is not.

It just seems like Outlook is falling apart in general. Very disconcerting!
:-(

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Oy! Outlook has stopped running rules again.

Made no difference (moving the rule (/rules) to the top).
Also, deleted and recreated the rules from scratch; no difference.
They run fine manually; but won't run during send / receive.
- Side note: one or two emails will sometimes be missed by the
manual run.
- Side note: I'd swear the Junk Filter is missing things also.
Related (and I wrote a separate post about this), the tray icon gets
stuck in different modes. i.e., if I put Outlook back on line (from
work off-line), it will continue to say "off line." It will also show
"Send / Receive" when Outlook is not.

Is this an IMAP account?
Has this rule ever worked automatically?

 

[JeffreyCox]

All POP3 accounts.
All my rules worked great, then just quit a few days ago.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Oy! Outlook has stopped running rules again.

All POP3 accounts.
All my rules worked great, then just quit a few days ago.

Well, I'd try creating a new profile, throwing just that POP account in and
setting up just that rule and see if it works there.

 

[JeffreyCox]

I've deleted and recreated the rule.
I've deleted and recreated the email (POP) account in creation.
The "rule" appropriately reported it was broken, so I fixed it.
No go; rule still doesn't work.
I've also noticed that the Junk Email Filter has stopped working; apparently
stopped working on the 15th. (really weird)
Finally, I even created a rule just above the one in question that simply
changes the category for any email that comes in through that account - and
that rule does not work (however, as a reminder, I have several other rules
that are working fine)

I feel like I'm on an airplane that is slowly falling apart and getting
ready to crash -- anyone have any other ideas? I'm planning on:

Uninstalling the last updates on 8/13 to see if they are the culprit.
Possibly flattening my machine and starting over (something I'm dreading,
but, I tried a "repair" of office and that didn't fix things, so, I don't see
another option).

If anyone from Microsoft has any input, I'd sure appreciate it. I've been a
BIG proponent of Outlook for years, however, I'm starting to loose faith.