Rules don't run automatically

[chrisbr40]

I have a series of rules that move messages to PST folders based on sender
domain or subject. These are client-only rules running on Outlook 2003 SP2
that process messages from three different accounts; corporate Exchange
server, MSN Premioum account using Outlook Connecter, and Gmail account.

Rules process at startup of client for Exchange and Gmail inboxes. They do
not process messages in MSN inbox. Rules run fine manually against MSN inbox.

Example Rule description
Apply ths rule after the message arrives through the client (e-mail address removed)
And from Anywhere.COM
And with FOO in the subject
And on this machine only
amd move to the FOO folder

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

 

[Aligator]

If you put as criteria : From "ANYWHERE.COM" you will only apply the rule for
those from "ANYWHERE.COM"!
If you wish to apply the rule to all mails whereever they come from, you
must not put any criteria in the "from" field!!

 

[chrisbr40]

1. I only want to run the rule when the message comes from a particular
domain (i.e. if message is coming from CompanyA domain then i put it in
company A folder)

2. No rules are running automatically (from the MSN account) as i described.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I have a series of rules that move messages to PST folders based on
sender domain or subject. These are client-only rules running on
Outlook 2003 SP2 that process messages from three different accounts;
corporate Exchange server, MSN Premioum account using Outlook
Connecter, and Gmail account.

Rules process at startup of client for Exchange and Gmail inboxes.
They do not process messages in MSN inbox. Rules run fine manually
against MSN inbox.

This is perfectly normal. Rules run automatically on the default folders
only.

 

[chrisbr40]

Brian,

Sorry but I don't understand what you mean by 'perfectly normal'. Do you
mean that when you use Outlook to manage multiple accounts with multiple
Inboxes that the rules can only process against one account/Inbox? There is
nothing in the documentation that I've read that states this restriction.

Can you please clarify?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Sorry but I don't understand what you mean by 'perfectly normal'. Do
you mean that when you use Outlook to manage multiple accounts with
multiple Inboxes that the rules can only process against one
account/Inbox? There is nothing in the documentation that I've read
that states this restriction.

Depends on the account types. I would think rules apply to the MSN account
only if its the delivery location and you're using Outlook Live. However,
when you create a rule, does it allow you to choose the MSN account in the
"Apply changes to this folder" drop-down at the top of the Rules Wizard's
opening dialogue?

 

[chrisbr40]

Brian,

The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is that I never see something that says 'apply changes to
this folder' when i create a rule.
I select the Create A Rule icon which opens the Create A Rule Dialog
I check initial conditions (from user, subject contains) and acitions (move
to folder)
I then select Advance Options button which opens Rule Wizard dialog
I then check the box for 'through the specified account' condition in Step 1
When I edit the Through The Specified Account condition I'm presented with
my three accounts (Exchange, MSN, Gmail)

If I select Exchange or Gmail the rule runs automatically. If MSN, it won't
run automatically - only manually.

Thanks for your continued help on this and sorry to be so literal but I
don't know what I'm doing and want to be accurate.

Chris

 

[chrisbr40]

Brian,

Tools>Rules and Alerts opens dialog with two tabs and E-mail Rules is the
default. There is no drop-down labeled 'Apply Changes to this Folder' (FYI -
I couldn't find your attachment).
Directly at the top of the E-Mail Rules Tab is a menu bar with the following:
New Rule....
Change Rule(drop down)
Copy...
Delete
Run Rules Now...
Options

Under the menu bar is slider box with long list of check boxes for reach
rule. Below that is a a box with Rule Description for the highlighted rule.
That's it.

I see the 'Create A Rule' icon in two places; on the Standard Toolbar and
when I right click on a message.

????

 

[Brian Tillman]

Tools>Rules and Alerts opens dialog with two tabs and E-mail Rules is
the default. There is no drop-down labeled 'Apply Changes to this
Folder' (FYI - I couldn't find your attachment).
Directly at the top of the E-Mail Rules Tab is a menu bar with the
following: New Rule....
Change Rule(drop down)
Copy...
Delete
Run Rules Now...
Options

The "Apply changes" drop down is below the "E-mail Rules" tab and above the
menu bar. If you don't have that drop-down, then you don't have two
accounts that will run rules, which is what I indicated before, although
poorly. Rules can be specified for Exchange/POP accounts and for IMAP
accounts, but not for HTTP accounts. I set up an HTTP account and when I
click the Rules and Alerts button, I get the following:

"Messages sent and received using HTTP e-mail accounts cannoth be filtered
using Outlook rules. If server-based message filtering is available, your
e-mail service provider can tell you how to enable it.

Outlook rules work on all other accounts."

Unless you're using Outlook Live, I am under the impression that MSN
accounts (and Hotmail accounts) are HTTP accounts and therefore rules cannot
be used on them.

 

[chrisbr40]

Brian,

I think you’ve pointed out the problem (thank you) and the rest of this post
is mostly blather so feel free to move on at this point but …… I’m still
confused.

