Thursday, July 02, 2009

Fix for 'Rules in Error' - 'Cannot Reply to Message' for Outlook 2007 Out-Of-Office rule

I was trying to set up an out-of-office rule in Outlook 2007. If you have Exchange, this is very easy, but if you are using POP (and maybe IMAP?) account, you'd need to duplicate the effect with an email rule and leave Outlook running. You can follow the directions on Microsoft KB# 311107 to set up such an out-of-office rule without Exchange.

For Outlook 2007, I got a pop-up message with a title 'Rules in Error' indicating simply 'Cannot Reply to Message'... which was not helpful. My Outlook 2007 is up-to-date, and a Google search (example) of the error led me to believe this is actually a bug in Outlook 2007.

The rule I set up is very basic and always replies with the same template (screenshot), yet I received the error message (screenshot). Contrary to (seemingly) popular opinion, there are ways to resolve this. I have found two things to make Outlook 2007 POP3 out-of-office work.
  1. Update to Office 2007 SP2 and use a plain-text Outlook template.
  2. Process the rule once manually and leave Outlook running.
Option 1: Update to SP2 and use a plain-text template
If you read Microsoft's directions carefully, it tells you to use a Plain Text template in Outlook 2007, but it does not specify plain text template for previous versions. I made a plain text template and my out-of-office rule worked just fine.

I am running Outlook 2007 SP2, but on a computer with Outlook 2007 SP1 the out-of-office rule did not work (plain-text or not). I used option #2 (see below), but later updated to Office SP2 (available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b444bf18-79ea-46c6-8a81-9db49b4ab6e5&displaylang=en) and used the plain text template.

So, that's one way... what's the other?

Option 2: Process the rule manually once
Thanks to this post at Lockergnome, there is another workaround. After you set up an email rule and it generates the error, the rule is disabled. The rule itself seems valid, and you can run it manually. So, restart Outlook and re-enable the rule, and run the rule once manually and apply it to your existing messages before another email is received. Voila, it works!
  1. Set up the out-of-office rule
  2. Close Outlook 2007
  3. Start Outlook 2007 and click on Tools > Rules and Alerts and turn on your rule
  4. Still in Rules and Alerts, click on 'Run Rules Now...' and select your out-of-office rule and click on Run Now
  5. Close the Rules and Alerts and leave Outlook 2007 running
Interestingly, at least one email needs to be in your Inbox when you run the rule, or it doesn't seem to work. If you have trouble finishing these steps before the rule is applied, try disconnecting your network cable or setting Outlook to work offline.

Pros and Cons
Option 2 has the advantage of working with graphical templates and does not require updating to SP2. However, it stops working if Outlook 2007 is restarted - you'll have to run the rule manually again.

Option 1 has the advantage of being more 'reliable' -- you start Outlook 2007 and it keeps working. However, it is plain text and it may require a sizable update.

Summary
If you don't mind updating to Office 2007 SP2, you can create a plain-text Outlook template and use it with your out-of-office rule. If you object to either plain-text replies or to installing SP2, you can run the rule manually once and it should keep running.

47 comments:

  1. I was already using Outlook 2007 SP2 and had created a plain text template, but it would not work. I had to use Option 2, and it worked. Thanks!

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  2. Neither of those 2 solutions worked. I tried each several times, very carefully.

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  3. Same here. Neither solution worked. Was very careful to follow the steps closely and tried repeatedly to no avail.

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  4. Didn't fix it for me either.

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  5. Thanks - the solution on my system seemed to be 1> create rule
    2> close / open Outlook 2007
    3> run once manually (on unopened messages)

    Strange the author of the M$ solution forgot to mention items 2 & 3.

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  6. Option 1 did not seem to work for me, but Option 2 did. Thanks!

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  7. Suggest you remove Option 1 - on my elderly computer it took me a couple of hours to find out that it doesn't work, and I didn't see the comments until it was too late!

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  8. This post and the comments were a wonderful help. Thanks so much for contributing.

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  9. Thank-you! Option Two worked great - I haven't been able to use rules all year!

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  10. Option 2 worked...

    Thanks Lee.

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  11. But Isn't there any way to avoid leaving outlook and system open n still OOF auto reply works...!
    As I did before which was working then with same account

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  12. Note that this is only necessary if you are using POP or IMAP.

    If you are using Exchange Server, it has an 'out of office' function you can use. Check your Tools menu for an 'Out-of-office assistant' or turn it on via Outlook Web Access.

    Also, if you are using Outlook to pick up Yahoo, Gmail, or some other web-based account, most of these services have server-side vacation responders. Try doing a Google search for 'gmail vacation response' or whatever.

    If you are using some form of *nix try the 'vacation' command (look at the man page for it).

