Some rules are disabled, and you receive an error message when you try to enable them after you upgrade to Outlook 2007 or to Outlook 2003

After you upgrade to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, you may notice that some of your rules are disabled and cannot be enabled. Other rules work correctly. If you try to enable the rules that are disabled, you receive the following error message:

This behavior occurs if the rules that are in your mailbox exceed a size of 32 kilobytes (KB). The rules size limit for mailboxes on Microsoft Exchange Server is 32 KB. In Outlook 2003 and in Outlook 2007, the size of rules has increased mostly to provide support for the Unicode format.

Note The rules size limit for mailboxes in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 has been increased to a default size of 64 KB per mailbox. The rule limit is now a customizable limit up to 256 KB per mailbox.

To work around this behavior so that your rules are restored, use one or more of the following methods to decrease the size of your existing rules.

Method 1

Rename your rules to a shorter name. To rename a rule in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
2. On the E-mail Rules tab, click the rule that you want to rename.
3. In the Change Rule list, click Rename Rule.
4. Type a new, shorter name for the rule, and then click OK.
5. Click OK to close the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

Method 2

Delete any old rules. To delete a rule in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
2. On the E-mail Rules tab, click the rule that you want to delete.
3. Click Delete, and then click Yes to confirm the deletion.
4. Click OK to close the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

Method 3

Combine similar rules to reduce the overall size of your rules. If it is possible, combine similar rules to reduce the overall size of your rules. After you have combined similar rules, delete the rules that you do not need any more. To edit an existing rule in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
2. On the E-mail Rules tab, click the rule that you want to edit.
3. In the Change Rule list, click Edit Rule Settings.
   
   Modify the rule as appropriate.
4. When you are finished, click Finish, and then click OK to close the Rules and Alerts dialog box.
   
   Note If the rule is a client-only rule, you must click OK two times to close the Rules and Alerts dialog box.

Method 4

Move your personal folders (.pst) file to a location that has the shortest path name. If you have rules that move e-mail messages to a .pst file, move your .pst file to a location that has the shortest path name as possible. For example, move your .pst file to a location such as C:\file_name.pst. To move your .pst file in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. In the Navigation Pane, right-click Personal Folders or the folder name that appears for your .pst file, and then click Properties for folder_name.
   
   Note This folder will always be a top-level folder in the Navigation Pane, in Mail.
2. On the General tab, click Advanced.
3. In the Filename text box, make a note of the complete path and file name of the .pst file.
4. Click OK two times to close the folder_name Properties dialog box.
5. Quit Outlook.
6. Use Microsoft Windows Explorer to move your .pst file to the new location.
   
   Note By default, the location for a .pst file is the drive:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder. The default location is a hidden folder. To use Windows Explorer to locate this folder, you must first turn on the display of hidden folders. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. In Windows Explorer, click Folder Options on the Tools menu.
   2. Click the View tab.
   3. In the Advanced Settings section, click Show hidden files and folders under Hidden files and folders.
   4. If you want to see all file name extensions, click to clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box under Files and Folders.
      
      Note that hidden folders appear dimmed to indicate they are not typical folders.
   5. Click OK.
7. Use one of the following methods to open the mail item in Control Panel:
   • To do this on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer or on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer, click Start, click Control Panel, click User Accounts, and then click Mail.
     
     Note If you are using the Classic view, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Mail.
   • To do this on a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Mail.
8. Click Show Profiles, and then click the profile that contains your .pst file.
9. Click Properties, and then click Data Files.
10. Click the .pst data file that you moved, and then click Settings.
11. When you are prompted that the data file could not be found at the old location, click OK.
12. Locate and then click your .pst file in the new folder location, and then click Open.
13. Click OK, and then click Close two times.
14. Click OK.
15. Quit Control Panel.
16. Restart Outlook.

Method 5

Clear the on this machine only check box. If you use a rule to move e-mail messages to a .pst file, click to clear the on this machine only check box unless you are accessing your Exchange Server e-mail from different client computers. To do this in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
2. On the E-mail Rules tab, click the rule that you want to edit.
3. In the Change Rule list, click Edit Rule Settings.
4. If selected, click to clear the on this machine only check box.
5. Complete the Rules Wizard.
6. Click OK to close the Rules and Alerts dialog box.
   
   Note If you use client-only rules that point to local resource files, for example moving items to a folder in a .pst file, and you use multiple computers to access Microsoft Outlook, rule conflicts may occur. Therefore, some client-only rules may be disabled.

For additional information about the 32 KB limitation for rules, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: