A user cam to me with this problem:
I have 2 email accounts (EmailA & EmailB) and two subfolders (FolderA & FolderB) under my INBOX folder where mail for each account. I'm using rules to move the mail to the correct folder: specific words under sender's (emailA) and recipient's (emailA) address and move it to FolderA. It works well for mail that belongs in the subfolders but my attempts to move mail not addressed to either address results in 2 copies of those messages.
When rules result in duplicates, it always indicates the user is not using the Stop processing action on each rule. My impression is that most users think it means 'stop all rules' so they don't use it. Instead it means 'stop processing this message, move to the next message'.
In the example above the user needs to use 3 rules:
Rule 1: Move all mail sent to EmailA, to FolderA, and Stop processing
Rule 2: Move all mail sent to EmailB, to FolderB, and Stop processing
Rule 3: Do something with the mail that is left.
The first two rules each move the messages and Stop processing tells Outlook that it should not check the message against any more rules.
Apply more than one Rule to a message
Conversely, if you want to a message to be processed by more than one rule that might apply, you want those rules at the top of the list (since Outlook runs rules in the order they are listed in Rules Wizard), without stop processing selected. Rules that should be the final rule to process a message will have the Stop Processing action.
Shawn L says
I have a number of basic rules running, but one sends duplicates. The basic rules all follow the format of 'if subject/body = [wording here], forward to email address abc@example.com.' And 'stop processing' is activated. With the problem rule, if I change it to send to xyz@example.com, I correctly get a single email forwarded. But if I change it back to abc@example.com, it will typically send 3-4 emails with time-stamps about 1-3 minutes apart. Any suggestions?
Alex says
Our company has a rule that we set up for customers to redirect outgoing emails that match specific criteria to our inbound email address. The problem we are running into is that when the outbound email contains more than one recipient, we are receiving duplicate copies of the email and in turn sending out duplicate copies of the email. This hurts the clients' experience that are receiving these emails, so finding out why we are having duplicate emails redirect to us is critical. Any thoughts on what we can do stop this?
*Rule is priority 0
*we have enabled "Stop Prcessing More Rules,"
*message is being sent from SENDER X
*Subject cnntains specific phrasing to that O365 knows which emails get redirected... Any ideas?
Liz says
Hi, I have stop processing ticked, the issue I have is that 2 people access this email account so the rule runs twice when we are both signed in, is there a way to stop this happening?
Diane Poremsky says
The best way is choose which one you want to be the master. then use 'on this computer only' condition on the master computer.
Kass says
Maybe this is for a different version of Outlook... I have 365 and most of my rules are set to stop processing but I still can't find any way to end up with a single saved email in the folder I want it to be in. I will end up with the email in the folder and a copy in the sent folder, or if I turn off saving sent emails then I end up having zero sent copies anywhere.
On previous versions of Outlook my rules made everything run super smoothly, but now my emails are all over the place like a herd of cats in a catnip factory.
Diane Poremsky says
After sending rules are a pita - the rule copies the mail, so you need to turn off save sent mail... but if it works with saving sent, it should work with this off.
This is an office 365 Exchange mailbox?
Debbie Cincala says
Anyone have an answer to this? I am having the same issue. I get a duplicate of the same email for every email that is moved to a folder.
Diane Poremsky says
Do you have stop processing set on the rule? That is a common reason for duplicates.
Walter mitty says
Don’t have the option to stop processing?
Diane Poremsky says
Are you creating rules for incoming mail or outgoing mail? Which version of Outlook are you using?
John says
How about a way of sorting rules? Seems to me that for over twenty years people have asked MS for a way to sort rules in order that duplicates may be removed. But no, they have to be done one by one. Fine if you only have a few but when there are over a hundred or so almost impossible.
Diane Poremsky says
They haven't really put a lot of effort into the rules wizard - but one reason for not sorting is because rules are ordered in the order they are to be run. If you sort alphabetically, you need to keep track of the original order so you can go back to the original order. Sperry Software has a utility that will sort rules - he's actually the only one whose done it, which should give you an idea of how hard it is to work with the rules - popular requests get a lot of people looking to make money on an addin.
Ronald says
"When rules result in duplicates, it always indicates the user is not using the Stop processing action on each rule."
Yeah, well, when i used that, i only received ALL messages in one folder. (no duplicates, that's true....) I Have used years and years rules, since 1998, but now its a chaos. Why changing things if things worked good???? Unbelievable MS....Any solution?
Diane Poremsky says
Rules haven't changed much over the years - it's still the same basic rules engine as before. The last update was in 2003.
Lisa says
Hello, I am having issues with people receiving double messages. We have a generic unit email set to automatically redirect to our entire group. However, sometimes we receive messages addressed to both our generic email and people included in our re-direct group. We are trying to figure out a way that the email will forward to everyone in the group but those who said email has also been addressed to.
We have tried the "except if" rule but the issue is those not listed by the sender do not receive the message.
