Strange Things Happening in Rules

[dkline]

I'm using Outlook 2003 and a POP mail account. And I seem to be getting some
strange and inconsistent results from some rules I have set to manage and
organize my email.

For example, I have a mail rule which states that when an email message is
received from someone with "acme.com" in the sender's address, a copy of that
email is moved to the "Acme Corp" folder I created. I have another rule which
states that whenever I send an email to someone with "acme.com" in the
recipient address, a copy is moved to that same "Acme Corp" folder.

My goal, of course, is to have copies of all mail sent to or received from
acme.com placed in my "Acme Corp" folder while at the same time leaving the
originals of those emails in their respective inbox and sent items folders.

But I'm getting sometimes (not always) weird results:

1) Although the original of a new email sent to acme.com will be kept in the
sent items folder as well as the "Acme Corp" folder, a reply to an email from
acme.com will only place a copy in the "Acme Corp" folder -- i.e., nothing
shows up in the sent items folder at all when it's a reply.

2) Sometimes two copies of outgoing mail to acme.com are kept in the sent
items folder or in the "Acme Corp" folder. I cannot figure out what causes
that to happen occasionally, but not other times.

3) Most problematic of all, sometimes incoming email from acme.com shows up
only in the deleted items folder -- i.e., it doesn't show up at all either in
the inbox or in the "Acme Corp" folder. Again, I have no idea how or why that
happens, but if I don't check the deleted items folder several times daily, I
can miss a few emails from acme.com.

What causes incoming email to be automatically routed to the deleted items
folder? And what might be the source of my other problems?

Advice is of course appreciated. Thanks.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

1) Although the original of a new email sent to acme.com will be kept
in the sent items folder as well as the "Acme Corp" folder, a reply
to an email from acme.com will only place a copy in the "Acme Corp"
folder -- i.e., nothing shows up in the sent items folder at all when
it's a reply.

Sounds like you have the Tools - Options - Preferences - E-mail Options -
Advanced E-Mail Options - 'In folders other than the Inbox, save replies
with original message' option checked, since that would be the exact
description of the behaviour.

2) Sometimes two copies of outgoing mail to acme.com are kept in the
sent items folder or in the "Acme Corp" folder. I cannot figure out
what causes that to happen occasionally, but not other times.

For replies, I can see this happening, with the above option checked, and an
outbound rule on the domain. In fact, I'd be surprised that it doesn't
happen every time when you reply. As for the new messages, honestly, I'm
not sure, but I'd closely investigate the rules you have configured and see
how they might conflict. In other words, a rule working with a subject line
and a different rule working with an 'address contains' can both effect
(affect? I always forget) the same message, which might make things behave
oddly.

3) Most problematic of all, sometimes incoming email from acme.com
shows up only in the deleted items folder -- i.e., it doesn't show up
at all either in the inbox or in the "Acme Corp" folder. Again, I
have no idea how or why that happens, but if I don't check the
deleted items folder several times daily, I can miss a few emails
from acme.com.

What causes incoming email to be automatically routed to the deleted
items folder? And what might be the source of my other problems?

Do you have any rules that automatically delete messages? If you do, have
you verified that the message wouldn't fire off any of those rules?