Rules Not Working: Outlook Still Sends Emails from Specific Domain to Junk

Outlook
1

I'm having an issue where emails from a specific system, related to projects, are consistently being marked as junk despite being marked as safe. This is resulting in lost business opportunities.

Additionally, I've set up a rule to direct emails containing a specific keyword to my inbox, but it's not working. I'm struggling to understand why Outlook isn't processing this rule correctly and I need assistance.

2

Sounds like you’re having a frustrating issue with Outlook.

First off, let’s tackle the junk email issue. You mentioned you’ve marked the emails as safe, but they’re still getting flagged. Here’s what you can try:

  1. Check the junk email filter settings: Sometimes Outlook gets a little too aggressive with its filtering. Go to File > Options > Junk Email and make sure the filter is not set to Exclusive. If it is, try setting it to Standard or Low to see if that resolves the issue.

  2. Add the domain to the Safe Senders list: Right-click on an email from the specific domain and click Junk > Never Block Sender’s Domain. This should add the domain to your Safe Senders list. You can also manually add the domain by going to Junk Email Options and clicking Add under the Safe Senders and Domains section.

  3. Verify the domain isn’t blocked elsewhere: Double-check that the domain isn’t blocked in your Windows Defender or any other security software you’re running.

Moving on to the rule not working.

Here’s what might be going on:

  1. Rule order matters: Outlook processes rules in the order they’re listed. If you have multiple rules, try moving the one containing the specific keyword to the top of the list. You can do this by right-clicking the rule and clicking Move Up.

  2. Check the rule conditions: Double-check the rule conditions to ensure they’re correct. Go to Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts, then click Edit on the rule containing the keyword. Make sure the conditions are correctly set up.

  3. Keyword formatting matters: Ensure the keyword is formatted correctly in the rule. If the keyword has any special characters, try wrapping it in single quotes (e.g., ‘keyword’).

If none of these steps help, you might want to try creating a new rule from scratch to test if it’s a specific rule configuration issue.