Delving Into Outlook / Exchange Server-Side Rules

Got a lot of rules?

Tired of paging through the GUI, trying to find just which rule is (mis)handling those emails?

Here's how to get the "code" for the rules, as text:

Use OWA - something like this, modified for your realm:

https://outlook.office.com/owa/?realm=YOUR-REALM-HERE&path=/options/inboxrules

Manual navigation (if the above URL doesn't work):

• InBox Rules (under Options > Mail > Automatic Processing - or use Help)
• At page bottom: "click here to generate a diagnostic report"

The resulting email contain your rules - now you can at least grep / search through them!

The file most people will be interested in, is "InBoxRules.txt"; here are some highlights from one:

• Name="the name you gave your rule"
• ExecutionSequence="101" <-- important; rules are executed in order
• StateFlags="Enabled, ExitAfterExecution" <-- no further rules will be used
• <Restriction
• SubType="RecipientRestriction" <-- this rule is based on recipient
• <Action…
• Type="OP_MOVE"
• FolderName="Deleted Items" <-- and the action is to delete the msg

Notes:

• An XML browser helps a lot; I use BBEdit.
• Yes; this is read-only - you do have to go back to the GUI to make any changes.
• Since this web UI shows the contents of rules as text, it may be enough to use it directly (ex: using the browser's "Find" function) - with the added benefit of being able to make any desired changes directly. It is however, necessary to click through each rule, to see the full definition...
• My previous post may also be helpful: How-To recover / export Outlook for Mac "Smart Folder" AKA "Saved Search" configs