Hi there, I tried looking up for the solutions on the web given by others but it does not seem to be working. I have 5 forward rules to forward the email to different group of individual and it does not seem to be working. I have already Recreate the rules Delete and redo the rules Check the stop processing more rule part Went to outlook 365 web and make sure that the rules exist there. However it does not seem to be work. Could you provide me solution on this item?

The problem here is the limit of 10. You can accomplish the same with more options using Microsoft Flow.

Hi @Wayne Khoo , Noticed that you've mentioned “Went to outlook 365 web”, so your mailbox is hosted in Exchange Online, right? Are you trying to forward to external users which is by default blocked as mentioned by michev? Besides, by "forward the email to different group of individual", please check if you have added 10 or more individual recipients in the rule, as Exchange Online has a Forwardee limit of 10 recipients, see Exchange Online limits : If this describes your situation, then it's a by design behavior and the recommended workaround is to create a distribution group or an Office 365 group for the recipients (You might need to contact your IT team to help with this.). For more information, you could refer to the article below: Inbox rule to forward messages doesn't work in Office 365 If an Answer is helpful, please click " Accept Answer " and upvote it. Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Where is your mailbox located? Have you checked with your IT team whether forwarding is not being blocked? For example, in Exchange Online forwarding to external addresses in now being blocked by default.

Outlook Rules not forwarding

Wayne Khoo 31

Hi there,

I tried looking up for the solutions on the web given by others but it does not seem to be working.
I have 5 forward rules to forward the email to different group of individual and it does not seem to be working.
I have already

Recreate the rules
Delete and redo the rules
Check the stop processing more rule part
Went to outlook 365 web and make sure that the rules exist there.

However it does not seem to be work.
Could you provide me solution on this item?

Accepted answer

Uncle Frodo 86 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-06-07T21:14:31.737+00:00

The problem here is the limit of 10. You can accomplish the same with more options using Microsoft Flow.
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2 people found this answer helpful.
Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-06-10T01:20:36.693+00:00

thanks for the solution, using flow i am able to solve this issue.
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2 additional answers

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-05-19T05:23:42.377+00:00

Hi @Wayne Khoo ,

Noticed that you've mentioned “Went to outlook 365 web”, so your mailbox is hosted in Exchange Online, right?
Are you trying to forward to external users which is by default blocked as mentioned by michev?

Besides, by "forward the email to different group of individual", please check if you have added 10 or more individual recipients in the rule, as Exchange Online has a Forwardee limit of 10 recipients, see Exchange Online limits:

If this describes your situation, then it's a by design behavior and the recommended workaround is to create a distribution group or an Office 365 group for the recipients (You might need to contact your IT team to help with this.). For more information, you could refer to the article below:
Inbox rule to forward messages doesn't work in Office 365

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.
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2 people found this answer helpful.
Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-20T01:09:43.157+00:00

Hi YukiSun,

I have already split the number of recipients to be less then 10 person per rule.
They are all internal users.
I have 5 forward rules, each are less then 10 person.

Yours sincerely,
Wayne

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-05-21T05:41:36.54+00:00

Hi @Wayne Khoo ,

Are you able to manually forward a message to a group of recipients specified in one of the problematic rules?
If possible, could you remove all privacy information and then share an example of how your rule is set, similar to the screenshot below?

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Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-21T05:58:30.8+00:00

Yes, if i run the rule manually, it works as well.

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-05-21T07:16:19.927+00:00

Hi @Wayne Khoo ,

if i run the rule manually, it works as well.

So the rule works when click the run rules now button?

If this is the case, please try resetting the srs-file of your profile which by default located at:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

To reset the file, you can rename it to something like <profilename>.srsold

Then restart Outlook and check the result.

If it doesn't work and you are running in Exchange cached mode, please try deleting the OST file of the account to see if it works. To locate the OST file, you can go to File-> Account Settings-> Account Settings… click the Data Files tab, choose the account and click Open file location:

In case the issue persists, try creating a new Outlook profile for the account.

Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-24T01:45:04.44+00:00

i am trying the solution as above and so far it does not work. i will recreate a new outlook profile as a worst case scenario.