Is what we are trying to accomplish even possible?? Is there a way to add a condition to the "Do the Following?" Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Kameron says
I believe it should be possible (Totally not 7 years late answering this)
Say there are 5 people in your group: ABCDE (To make things simple)
If you make 5(6) rules:
That should (?) work. It will be sending a copy to each member.
Diane Poremsky says
It think it will work... but would need ot test to be sure. ("Trust but verify.")
brian says
i don't believe i have outlook rules wizard but my email keep reloading I have now over 57000 emails how do i stop it
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using Outlook 2016 and a pop3 account? It's probably a bug. Go to file, office account - office updates, Update now.
Dex Luther says
The problem when wanting to applying multiple rules to an email is that Outlook seems to be really really bad at math. Having finished high school like many others, order of operations (BEDMAS) would seem like a logical thing, but Outlook is really bad at it.
Instead of applying Rule A on the message, then checking if Rule B applies, then applying Rule C, Outlook seems to try to apply rule ABC on every message at the same time. This defect in how Outlook processed rules creates copies of messages instead of moving them.
Diane Poremsky says
It runs them in order but doesn't drop the original message until all rules are processed. If moving a message caused the rules to stop, then you wouldn't get duplicates but it holds the message until it is sure nothing else will work.
Koalix says
Thanks for that explanation. I was so confused. I had my rules set up like following:
Due to the "show desktop alert", the rule can only run while the outlook client is running. That's why I put the first rule to run before the second rule because I receive all mails on my smartphone and I don't want mails sent to ABC to spam my inbox.
As far as I have now understood, it is not possible to have all mails initially moved to folder X and then (when the client is running) further sorted into folder Y (MOVED from X to Y, not copied).
Richard Tidd says
I have a rule that looks for specific words in email. Upon finding them moves to a folder. I have stop rules as the last line of the rule. I get three duplicate emails in the folder. I have deleted the rule and done it again. Still getting same thing. If I stop the rule, I get only one email in the inbox. Outlook 2016, windows 7.
Ronski says
I also have rules that move sent items to specific folders, the last line in each rule is stop processing more rules. The bizarre problem is I get duplicates in my sent items folder, but I've unticked "Save copies of messages in the Sent Items folder" and instead have a final rule which move items to a "Sent items via Rule" folder. So why do some messages (seems to be ones that have rules) end up in the original "Sent Items" folder thus creating duplicates? This is Outlook 2010
reva says
is there any way to stop procesing to avoid duplicates in outlook 2007?
javaonfire says
What happens when users A, B, C were cc'ed the email A and they all have Rule #1 which would copy email A to a public folder? would Rule #1 create duplicate emails in the public folders?
Diane Poremsky says
Yes, it would create duplicates if each person had a rule to copy to the same public folder.
Joe carpenter says
It's with all 4 of my accounts including gmail. I think I figured it out. I disabled two Sperry Software add ins. They were my only active add-ins. The problem went away, then I made them active again and it was fine. I use Outlook 2013. I also changed profiles.
Diane Poremsky says
Thanks for the update! It might help someone having the same problem.
Joe Carpenter says
When I forward an email it shows up duplicated in the outbox. One had the recipient's email in the TO box and the other TO box is empty. Is there any way to stop this?
Diane Poremsky says
Is this with a Gmail account? Is only one copy sent? What version of Outlook? I don't see this behavior in my outlook.
Dex Luther says
A simple solution to the "problem" would be to add a little bit of logic to the system. The industry I work in (Video game Quality assurance) having a project folder and several subfolders for each project is pretty much a must have.
Every kid in school learns the logic behind solving algebraic equations (BEDMAS or something similar). Adding the same kind of logic into outlook seems like a no brainer to me.
Apply the rules to an incoming email in succession. It would also make more sense since the buttons to reorder the rules are already there. If two rules apply to the same message, the only question would be, "which came first"?
This would alleviate the annoying conflicts, etc, but would also make it easy to have all your mail sorted into any number of folders and subfolders.
Diane Poremsky says
That's how outlook works - but if you have two rules that match the message, both are applied unless you add a 'stop processing' condition to the first rule.
Mark Bailey says
Hi Diane, sorry for the length it has taken to reply, however some feedback. I only use one computer. I have exported the rules, then re-imported and reset. I have also deleted all the rules and started all over again....still to no avail. But we have just moved over to hosted Exchange and I have now turned on some of the rules (I cant turn them all on as there are now too many for the online service) and am waiting to see whether this cures the issue.
Diane Poremsky says
Office 365 exchange has the same limitations as onsite exchange but the rules limit can be increased.
Did you also use the cleanrules switch? Assuming there were no rules causing the dupes, you may have had differences in the server rules and client rules and both were enabled. The fix is to export the rules then use the /cleanrules switch to delete server and client rules. I haven't seen that problem in years though, and it usually comes up soon after upgrading outlook.
