Rules not working consistently

[Barry Watzman]

Ok, Outlook 2003.

I am getting a ton of junk mail for various ED medications (you know the
medication that comes in a blue diamond shaped tablet) (see the last
paragraph of this post).

So I created a "rule" to delete any incoming message with in the subject.

But the rule works inconsistently. Most such messages do get deleted,
but not all of them. And I can't figure out why it's inconsistent.

There is nothing wrong with rule; if I go into the Junk Mail Folder, and
I "run rule now", it gets rid of those messages in the Junk Mail Folder
with the medication's name in the subject. But why didn't it do that in
the first place? Why does it only get rid of about 80% of such target
messages, while maybe 20% do not get deleted (it's not because of some
weird characters in the subject because, remember, if I manually "run
rule now", it does delete the messages that were not automatically deleted).

Funny story, btw .... I have been trying to post this message for 2
weeks. It would NEVER post. I finally figured it out; in the message,
I was spelling out the actual name of the drug that comes in a blue
pill. Apparently, somewhere, there is a filter for this newsgroup that
blocks messages which contain that word. I understand the point, BUT
..... sometimes, the word does appear in a message that isn't Spam.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

There is nothing wrong with rule; if I go into the Junk Mail Folder,

and I "run rule now", it gets rid of those messages in the Junk Mail
Folder with the medication's name in the subject. But why didn't it
do that in the first place?

Because rules are fired *after* the junk mail filter.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

There is nothing wrong with rule; if I go into the Junk Mail Folder,

and I "run rule now", it gets rid of those messages in the Junk Mail
Folder with the medication's name in the subject. But why didn't it
do that in the first place?

Because rules are fired *after* the junk mail filter and not on messages
that it affects.

 

[Peter Foldes]

See my response to your other post above

 

[Barry Watzman]

So what? The junk mail filter does not delete ANYTHING; it merely moves
some things to the junk mail folder. The rule is then supposed to
delete the message.

But ...

First, the rule is deleting SOME messages (most messages) but not all of
them.

Second, if the rule is run MANUALLY, it then deletes the messages that
it didn't automatically delete.

I see no explanation that would explain those two characteristics of how
it is operating.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

There is nothing wrong with rule; if I go into the Junk Mail Folder,

So what? The junk mail filter does not delete ANYTHING; it merely
moves some things to the junk mail folder. The rule is then supposed
to delete the message.

But ...

First, the rule is deleting SOME messages (most messages) but not all
of them.

Second, if the rule is run MANUALLY, it then deletes the messages that
it didn't automatically delete.

I see no explanation that would explain those two characteristics of
how it is operating.

Ok, let me rephrase:

Rules do not operate on messages that are determined to be junk.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Re: "Rules do not operate on messages that are determined to be junk"

I have to take issue, based on what is happening. More than 80% of the
messages which fit the rule are first moved to the junk mail folder and
THEN deleted by the rule (and appear in the deleted mail folder).

But about 20% of the messages that meet the rule are being moved to the
junk mail folder but are not subsequently deleted by the rule.

The fact that MOST of the messages that fit the rule are being deleted
from the junk mail folder contradicts your statement that "Rules do not
operate on messages that are determined to be junk".

But the fact that not all of them are deleted (from EITHER the junk mail
folder or the inbox) prompts me to post this message: "Rules not working
CONSISTENTLY"

In ***BOTH*** the inbox and the junk mail folder, I have some newly
arrived messages that are deleted if I manually "run rule now" (while,
in both cases, most such messages were deleted). But why should that
EVER be the case? Why didn't the very same rule take the very same
action (delete the message) at the time that the message arrived?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Re: "Rules do not operate on messages that are determined to be junk"

I have to take issue, based on what is happening. More than 80% of the
messages which fit the rule are first moved to the junk mail folder and THEN
deleted by the rule (and appear in the deleted mail folder).

That's just not possible. Rules work automatically ONLY in the Inbox. That
has been true since the beginning of Outlook. Since Outlook 2003 SP1, the
behavior of the Junk E-mail filter is to run prior to rules. Thus, it is
impossible for anything moved to the Junk E-mail folder (or ANY folder other
than Inbox, for that matter) to be acted upon automatically by rules. It's
true you can run rules manually on any folder, but they act automatically only
on Inbox.

The fact that MOST of the messages that fit the rule are being deleted from
the junk mail folder contradicts your statement that "Rules do not operate
on messages that are determined to be junk".'

Then you have something OTHER THAN Outlook and its rules performing that
action. Outlook cannot.

 

[F.H. Muffman]

Ok, let me rephrase:

I have to take issue, based on what is happening. More than 80% of
the messages which fit the rule are first moved to the junk mail
folder and THEN deleted by the rule (and appear in the deleted mail
folder).

Take issue all you want, it's accurate. If the Outlook Junk Email engine
decides a message is Junk, Rules will not *automatically* be applied to that
message. You can run the rule manually in the Junk Email folder and they'll
get affected then.

I believe that the reasoning is that so you don't go doing actions to messages
you don't care about, like, say, forwarding a spam to your team just because
it happened to match some rule.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

That's just not possible. Rules work automatically ONLY in the Inbox.

Specifically, rules runs on mail as it is downloaded and Rules Wizard rules
check the mail that is left after Junk email filtering gets rid of the spam.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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