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-05-25T23:22:36.917+00:00

Hi @Wayne Khoo ,

Just checking in to see how things are going on with this issue. Have you had a chance to check if a new outlook profile can be of help?

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Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-26T23:54:07.333+00:00

Hi @Yuki Sun-MSFT

the solutions listed above are still not working.
Apologies as i am tried it mutiple times and it took a while to load especially after i create a new profile.

yours sincerely,
wayne

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-05-27T05:39:19.903+00:00

Hi wayne,

Just wanted to double confirm if my previous understanding about "if i run the rule manually, it works as well" was correct: so the rules did work when you manually run them by clicking the "Run Rules Now" button, right? This could help eliminate whether the issue is with how the rules are created.

Furthermore, what if existing the Outlook desktop client and using the outlook 365 web only? Will these rules work?

Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-27T14:42:52.187+00:00

Hi Yuki,

Yes it works if i run it manually. Everytime i would open outlook and run it manually at unread messages.
I have not tried in outlook web.
So far only at the outlook desktop client.

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-05-28T00:00:02.843+00:00

Hi wayne,

If there are any other rules set up in your Outlook, can they run automatically?
If possible, you can try recreating a problematic rule in Outlook web and see the result.

I did further research and found the following article, it mentions that mailbox rules won't work when the mailbox is set as the JournalingReportNdrTo mailbox, but the rules can work normally when running manually. So if no rules can run automatically at your end, I'd recommend checking with your Exchange administrators, they would be able to confirm it using the methods described in the article below:

Transport and mailbox rules in Exchange Online or in on-premises Exchange Server don't work as expected

Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-31T04:49:22.797+00:00

Hi Yuki,

Let me try the problematic rule.

I have other mailbox sorting rules. they are working fine and arrange them into the separate folders without any issue.
i tried running the powershell under the transport and mailbox rules as mentioned and it does not work.

Yours sincerely,
Wayne

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-06-01T06:53:47.46+00:00

Hi Wayne,

I have other mailbox sorting rules. they are working fine and arrange them into the separate folders without any issue.

Then this issue is not caused by what's dicussed in the article above as that might affect all the rules.

Given current situation, just give it a go by creating the rule in OWA at your convenience and let's see if that can be helpful.

Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-06-02T03:36:45.253+00:00

Hi Yuki,

I created the rule at OWA and it still not work. therefore the conclusion would be related to?

Yours sincerely,
Wayne

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-06-02T09:41:22.56+00:00

Hi Wayne,

I created the rule at OWA and it still not work.

Then we may conclude that the issue is not with the Outlook client side. Looks like we still need to troubleshoot from the rule itself.

Could you change the action of a problematic from "forward" to something else like "move it to a specific folder" or "Display a specific message in the New Item Alert window" and let's see if it can run automatically? This helps eliminate whether the issue is related to the "forward" action.

Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-06-08T01:55:48.633+00:00

Hi Yuki,

I tried creating the rule at outlook web itself and it is not working as well. Moving to specific folder is alright. the other rules which i have are not affected, only the forward rule so far.

Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,016 Reputation points

2021-06-09T09:53:28.777+00:00

Hi @Wayne Khoo ,

Please try logging on https://outlook.office365.com/ecp, go to Account > Connected Accounts, make sure the box of "Forward my email to" is blank:

Uncle Frodo 86 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-06-09T14:19:50.57+00:00

that's correct. Its a design limitation. Have you try using Microsoft Flow?
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/Power-Automate-Forward-email-when-an-email-is-received/td-p/455417
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Vasil Michev 100.2K Reputation points MVP

2021-05-18T07:49:20.87+00:00

Where is your mailbox located? Have you checked with your IT team whether forwarding is not being blocked? For example, in Exchange Online forwarding to external addresses in now being blocked by default.
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Wayne Khoo 31 Reputation points

2021-05-18T07:53:44.943+00:00

Hi Michev,

What do you meant by where is my mailbox located?
The rules are implanted on Inbox itself.
I will check with my IT team on this matter.

Uncle Frodo 86 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-06-11T05:22:34.12+00:00

that's true.. but if the tenant have not upgraded yet.. mailbox are able to forward (with a limit of 10) with rules.
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Outlook Rules not forwarding

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