The rules in MS Outlook make the mail client easy to use. So, if the rules don’t work in your Outlook client, it is a genuine menace. Your inbox will get spammed with junk mail, important mail may get transferred to the Trash box and the list of disturbances goes on. But, like all the other issues of Outlook, this one does have a few solutions that can get everything back in order.
Fix 1 – Check the Rule settings
There are certain rule settings that you must adhere to while creating a new rule in Outlook.
Shorten the rule name – Make sure to name the rule something small. Lengthier rule names can cause this problem.
Step 1 – Launch the Outlook app on your device.
Step 2 – Go to the “File” menu.
Step 3 – Next, tap the “Info” tab. On the right-hand tab, tap “Manage Rules & Alerts” in the Rules and Alerts section.
Step 4 – Check the name of the rule there. If the length of the rule is too large, double-tap to edit the rule.
Step 5 – In the Rules Wizard tab, tap “Next“. Keep clicking the ‘Next’ button to reach the last page.
Step 6 – Next, set the ‘Step 1: Specify a name for this rule’ and rename this to a normal rule.
Step 7 – Finally, tap “Finish” to finish the rule setup.
Now, check whether Outlook is sorting the emails according to the rules or not.
Remove unnecessary rules – If there are any rules that you no longer use, delete those rules in Outlook and test.
Step 1 – While the Outlook client is open, go to the “File” tab.
Step 2 – Again, go to the “Info” tab.
Step 3 – Click the “Manage Rules & Alerts” to open that.
Step 4 – In the Rules and Alerts page, see the list of rules for yourself.
Step 5 – If you can find an obsolete rule or an old rule, select that rule and click “Delete” to delete that rule from Outlook.
After deleting these rules in there, check the Outlook and test.
Fix 2 – Enable the rules
There is a chance that the rules are present in the Outlook client but those rules are currently disabled.
Step 1 – To do this, you have to launch the Outlook client.
Step 2 – Go this way –
File > Info > Manage Rules & Alert
Step 3 – Go to the “Email Rules” section.
Step 4 – Check the boxes beside the rules to enable those in your Outlook client.
Step 5 – This won’t work unless you tap the “Apply” and “OK” buttons simantenously.
After this, wait for some emails to get in your Inbox and check whether the rules are functioning properly or not.
Fix 3 – Create new rules
Clean up all the corrupted rules and create new rules in their place.
Step 1 – You can do this from the outside of Outlook. So, close the Outlook client.
Step 2 – Next, hold the Win+R buttons quickly.
Step 3 – After this, paste this word in the Run box. Finally, click “OK” to clear all the rules from the Outlook client.
outlook.exe /cleanrules
This will clear all the Outlook rules from the client app.
Step 4 – Now you can create new rules in the Outlook client. So, launch the Outlook client.
Step 5 – Go straight to the “File” and then open the “Manage Rules & Alerts” option.
Step 6 – You won’t see any rules in the “Email Rules” tab.
Step 7 – So, you have to create a new mail. To do that, tap “New Rule…” to start the rule creation wizard.
Follow the steps in the Rules wizard and complete creating those older rules in the Outlook client.
Fix 4 – Store all the emails
You should make sure the Outlook app stores all the emails in your account for the rules to function perfectly.
Step 1 – To do this in Outlook, you need to go to the “File” tab.
Step 2 – On the right-hand section, make sure to select the email account in there.
Step 3 – Later, tap the “Account Settings“. Click “Account settings” one more time.
Step 4 – In the “Email” tab, find your email ID and double-tap that.
Step 5 – Finally, in the Account settings console, set the “Keep mail offline for” to “All” mode (drag the slider to the extreme right-hand side).
Step 6 – After this, tap “Next” to proceed.
From this point, Outlook will sync all of your emails. Check whether the rules are working and performing accordingly.
If the rules still aren’t working in Outlook, go to the next solution.
Fix 5 – Enable unlimited processing of rules
There is an option in Outlook that can prohibit the processing of rules in the client. Disable that and check.
Step 1 – After opening the MS Outlook window, tap “File“.
Step 2 – Later, click the “Manage Rules & Alerts” settings.
Step 3 – Now, select the rule in the Rules and Alerts box.
Step 4 – After this, tap the “Change Rule” option.
Step 5 – In the same ‘Change Rule’ drop-down list, choose the “Edit Rule Settings…” option in the context menu.
Step 4 – In the conditions page, tap “Next“.
Step 5 – On the second page of the Rules Wizard, uncheck the “stop processing more rules” at the top of the list.
Step 6 – Click “Next“. Go ahead and tap “Finish” at the end to complete the process.
Test the efficiency of the rule in Outlook.
Fix 6 – Time for a new profile
If nothing has worked out for you, it is time to use a new profile.
Step 1 – To do this, you must hit the Win+R keys together.
Step 2 – Paste this and click “OK“.
control
Step 3 – Set the ‘View by:’ mode to “Small icons” in the Control Panel.
Step 4 – Open “Mail (Microsoft Outlook) (32-bit)“.
Step 5 – Tap “Show Profiles” to open that up.
Step 6 – Tap “Add…” to add a new profile.
Step 7 – Name the profile something and tap “OK“.
Step 8 – Complete the email account setup after this in your new profile.
Step 9 – Once you are done with all that you shall come back to the Mail page.
Step 10 – Set the “Always used this profile” to your new profile.
Step 11 – Tap “OK” to finish the entire process.
This way, after crafting a completely new profile, launch the Outlook. It may ask for exact profile you want to load after you start the Outlook. Load it with the new profile.
Create or import the rules from the previous mailbox and you should be good to go!