Mark Bailey says
Hi Diane, Another issue just raised it's head that potentially relates to this. Client with New Exchange 2010 server gone in. Outlook 2010 for the clients. Just set up 2 separate users with out of office responses and a rule to forward email to another user. In both cases the forwarded email is being duplicated! Only one rule being set, no other rules set....
Diane Poremsky says
Do you use multiple computers? If so, using 'this computer only' in the rules could help.
I would probably export the rules, delete them from outlook- both client and server, then import and reset the rules. If you have a lot of rules, it will be a PITA, but you'll need to check any that move mail to folders and make sure the right folder is selected.
Sequoia D. Schroeder says
I think most of my problems were caused by overlapping rules. I went through my rules again and consolidated by using OR statements (well, the Wizard adds OR statements, basically, if you build it right). Also I WAS getting duplicate messages from one of the alerts I had set on SharePoint. I corrected that and those particular dupes went away.
Hopefully, that is all the duplicates, time will tell.
I have M$ Office Pro 2010, Outlook ver. 14.0.6123.5001 (32 bit). I have no idea of the version of Exchange my company is running and I don't think I'd get too far inquiring about it. Ditto SharePoint.
Diane Poremsky says
I don't think the version of Exchange and SharePoint factor into it. If the duplicates continue then it could be caused by an update, but it sounds like your duplicates were from rules.
Mark Bailey says
It's been happening for quite a while now, since somewhere around the end of April this year. It's kind of something I have become used to now as I have tried everything except completely removing my mailbox (which is too extreme and should not be necessary) and my AD account. I just run my rules manually each morning to clean up my Inbox....
Mark Bailey says
Interestingly enough, I have now stopped using the rules altogether for automatically processing email. I run my rules manually and no duplication at all, ever. However as soon as I turn on ANY of the rules to run automatically (and I have tried multiples and singles about 100 times in different perms and combinations) and I get duplication immediately. Something very wrong with auto processing....
Diane Poremsky says
What version of Outlook / what type of email account do you use?
Mark Bailey says
OUtlook 2010 and Exchange 2010.
Diane Poremsky says
I'll see if I can find out if there are issues with a recent update. Your problems started before SP2, so it's not *that* buggy update. :)
Sequoia D. Schroeder says
I always have "stop processing ..." in my Outlook Rules, and some, but not all of them result in duplicates anyway. I do NOT sync e.mail with my phone. Furthermore, I do not actually receive the e.mail twice, no one on the distribution who receives the e.mail but does not use rules gets it twice, Outlook Rules are duplicating the message, not Exchange.
Diane Poremsky says
Did the admin check the Exchange message log to verify only one is delivered to your address? Does the message meet the conditions of more than one rule?
Mark Bailey says
No, 1 account, one profile, profile, ost and pst's all removed and recreated. The only thing we haven't done is to remove the email account from Exchange completely, but this has much bigger ramifications and I am not prepared to do that. Have removed all rules, created one from scratch, still duplicates. Interestingly if I run all my rules manually, (I turn them all off and let the email flood into my inbox!) on my inbox then the messages are all moved to where they should be and without duplication.
Have had a couple of tech colleagues look into it and the result is that my Inbox on Exchange is broke. So now not bothering, quite simply had enough,
Mark Bailey says
OK, it's been a while but things have been hectic! Still have the problem. Getting a duplicate for about 99% of all my messages that are moved to another folder using rules. Spent the early part of last week setting up the stop processing rule for all my rules...(I have 104 in total so it took a while). Also tried disabling the email component of my antivirus (ESET). It has now run in this manner for several days and I still have the same problem. Any further ideas??
Diane Poremsky says
No, sorry, I don't. Do you have the account in your profile twice? The most common reason would be because you have two addresses delivered to the same mailbox. some clients download by address, outlook downloads the entire mailbox.
Mark Bailey says
Thanks for that Diane. I will give it a go and add the stop processing to every one and we shall see...
Mark Bailey says
Yes using Exchange but rules are processing locally as used as archive / filing process filing to locally held pst file. Have tried putting the stop processing on to a couple of rules (I do have an awful lot!) that were the more commonly used and they are still producing duplicates.
Diane Poremsky says
So you want a client side rule, so the warning message is ok.
Rules process in the order they are listed, you need to add stop processing to the first rule that would hit a message. I'd start at the top and work my way down the list with stop processing.
Mark Bailey says
I have the problem with duplication of loads of emails when moved using rules. Just found your post and trying it, however when I apply the changed rules I get an error, well a warning, that says as follows:
The rule has a condition that the server cannot process. The action 'stop processing "more rules' will prevent all remaining server rules from being carried out. Are you sure this is what you want to do?"
Diane Poremsky says
Are you using Exchange server mailbox? That warning means the rule will not run as mail arrives in an Exchange mailbox, it will only run when Outlook downloads the mail. If you don't connect to the Exchange mailbox using a smartphone or use OWA, you won't notice.