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  13. Thanks so much! Option 2 worked a treat.

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  14. Phew! - Thanks a bunch, couldn't get the silly thing to work, and your second option worked a treat.

    People like you make the Internet a blessing.

    Thanks again!
    Ab

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  15. Watch out - I tried step 2 with a very full mail box and it proceeded to try and send 75 plus responses..

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  16. Unfortunately neither worked for me either.

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  17. Only option 2 worked for me.
    Thanks

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  18. Option 2 worked for me! Thanks for the tip! I've been pounding my head against the monitor for a couple of hours trying to figure this one out!

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  19. What if you have over a thousand emails saved in your inbox. You dont want auto-replies being sent to emails that you have had over 2 weeks ago.

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  20. Found a solution, if you are like me and you dont ever delete emails, chances are you have 1000's o emails saved in your inbox. Do this if you use option #2, when you choose to run the process manually, be sure to immediately click cancel, because if not your auto-reply will be sent to all over your old emails in your inbox. Thanks for the help!

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  21. I am sorry, my solution does not work, the auto-reply that I received when I was checking was an auto-reply that was sent manually when I ran the process manually. I am still at a stand-still.

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  22. Neither worked for me either....Usually I can do this from my web host level but not with a specific account. oh well.

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  23. thank you thank you thank you
    I thought I was losing my mind. I set these up for people in the office all the time and ran into this for the first time today. Running it manually did the trick!!!

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  24. Thank you!! I also thought I was losing my mind!

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  25. Thanks so very much. Seems like Microsoft should take some lessons from you. This worked and I was going crazy.

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  26. Thank you very much, I was about to poke my eyeballs out trying to figure this out. Microsoft SUCKS!

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  27. Not at all convenient to run on every restart of outlook. Option 1 not working although I am having sp 2

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  28. Since the problem is not resolved by MS and they do not seem interested, the better solution is use Incredi Mail alonwith Outlook. While going out enable Incredi Mail and enable auto reply, save a copy on server, check for mails every 10 minutes. Optionally It sends auto reply to all persons in address book only.

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  29. Option 2 worked for me. Thanks!

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  30. Thank you so much, Lee!

    Cheers from Portugal

    Francisco

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  31. neither works.

    what upsets me the most is MS does not fix this, they broke it, they need to fix it!

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  32. Ran Option 2 (manually) with 1 message in inbox and the out of office reply was generated, great.

    However, sent another test message afterwards but nothing? Tried re-running manually again but still nothing. Oh well, worth a try. Thanks.

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  33. thanks, option 2 worked!

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  34. Option 2 worked for me.....

    Option 1 worked to the point that the template went to the Outbox...but did not know the To address and therefore could not complete the process.

    So having to use Option 2. Only wondering once the computer restarts after and automatic update neither of these will work.

    Wish MS would fix this issue....

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  35. Thank you it worked. Option #2

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  36. Thank you so much for your advice - I used option 2 and my out of office messages are now working as they should.

    As Kenneth said, just watch out for it sending an out of office message to every e-mail in your inbox - I just dumped all of my inbox e-mails into a separate folder to avoid this problem.


    Thanks again!

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  37. Do you know if Microsoft ever created or is planning to create a fix for this?

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  38. excellent. been trawling Microsoft's forums and they don't seem to have a clue except to say its a bug. option 2 worked a treat, thanks.

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  39. THANKS!!! I always thought I was setting it up wrong and if it did work correctly (sometimes) on the first try - only to realize the vacation dates were actually typed in wrong so when I went to update it, it stopped working.

    Never thought to exit Outlook and start it up again. That is the fix. Opt 2 worked for me using 2010.

    Best helpful note of the week for me!!

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  40. I'm an IT consultant and a client had this problem, whereas my Outlook 2007 auto-reply rule worked fine. I realized he had not installed any updates for at least 6 months. The solution was to run all Microsoft Updates related to Office 2007. Now his Outlook 2007 version is the same as mine (12.0.6557.5001) SP2 MSO (12.0.6554.5001) and his Out of Office auto-reply with template rule works as well.

    It would seem that MS has fixed this bug in recent months.

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  41. Same problem with OL2010 SP0 :
    - Manual is OK but, after, auto dosn't work.
    Trying with SP1 ...

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  42. OL2010 SP1. Works only one time.

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  43. I've had some what of the same issue. i receive the 'rules in error' message when outlook receives and email which is supposed to kick off an run application. The application is a shortcut to an Access macro. It works once and shows the 'rules in error' and the rule becomes inactive. How is this?

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  44. None of the options works for me.
    Still not fixed by MS?
    I've searched in a hundred different forums, including Microsoft's own. Still no solution.
    I'm on 64bit Win7 with Outlook 2010, all up to date

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