Outlook for Mac error message: Rules could not be saved because there is an error in the rules.

Anonymous
2016-01-28T11:45:40+00:00

(Modifying the title to provide clarity)

I have edited multiple rules in Outlook for Mac and when trying to save the changes I get this error message:

"Rules could not be saved because there is an error in the rules. Edit the rules, and then try to save the rules again."

What? I mean WHAT???

Firstly, I have edited the rules in your UI and clicked OK after each edit, how can there be an error?? Why did you not check for errors when I pressed the OK button? How is it even possible that your UI lets me create a rule with an error, it is not a programming language, it is a user interface!

Secondly, what an ignorant unhelpful error message is this? What is the error? In which rule it is? How do I fix it? The message could have equally read "F... YOU!", it would be equally unhelpful and rude!

Not only did I have to abandon all the changes I made, you have also ruined my day!

I HATE YOU TOO MICROSOFT!!!

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business

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Anonymous
2017-01-06T18:14:19+00:00

A common cause of these rule errors is a bad email address in one of the rules (possibly a typo) or an invalid folder name (possibly deleted or renamed?).  Please check the most recent rule(s) you created and edited to see if all parameters are currently valid.  You can also narrow down the specific rule by selectively removing/re-adding individual rules.  Unfortunately, all rules are sent to the server in one transaction, and Outlook currently does not have code to identify and display the specific rule that failed. We've logged that as a future improvement.

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Anonymous
2017-09-11T06:38:22+00:00

This is really a problem solver!

With outlook log trace opened, I found there are multiple RuleOperationError when synchronizing with exchange server.

For example:

<OperationIndex>24</OperationIndex><ValidationErrors><Error><FieldURI>Condition:SentToAddresses</FieldURI><ErrorCode>InvalidAddress</ErrorCode><ErrorMessage>invalid email address</ErrorMessage><FieldValue>SMTP:</FieldValue></Error></ValidationErrors>

the OperationIndex tag should be started from 0, so 24 means the 25th rule in the rule box.

For me, there is a outdated mail-group in SendToAddress condition.

After removed these invalid rules, the whole rule set worked again!

Hope that microsoft(outlook) fix this issue with the accurate invalid rule tips, cause not everyone can understand these debug stuff!

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-04T20:42:11+00:00

    Sometimes the rule is "good" when it is created, but goes "bad" later if the specified destination folder is deleted or renamed.  So the rule can't be saved. 

    1. If a reason for which a rule goes from good to bad is the fact that you delete its "Move to" folder, then it should alert you of that when you delete the folder. Before confirming the folder deletion it should say: "The folder you are trying to delete is being used by one of the rules: <name of the rule here>.". You already have the Rules downloaded in the app, I imagine when you delete a folder, you can a loop through the rules and see if any of them are using that folder, before confirming deletion. Letting the existing rules getting into an inconsistent state seems to be poor programming.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-04T20:28:38+00:00

    This error is completely confusing. I was trying to add a new rule and got this error. I spent close to an hour to debug the rule I was trying to create, without success. Then I tried to delete half of the 30 rules I already had in order to make this error disappear, again with no success. I then stumbled upon this thread and decided to disable (without deleting) all the rules I had in Outlook. Clicked save and it worked. Then I re-enabled all the rules and again, it worked! So without making any change to any rule, the error stopped appearing and I managed to create the new rule. It makes no sense to me how disabling and enabling all the rules fixed the issue, but it did work.

    As a feedback: if there is a rule that is invalid, then the message should clearly point to what that rule is instead of being so generic.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-08-15T22:12:21+00:00

    If you have a reproducible error message situation then please check the logs and report what error is being reported in the log.

    See above, but copied here for convenience:

    "

    For rules errors, you will first need to go to "Window" -> "Sync Errors" -> <Gear icon> -> "Turn on logging for troubleshooting".  Then relaunch Outlook and try updating the rules.  After you get the error message, look in the log file with latest modification date in this location: /Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Outlook/Data/Library/Logs

    Turn off that logging checkbox when you're done, or you will end up consuming lots of disk space. :-)

    "

    One thing you are looking for is "UpdateInboxRulesResponse" but if you don't find anything with that then you might look at all logs around the time the error is thrown.

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