Rules "Run Now" fails in OL 2002...?

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

I am having some trouble with very simple rules in Outlook
2002...

But as I tried to test the rules, I ran into something else
that seems odd:

If I check a rule, and then click on "Run Now" nothing other
than a momentary flash of an hourglass happens. There is no
progress bar, and, of course, no action related to the rule.

I just ran "Detect & Repair" but still, "Run Now" does
nothing...

How should I proceed to try to correct this?

Sincere thanks,

 

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

I am having some trouble with very simple rules in Outlook
2002...

But as I tried to test the rules, I ran into something else
that seems odd:

If I check a rule, and then click on "Run Now" nothing other
than a momentary flash of an hourglass happens. There is no
progress bar, and, of course, no action related to the rule.

I just ran "Detect & Repair" but still, "Run Now" does
nothing...

How should I proceed to try to correct this?

Sincere thanks,

Hello again,

I just stumbled on another aspect of this problem:

The rules I have (are intended to) run on my Inbox. Moments
ago, I tried "Run Now", but pointed the rule to a different
folder. It worked!

But when I pointed back to Inbox, again, nothing happened. I
need to emphasize that it is not that the rule failed to
work, but rather that clicking "Run Now" does nothing when
pointing to Inbox.

Thanks again,

 

[Diane Poremsky]

How do you know its Run now that failed and not that either the rule failed
or there was nothing for the rule to act on?

 

[Kenneth]

How do you know its Run now that failed and not that either the rule failed
or there was nothing for the rule to act on?

Hi Dianne,

There are a few reasons...

First, I created a rule, and used Run Now to test. With
that, I watched, saw the progress bar (for perhaps 20
seconds) and as it completed, saw a message move to the
intended folder.

Later, I saw that I new message arrived that met the same
criterion, but it did not move.

As part of my experimentation with that, I moved the
original message back to the Inbox, and used Run Now once
again.

It behaved differently: There was only the flash of the
hourglass, there was no progress bar, and neither message
moved.

Also, the problem seems to appear only when I try to move a
message, and finally, past experience tells me that if
nothing meets the criteria, the progress bar still appears,
that is, Outlook still has to "look things over" to know
that no messages are subject to the rule.

Sincere thanks for any further thoughts,

 

[Kenneth]

Hi Dianne,

There are a few reasons...

First, I created a rule, and used Run Now to test. With
that, I watched, saw the progress bar (for perhaps 20
seconds) and as it completed, saw a message move to the
intended folder.

Later, I saw that I new message arrived that met the same
criterion, but it did not move.

As part of my experimentation with that, I moved the
original message back to the Inbox, and used Run Now once
again.

It behaved differently: There was only the flash of the
hourglass, there was no progress bar, and neither message
moved.

Also, the problem seems to appear only when I try to move a
message, and finally, past experience tells me that if
nothing meets the criteria, the progress bar still appears,
that is, Outlook still has to "look things over" to know
that no messages are subject to the rule.

Sincere thanks for any further thoughts,

Hi again,

I have a bit more info:

Continuing to experiment, I created a rule of the form "If
an incoming message has certain words in the Subject, notify
me with a message."

I clicked Run Now.

In a moment, there was a Progress Bar, and it searched for
about thirty seconds (finding nothing even though there were
several messages meeting the criterion.)

Next, I deleted that rule, and created another of the form
"If an incoming message has certain words in the Subject,
move it to the specified folder."

It used precisely the same criterion words.

I clicked Run Now, and aside from a momentary flash of the
hourglass, nothing happened, that is, no progress bar
appeared.

Thanks for any further help,

 

[Kenneth]

Hi again,

I have a bit more info:

Continuing to experiment, I created a rule of the form "If
an incoming message has certain words in the Subject, notify
me with a message."

I clicked Run Now.

In a moment, there was a Progress Bar, and it searched for
about thirty seconds (finding nothing even though there were
several messages meeting the criterion.)

Next, I deleted that rule, and created another of the form
"If an incoming message has certain words in the Subject,
move it to the specified folder."

It used precisely the same criterion words.

I clicked Run Now, and aside from a momentary flash of the
hourglass, nothing happened, that is, no progress bar
appeared.

Thanks for any further help,

and more info yet...

I just deleted the rule, and created it again, but...

This time, I created the rule "from a template" rather than
from a blank slate.

The result was word for word, the same as it had been.

I clicked Run Now, and the progress bar appeared, but
nothing meeting the criterion moved to its intended folder.

Then, perhaps thirty seconds later, I simply clicked Run Now
again. That time, no progress bar appeared, and nothing
moved.

Thanks again,

 

[Kenneth]

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:56:16 -0500, Kenneth

and finally...

I just created a new profile and imported the data from my
old PST to a new PST.

Next, I created the rule, and tried Run Now.

Unfortunately, the results were as I have described.

Thanks for any further help,

 

[Brian Tillman]

and finally...

I just created a new profile and imported the data from my
old PST to a new PST.

Next, I created the rule, and tried Run Now.

Unfortunately, the results were as I have described.

If this happened to me, I'd export my rules, create a new profile, import
the rules again.

By the way, importing from a PST can cause problems.

 

[Kenneth]

If this happened to me, I'd export my rules, create a new profile, import
the rules again.

By the way, importing from a PST can cause problems.

Hi Brian,

I have had some success with all this, but truly don't
understand what I have seen.

In frustration, I decided to cut & paste the "Subject
Contains" criterion text that I needed (rather than typing
it as I had been.)

That worked, and so I looked at the two text strings one
beneath the other. They differed, but only by case.

I could not believe my eyes...

Are these text string tests case sensitive?

In any case, for now the problem seems resolved.

I will also add that I am aware of the potential PST import
problems, and so kept the old ("real") PST.

Once I found the rule solution I have described, I deleted
the temporary PST, and pointed back to the original.

I thank you for your comments...

All the best,

 

[Brian Tillman]

Are these text string tests case sensitive?

Rules are case-insensitive.

In any case, for now the problem seems resolved.

I'm glad.