Rules Not Working

[Thomas M.]

Outlook 2007

In the last day or two I have noticed a problem with my Outlook rules. It
appears that they no longer act automatically on incoming messages. If I
run the rule manually, they all do exactly what they are designed to do, so
I know that the rules themselves are setup correctly. I just need to get
them to run automatically again.

I did a little research on this, and I could a /cleanclientrules switch for
Outlook 2007. However, the description of that switch indicates that it
just deletes the client rules. It does not say anything about rebuilding
them. I use rules heavily (I currently have 19 defined), so I am reluctant
to use the switch unless I have no other choice.

Any ideas on how I can fix this problem?

--Tom

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Export the rules, open outlook using the switch and then import the rules.
However, its hard to say if this will fix them.

What type of account? What types of rules are failing? Is it every rule or
just some rules?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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[Thomas M.]

I'll have to pay more attention over the next week or so in order to answer
your questions. Based on observations to this point, it does appear that
more than one rule is failing, but I'm not sure that all are failing.

Also, it occurred to me to day to look at my rules and examine the "stop
processing more rules" setting. I found that the criteria on each rule is
specific enough that each rule should catch only the specific kind of
message that it is intended to catch, and nothing else. So I don't think
that the "stop processing more rules" setting is involved in this problem.

--Tom

Export the rules, open outlook using the switch and then import the rules.
However, its hard to say if this will fix them.

What type of account? What types of rules are failing? Is it every rule or
just some rules?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Do you keep Outlook open 24/7? Vote in our poll:
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=22205

Outlook 2007

In the last day or two I have noticed a problem with my Outlook rules.
It appears that they no longer act automatically on incoming messages.
If I run the rule manually, they all do exactly what they are designed to
do, so I know that the rules themselves are setup correctly. I just need
to get them to run automatically again.

I did a little research on this, and I could a /cleanclientrules switch
for Outlook 2007. However, the description of that switch indicates that
it just deletes the client rules. It does not say anything about
rebuilding them. I use rules heavily (I currently have 19 defined), so I
am reluctant to use the switch unless I have no other choice.

Any ideas on how I can fix this problem?

--Tom

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Also, it occurred to me to day to look at my rules and examine the "stop
processing more rules" setting. I found that the criteria on each rule is
specific enough that each rule should catch only the specific kind of
message that it is intended to catch, and nothing else. So I don't think
that the "stop processing more rules" setting is involved in this problem.

It wouldn't hurt to add that action to your rules just to see if it will
affect the behavior, unless one of your rules depends upon a prior rule
performing some action as well. That action is one of the most common causes
for rules not performing how one might think.

 

[Thomas M.]

Diane,

I have not forgotten about this issue. I've just had a difficulties shaking
loose the time to work on it. I've started keeping some records in hopes of
gathering enough data to answer your questions. For now, I can tell you
that I am connected to an Exchange 2007 server, and judging from the early
results of my data collection efforts, it looks like only certain rules, but
I have not been able to identify a common thread between the rules. This is
subject to change as I gather more information.

It would probably be easier to just rebuild the rules that don't seem to be
firing, and maybe that's what I'll end up doing, but I'm the type of person
who likes to really understand the root causes of problems, so I'll continue
gathering information for another couple of weeks to see if any pattern
emerges. I'll post my results.

One thing that I was thinking today is that it would be handy if there was
an easy way to determine the last time that a rule got fired. I noticed
that it is possible to have rules run a script. How would one go about
creating a script that will log the date, time, and rule name each time a
rule fires?

--Tom

Export the rules, open outlook using the switch and then import the rules.
However, its hard to say if this will fix them.

What type of account? What types of rules are failing? Is it every rule or
just some rules?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Do you keep Outlook open 24/7? Vote in our poll:
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=22205

Outlook 2007

In the last day or two I have noticed a problem with my Outlook rules.
It appears that they no longer act automatically on incoming messages.
If I run the rule manually, they all do exactly what they are designed to
do, so I know that the rules themselves are setup correctly. I just need
to get them to run automatically again.

I did a little research on this, and I could a /cleanclientrules switch
for Outlook 2007. However, the description of that switch indicates that
it just deletes the client rules. It does not say anything about
rebuilding them. I use rules heavily (I currently have 19 defined), so I
am reluctant to use the switch unless I have no other choice.

Any ideas on how I can fix this problem?

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

Also, it occurred to me to day to look at my rules and examine the "stop

It wouldn't hurt to add that action to your rules just to see if it will
affect the behavior, unless one of your rules depends upon a prior rule
performing some action as well. That action is one of the most common
causes for rules not performing how one might think.

In reading my comments again today, I can see that I was not real clear.
The "Stop processing more rules" option *is* included in most of my rules.
The only exception is a rule that assigns messages to a category, but in
that case the very next rule in line acts on the message and includes the
"Stop processing more rules" action. I have confirmed that those two rules
are working properly.

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

I apologize for not updating this thread in so long. It took a fair amount
of time and a little bit of trickery to test all my rules. Many of the
rules are designed to handle emails that I may get only once every month or
two, so to test those rules I either had to wait for a new message to come
in or I had to send myself some messages designed to trigger certain rules
and test them that way.

Now that the testing is done it looks like I have two rules that are not
working correctly. I moved the rules to the top of the list so that they
get processed first, and that fixed the problem. So clearly I have one or
two rule conflicts somewhere, but I have not had enough time to track them
down yet. I know that often times these kinds of problems are caused by
failing to use the "stop processing more rules" option, but I *always* use
that option so I'm not sure what is causing the issue. Nonetheless, at this
point I am comfortable that it is a rule conflict. I was just thinking that
my next step will probably be to start moving those rules down in the order
day-by-day until they stop working again. That should tell me which rules
are in conflict.

--Tom

Diane,

I have not forgotten about this issue. I've just had a difficulties
shaking loose the time to work on it. I've started keeping some records
in hopes of gathering enough data to answer your questions. For now, I
can tell you that I am connected to an Exchange 2007 server, and judging
from the early results of my data collection efforts, it looks like only
certain rules, but I have not been able to identify a common thread
between the rules. This is subject to change as I gather more
information.

It would probably be easier to just rebuild the rules that don't seem to
be firing, and maybe that's what I'll end up doing, but I'm the type of
person who likes to really understand the root causes of problems, so I'll
continue gathering information for another couple of weeks to see if any
pattern emerges. I'll post my results.

One thing that I was thinking today is that it would be handy if there was
an easy way to determine the last time that a rule got fired. I noticed
that it is possible to have rules run a script. How would one go about
creating a script that will log the date, time, and rule name each time a
rule fires?

--Tom

Export the rules, open outlook using the switch and then import the
rules. However, its hard to say if this will fix them.

What type of account? What types of rules are failing? Is it every rule
or just some rules?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

Do you keep Outlook open 24/7? Vote in our poll:
http://forums.slipstick.com/showthread.php?t=22205

Outlook 2007

In the last day or two I have noticed a problem with my Outlook rules.
It appears that they no longer act automatically on incoming messages.
If I run the rule manually, they all do exactly what they are designed
to do, so I know that the rules themselves are setup correctly. I just
need to get them to run automatically again.

I did a little research on this, and I could a /cleanclientrules switch
for Outlook 2007. However, the description of that switch indicates
that it just deletes the client rules. It does not say anything about
rebuilding them. I use rules heavily (I currently have 19 defined), so
I am reluctant to use the switch unless I have no other choice.

Any ideas on how I can fix this problem?

--Tom