I don’t have the ‘Apply Changes’ drop down. Checking my email account types
in control panel shows the MSN account type as MAPI. I’m guessing that
Outlook Connector = MAPI. If so, and I amend your statement to ‘rules can be
specified for…..but not for HTTP & MAPI accounts’ then I’m tracking.

A minor detail but …my GMAIL account type is listed as POP and rules run
automatically against it & my Exchange account. So you can have two accounts
that ‘run rules but the ‘Apply Changes’ drop down doesn’t show up.

The confusion I still have is the term ‘run rules’. What I think that really
means is ‘run rules automatically’ since I can run the rules manually against
my MAPI account and I can even use the ‘Through the Specified Account’ option
to manually apply a bunch of rules only to the MAPI account but that account
type can’t kick off those same rules without the user saying ‘go’? That
makes no sense.

And my gripe is that no place in any of the help text for rules does it
mention this HTTP/MAPI restriction. The only reference to a difference
between types of email accounts and rule support is in reference to the
‘Create this rule on all accounts’ check box in the trouble shooting section
and that makes no mention of HTTP or MAPI or restrictions. How are you
supposed to know this stuff?

Sounds like my rant bit just flipped so I’ll quit.


Thanks again for your help,
Chris

 

[Brian Tillman]

I don’t have the ‘Apply Changes’ drop down.

I checked three of my PCs. On one, I have a single mail profile containing
Exchange, POP, and IMAP accounts. On the second PC I have one profile
containing two POPs and an HTTP and a second profile containing a single POP
account. The drop-down appears on the first PC, allowing me to make a
selection of the Exchange/POP vs. the IMAP account. The latter PC, while
presents the drop-down in the first profile, but allows a single choice of
the POP/POP entry. The second profile does not present the drop-down. On a
third PC, I have only an Exchange account and it does not appear there,
either.

Checking my email account
types in control panel shows the MSN account type as MAPI. I’m
guessing that Outlook Connector = MAPI. If so, and I amend your
statement to ‘rules can be specified for…..but not for HTTP & MAPI
accounts’ then I’m tracking.

Since you are using the Outlook Connector, I would have expected rules to
run. Since they don't it's reasonably clear to me that Outlook is not
detecting that account type as one that allows rules and so does not add the
drop-down to the dialogue.

The confusion I still have is the term ‘run rules’. What I think that
really means is ‘run rules automatically’ since I can run the rules
manually against my MAPI account and I can even use the ‘Through the
Specified Account’ option to manually apply a bunch of rules only to
the MAPI account but that account type can’t kick off those same
rules without the user saying ‘go’? That makes no sense.

Where do you see "run rules"? I see a "Run Rules Now" button on the Rules
and Alerts wizard.

And my gripe is that no place in any of the help text for rules does
it mention this HTTP/MAPI restriction. The only reference to a
difference between types of email accounts and rule support is in
reference to the ‘Create this rule on all accounts’ check box in the
trouble shooting section and that makes no mention of HTTP or MAPI or
restrictions. How are you supposed to know this stuff?

There are vast improvements that could be made to the Help files. I don't
know what else to say.

 

[Elliot]

I have thesame issue. Who can we contact about this?

 

[F.H. Muffman]

I have thesame issue. Who can we contact about this?

Technical Support?

 

[Elliot]

yeah i know it sounded like a stupid question BUT have you trie dgoing to
tech support? it puts aton of questions first PLUs is it tech spt for
outlook or connector? I tried connector and I got a dead end.

 

[John R. Hamilton]

I had the same problem. I do believe it is a Microsoft "BUG". Sometimes my
rules work and sometimes they don't. Often, I had to run manually. All in
all, the rules I set worked just fine when run manually. Even after
performing all the tips and tricks from MVP Outlook professionals, I still
had the same problem !!!! Here is my solution that WORKED for me as my rules
NOW run automatically with my VBA scripts.

a) Click Tools, Macro, Visual Basic Editor.
b) In the project explorer to the left, expand Microsoft Office Outlook
Objects
c) Double Click "ThisOutlookSession"
d) Copy and past the following code

Private Sub Application_Startup()
MsgBox "Welcome, " & Application.GetNamespace("MAPI").CurrentUser
Application.ActiveExplorer.WindowState = olMaximized
End Sub

e) Save the Visual Basic Program.
f) Close.
g) Done.

I know this doesn't make sense, but I think that the VBA macro library is
NOT loading properly at the start of Microsoft Outlook. I think the startup
event forces the loading of the VBA scripts properly. I don't think it
matters what code you place just as long as it is something to properly start
the VBA macros.

Anyway, again, I know that the above doesn't make any sense but it WORKED
for me. All the other LOGICAL solutions by the MVP professionals and other
users simply just did not work, which those other solutions should have
worked. Therefore, this leads me to believe that there is a BUG is the
Outlook product.

Again, it worked for me and I am NOW happy and I have stopped wasting hours
looking for a solution.

If this SOLUTION worked for you, please let me know. If this solution works
for you, please make a post so that Microsoft will know where to look for
this goofy bug in the Outlook product.

I hope this works for you as I spent over 200 hours trying to fix this same
problem.

John R. Hamilton