# Outlook 2007 'rules in error' message



## pacsatross (Aug 10, 2010)

running Outlook 2007 on windows 7 as stand-alone, not part of a server or exchange. trying to set up a rule to send out an auto-reply to all emails saying i'm out of office today. i'm doing the same as i did in Outlook 2003 (which worked fine) but it's not working in Windows 7/Outlook 2007. I set the rule, an email comes in, and an error box pops up saying 'rules in error, cannot reply to message'. I've tried it on two different computers, each running W7/Outlook 2007. I've exported and imported rules. i've deleted them and re-set them up. error box continues to show. help please!


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

Did you follow the outlook instructions for using that rule.

1.On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
2.In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click New Rule.
3.Under Start from a blank rule, click Check messages when they arrive, and then click Next.
4.Under Which condition(s) do you want to check?, select the sent only to me check box and any other criteria that you want, and then click Next.
5.When you see a dialog box informing you that this rule will be applied to every message that you receive, click Yes.
6.Under What do you want to do with the message?, select the reply using a specific template check box.
7.Under Step 2: Edit the rule description (click an underlined value), click a specific template.
8.In the Select a Reply Template dialog box, in the Look In box, click User Templates in File System.
9.Select the template that you created in the previous section (there was an instruction for creating a mail template that would be sent), and then click Open.
10.Click Next.
11.Optionally, select the check boxes for any exceptions to the auto-reply rule.
12.Click Next.
13.Under Step 1: Specify a name for this rule, type a name for the auto-reply rule, and then click Finish.

If you didn't create a specific template, perhaps that could be the issue.


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## pacsatross (Aug 10, 2010)

Yes. I set up a template and then set up the rule. I did this in Outlook 2003 for years and it always worked. since upgrading to Windows 7 with Office 2007 two weeks ago, i cannot get the rule to work. item 5 in your list above does not appear as i set up the rule.
i've ran scanpst.exe and renamed the srs file - nothing seems to help. i just created a new template and created a new rule - still get the same error box 'rules in error, cannot reply to message'. any more ideas???


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

Interesting, I got the same message. I also found it interesting that there was a message put in the outbox from the initial time I tested it and it had no email address. It attempted to send a reply, but the reply had no TO address so it just stayed in there. Hmm...gotta dig a little more on this one.


Edited: I just found something of interest, possible "resolution".


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## pacsatross (Aug 10, 2010)

good find! i've been googling for hours. Option 1 did not help, i was already running SP2 on Outlook2007 - but Option 2 does work, however it's a bit of a pain to have to remember this. another thing i tried is to split my .pst file - i archived anything older than 2005 (my .pst file was 11gb, now down to 5gb) - but that did not help either. Do you know if MS will fix this problem in Outlook2007 anytime soon? lot of money spent on MS products, pretty sad this has to be done by hand to make it work. but THANKS for finding this MacGuyver solution!


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## pacsatross (Aug 10, 2010)

additional info - i retried Option 1 using the plain-text to create the template (which we had always done in Outlook 2003) and it worked also! i'm going to the other computer and see if plain-text template works over there. what an adventure!


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## pacsatross (Aug 10, 2010)

did not work on the other system, not sure why. tomorrow is another day, i'll look at them both again. thanks again for the link to the Jones' site.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

Just another day in the life of computers...


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