Finding a rouge rule...

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bhamberg

bhamberg

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Outlook version
Outlook 2016 32 bit
Email Account
POP3
Like many (hope I'm not the only one?!) I use rules to filter out unwanted "stuff" and to put other email in folders for review. Problem is I've been doing this for 20ish plus years and have so many it's become (almost) more of a headache than a help.

(long story as to how I got here but these are the Cliff Notes) I recently went looking for a couple emails that I thought I should have received only to find them in the Deleted Folder (unread). My only guess as to how they got there was via a rule I setup (at some point in the past) that applied to the sender's domain/email address(es).

So here is the question... How do I go about narrowing down the rule(s) that effected these emails!?
 
There is no easy way - because the rules editor lacks features to make finding rules easier, especially if you have more than a few rules. If you have a couple of rules that are suspect, disable all but one and see if the messages are still moved - if yes, its not those rules, if no, its one of the disabled rules. Adding a category using the rule can help identify.
 
Really afraid you were going to say that! Any chance the rules are saved in an ASCI XML file that could be searched? Registry file?
 
Hmmm. MFCMAPI can export rules in XML format - but it might not be any easier to find - Rules are hidden in associated content in the inbox - right-click to export as text. There is one file for every rule. (You can select all and export.)

1652472191835.png



The problem is the file is not very search friendly. This is a rule that plays a different wav file when a message arrives from a specific address-
1652470841676.png




This is a new rule I just created to move mail with words in the address to the deleted folder -

1652472281993.png



I've got the name of the rule

1652471553303.png


The action - the GUID may be the folder - I'm not sure which value identifies the deleted folder.

1652471769811.png


And the condition -
1652471842960.png


1652470833070.png
 
OMG - NO! May be time to delete everything and start anew!
 
bhamberg said:
OMG - NO! May be time to delete everything and start anew!
Click to expand...
Yeah, especially if the rules are old and are deleting - if you aren't getting junk that meets the condition, it just wastes time (granted a split second * 60 rules isn't a lot of time... but still)
 
Diane Poremsky said:
Yeah, especially if the rules are old and are deleting - if you aren't getting junk that meets the condition, it just wastes time (granted a split second * 60 rules isn't a lot of time... but still)
Click to expand...
Thanks (as always) for your help!
 
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