Outlook 2019 Rules Stopped Working Automatically

Question

I am running Outlook 2019 on a Windows 11 computer. I use rules in Outlook to put emails into specific folders and it helps me a lot. They have been working fine for months. Now, all of a sudden my rules have stopped working automatically. I can go into rules, and "Run Rules Now" and they will work. But this does not allow for real time notification of new email, which defeats the purpose of having the rules. The only "error" I get when creating or changing rules is "The rule has a condition that the server cannot process. The action 'stop processing more rules' will prevent all remaining rules from being carried out. Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

It is quite frustrating when they just stopped working.

We are using Microsoft Exchange 2016 through a 3rd party. I have asked and they have no set quotas for rules.

No other users use rules like I do.

I have tried in safe mode, and they did no work.

I have also created a new profile, and that did not change anything.

Here is my version of Outlook.

Thank you for any help that you can give me.

Scott Christopher

IT Manager

Struthers-Dunn Inc.

"A 100% Employee Owned Company"

Answer 1

Well, my issue was my own fault. near the top of my rules, I had a generic rule that was trying to catch spam. I messed something up, and almost every email met the criteria. And one of the actions was "stop processing more rules". So, it never got past it, so none of the other rules were even attempted.

It took me a while to find it. I basically had to go through almost every rule to figure out that one of them was too generic. Luckily I didn't have it "permanently delete email". LOL!!

Scott