![Diane Poremsky [Outlook MVP]](http://www.outlook-tips.net/images/2014/MVP_BlueOnly.png)
Rules are processed in the order they are listed in the Rules Wizard and you can rearrange the rules to better control which rules process which messages.
Add a Stop Processing action to each rule to prevent subsequent rules from processing messages which are processed by a rule.
If you want more than one rule to process messages, don't add the stop processing action to earlier rules or put that rule at the top of your Rules list.
If you have a lot of rules, you'll improve the efficiency of Rules Wizard if you put the most active rules at the top of the list and use the Stop Processing action in most of your rules.
Please note that this action only stops the processing of the current message that meets the condition of the rule, it does not stop the rules engine from processing additional messages. When a message matches the rule, Outlook does 'whatever' to the message then moves on to process the next message, as a result, using Stop Processing can save a (little) bit of time.
For example, say you have a rule to move mail from Bob and a second rule to move mail with the subject “Hello!”. If Bob sends you a message with the subject Hello!, both rules will apply (resulting in duplicate messages). If you use stop precessing on the rules, after the first rule moves the message Outlook moves on to process the next message instead of checking Bob's message against the Hello rule or additional rules.
Published September 30, 2003. Last reviewed on September 6, 2013.
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15 Comments on "Tip 42: Stop Processing More Rules"
This simply does not work. I keep getting duplicated messages in different folders that result from more than one rule.
Why can't you delete rules? Aren't they listed in the Rules Wizard?
Did you try opening outlook the /cleanrules switch? That should delete all rules.
It seems to me that "stop processing more rules" has a side effect. If your have a rule that is posting a mail from a person into a folder, and run that rule, the next time you get a mail from the same person, the rule doesn't work if you haven't unchecked the "stop processing more rules". Either this is a bug in Outlook 2013 or it's dumb programming.
It's a bug somewhere - that option only applies to the current message, not future messages. It tells the rules engine that if a match is found in the current rule, don't check any other rules in the list and move on to process the next message.
For example, if you have a rule to move messages sent from Alice to folder A and a second rule to move messages sent to bill to folder B, and Alice cc's you on a message to bill, only the first rule applies, not both.