Rules may become corrupted when you access them from multiple versions of Outlook

We do not recommend or support the use of multiple versions of Microsoft Outlook to modify the same set of rules.

When you use multiple versions of Outlook to modify the same set of rules, rules may become corrupted. The following symptoms indicate corrupted rules in Outlook:

• Rules become corrupted and no longer function as expected.
• Rules unexpectedly disappear from the Rules Wizard in Outlook.

This article describes the options that we recommend to use to modify the same set of rules if you have multiple versions of Outlook that share the same mail profile that access the same set of rules.

If you have multiple versions of Outlook that access the same mail profile and the same set of rules, we recommend that you use one of the following options.

Option 1: Upgrade all versions of Outlook to the same version

We recommend that you upgrade all versions of Outlook that use the same mail profile and access the same set of rules to the latest version of Outlook that you currently have available.

If at all possible, upgrade all versions of Outlook at the same time or as close to the same time as possible.

Option 2: Access rules only from the latest version of Outlook

We recommend that you access your rules only when you use the latest version of Outlook that you currently have available.

For example, if you currently access the same mail profile and set of rules from Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, we recommend that you access the rules only from Outlook 2007.

Note This option is only recommended when it is not an option to upgrade all versions of Outlook to the latest version of Outlook that you currently have available.