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

Anonymous

(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!!!

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Anonymous

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

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For me, there is a outdated mail-group in SendToAddress condition.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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44 additional answers

Anonymous

2017-08-07T20:14:14+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!!!

The easiest fix is to log into your online account with your browser to office365.com or outlook.com depending on what you are using. I'm using 365 and outlook setup on exchange. So, I just logged into https://login.microsoftonline.com/ then...
1. On the top right side, click the Gear Icon
3. then click the 'mail' link at the bottom of the page on the right side menu under 'App Settings'
5. Now move to the left menu on the page and choose 'Inbox and Sweep Rules"
This will open the rules that are synced with your Outlook. Any errors should have a yellow warning triangle between the checkbox and the rule name "to..".

My problem was a folder i had deleted so i just deleted the rule and saved. Went back into outlook and easy-peasy rule creations without errors.

Now, if you have more than one account setup in outlook, you may have to do this for each one to find the offending rule.
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Anonymous

2017-08-15T19:44:07+00:00

Is there any progress on this issue?

It is annoying as it works fine on Windows OS but throws this exception on Mac.

An early resolution will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
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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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