Outlook 2000 Rules Problems

[msal]

I hope some one can help.
At work, I recieve about 60 emails each day and night so I've set up 15-20 rules to sort the emails as they arrive, from my inbox into folders in a pst file. The problem is that not all emails are sorted when they arrive. For some reason not all the rules appear to run and it is generally the rules that are lower down in the list that don't run (and obviously they can't all be at the top of the list).
If I run them manually, either altogether or separatly, they work fine but not if they are left to run on there own.
I have the latest Win 2000 & Office 2000 service packs installed and MS Exchange is running on the server which we connect to for our mail.
Is this a known problem? Limitations of Outlook rules??

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[rjkrash]

I too have seen this phenomonem. I have begun to think that OL treats the rules the way teenagers do. You know, they apply when it is convenient.

I believe there is a limitation that when being bombarded with a large number of new mail the 'thread' of the program that handles rules gets interupted and 'forgets' its place. The delivery is given higher priority. This is just a hunch. I have observed this when I get 15-20 new messages during one receive, and/or when my system is busy doing other things.

Some things I recommend, that have seemed to help:
Keep your rules short without too many conditions and be sure to have them "stop processing more rules" as their final condition. If you don't "stop" the entire list of rules is applied to each message. Position is important too. The rule that handles the more frequent type of mail should be higher. I have also set my "check for new mail' option to a higher frequency so my mail is received in smaller doses.


The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[glenna]

Make sure that the higher up rules are not negating conditions in other rules.
Glenn A
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are tasty and crunchy and good with ketchup."