Outlook rule does not recognize sender

emailmicrosoft-outlook

I created a rule that should move all emails sent from "noreply@domain.com" to a specified folder.

However the rule runs but nothing happens, it seems to me it does not recognize the sender in my inbox. In the rule the sender is listed as "No Reply", which I believe is taken from my global address book, as that is how that particular email is listed there (First Name = "No" and Last Name = "Reply").

I have other rules about moving emails from certain senders and they all work fine and do not display the sender's email address in the rule manager as their First and Last name from my global address book but rather they display it as the proper email address (if this matters, at all).

I tried searching google for this but got only "Outlook rule does not work" and "How to create an Outlook rule" results.

Best Answer

I had exactly this issue too and just right now managed to work around it by creating a contact in my local Contacts address book that had the email address as the "Email Address" and "Display Name".

When setting up the rule I used the local Contacts address book to select the email sender instead of the Global Address Book.

Doing this kept the raw email address in the rule, which I could then at least run manually. I still need to check that it will work when triggered automatically, but it updated to the server and does not show as a client side rule, so hopeful.

A solution using VBA:

Copy this simple VBA procedure into an Outlook VBA project :

Sub ChangeSenderName(itm As MailItem)

    itm.SentOnBehalfOfName = "Joe TextsTooMuch"
    itm.Save

End Sub

Now create an Outlook rule that checks for incoming emails from 0123456789@mms.att.net. I suggest using the condition called 'with specific words in the sender's address'.

Then for the rule action, select 'run a script'. Set the value to the script called ChangeSenderName.

Once you have saved and enabled this rule, any incoming email that matches the sender address will be passed to the VBA code, which will modify it.

Notes on this solution

This code is actually modifying a field called SentOnBehalfOfName. As a result, it only appears to take effect in the Outlook Message View - not when you open up an individual email. I looked into changing the actual sender field, but it is not able to be modified with VBA.

Alternative solutions

Of course, the most elegant way to do this would be to configure the service that is sending the emails, but I am assuming you have no control over that.

Another option is to configure the mail server which receives the emails, to modify the From header before it delivers to your copy of Outlook.

Best Answer

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A solution using VBA:

Notes on this solution

Alternative solutions

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