Outlook 2003 Rules cause Outlook to stop responding

[Guest]

I have a laptop running XP sp2 with Office 2003 SP1 & all updates applied.
It is configured with an Exchange mailbox (default mail location) and a POP3
account (default account). I have two rules configured - one to move spam
messages to the Junk Email folder, one to delete failure notices I receive
(lots !) When the laptop is connected to the LAN all is well. However when
working off-line, even with the Exchange account not part of a "send/receive
group", Outlook will stop responding after receiving 2 to 3 messages from the
POP3 account.

After much experimentation I was able to determine that the rules are
causing the problem. All works well when the rules are disabled but as soon
as I use rules to move messages to folders Outlook hangs. The rules are
simple - "if <name> is in sender address, delete and stop processing rules".
Also, Outlook won't let me modify rules when not connected to the Exchange
Server (very annoying).

Question 1 - What am I missing in the configuration that is causing this? I
have this configuration on other laptops and it works fine.
Question 2 - Is there any way to configure Outlook to allow modification of
rules when not connected to the Exchange server?

Any thoughts are appreciated

Don

 

[Brian Tillman]

After much experimentation I was able to determine that the rules are
causing the problem. All works well when the rules are disabled but
as soon as I use rules to move messages to folders Outlook hangs. The
rules are simple - "if <name> is in sender address, delete and stop
processing rules". Also, Outlook won't let me modify rules when not
connected to the Exchange Server (very annoying).

Since your rules are kept on the server, it's natural they can't be changed
unless you're connected.

Question 1 - What am I missing in the configuration that is causing
this? I have this configuration on other laptops and it works fine.

There must be some difference or the behavior wouldn't be different.
However, I'm at a loss to explain it.

Question 2 - Is there any way to configure Outlook to allow
modification of rules when not connected to the Exchange server?

No. The rules are in the mailbox.