Office 365 (Outlook on the Web) Inbox Rules

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Office 365 (Outlook on the Web) Inbox Rules

This article is for the new outlook on the web inbox rules.


Use inbox rules in Outlook on the web

Use inbox rules to automatically perform specific actions on email that arrives in your inbox. For example, you can create rules that will change the importance level of messages as they come in, automatically move them to other folders, or delete them based on certain criteria.

Rules only run on your inbox. They don't run on other folders.

Note: If you use a work or school account to sign in to Office 365, you're using Outlook on the web. If you're using an Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, or MSN account, see Use inbox rules in Outlook.com.

Create an inbox rule

Rules are applied to incoming messages and can be created from any folder.

  1. To quickly create a rule that moves all email from a specific sender or a set of senders to a folder, right-click a message in your message list that you want to create a rule for, and select Create rule.

  2. Choose the folder where you want all messages from that sender or set of senders to be moved, and then select OK.

  3. Select OK. The rule will be applied to all incoming messages. If you'd like to run the rule on your inbox immediately, select the check box for Run this rule now in Inbox.

    Note: Currently, you can only run rules in which a message from a sender is moved to a folder. You can't run other rules, such as those that use a message title or mark a message as unread.

If you'd like to do more than just move the message from a specific sender or set of senders to a folder, select More options. The rules settings menu will open.

A screenshot of the rules settings page

  • Every rule needs at least three things: a name, a condition, and an action. Rules can also contain exceptions to conditions. You can add multiple conditions, actions, and exceptions at each step by choosing Add a condition, Add an action, and Add an exception.

  • If you don't want any more rules to run after this one does, select the Stop processing more rules check box. For more information, see Stop processing more rules in Outlook on the web.

  • Press Save to create your rule or Discard to cancel rule creation.

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Edit an inbox rule

  1. At the top of the page, select Settings Settings > View all Outlook settings.

  2. Select Mail > Rules.

  3. In the rule you want to edit, select edit .

  4. Press Save to save your edited rule.

Note: Some rules created in other versions of Outlook can't be processed by Outlook on the web. You won't be able to run or edit the rule in Outlook on the web.

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Delete an inbox rule

  1. At the top of the page, select Settings Settings > View all Outlook settings.

  2. Select Mail > Rules.

  3. In the rule you want to delete, select Delete .

    Tip: If you just want to turn the rule off for a while, select the toggle next to the rule.

Set the order in which inbox rules are applied to incoming messages

Inbox rules are applied to incoming messages based on the order they're in within the Inbox rules list. You can arrange the order in which the rules you create are applied to messages coming into your inbox.

  1. At the top of the page, select Settings Settings > View all Outlook settings.

  2. Select Mail > Rules.

  3. Select a rule, and then use the Up arrow or Down arrow to change the order in which the rule is applied to incoming messages.

Run inbox rules on existing messages

By default, an inbox rule runs on incoming messages after you've created the rule. To run a rule on existing messages:

  1. At the top of the page, select Settings Settings > View all Outlook settings.

  2. Select Mail > Rules.

  3. Select Run rule now next to the rule you want to run.

    Note: Currently, you can only run rules in which a message from a sender is moved to a folder. You can't run other rules, such as those that use a message title or mark a message as unread.


Keywords:
Outlook on the web, new, office 365, office, Microsoft, inbox, rules, email, message, instructions 
Doc ID:
93636
Owned by:
Help Desk K. in UW-Milwaukee Help Desk
Created:
2019-08-07
Updated:
2023-06-05
Sites:
UW-Milwaukee Help Desk