The 32kb limit on Rules that has been imposed on Outlook (or is it 64kb?) still ridiculous.
Is there ever going to be a change on this?
I manage about 100 clients that are organized in 16 rules to assign them to categories.
The 16th rule is giving an error as it is exceeding the limit of memory imposed by Outlook.
I'm limited to 15 rules!!! even after I renamed all of them to a single word.

MICROSOFT FOLKS - PLEASE HELP - PLEASE LIFT THIS ARCHAIC 32KB LIMIT FROM THE DOS OF YESTERYEAR

Hello Montevale,

Which version of Exchange server you use?

Microsoft set the limit in Exchange 2003 is 32KB for rules and that is not adjustable. Exchange 2007 has a default rule size limit of 64KB and it can be adjusted. Not sure on the number of email addresses in a rule but I'm guessing your running into the 32KB limit.

In Exchange 2003, it is limited to 32KB and you may have to look for some work around as per below KB.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241325/

If you are using Exchange 2007 then default limit is 64KB and you can increase upto 256KB by the following steps.

Step 1: Launch Exchange 2007 Management Shell (PowerShell)
Start > All Programs > Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 > Exchange Management Shell

Step 2: Upgrade everyone to 256kb limit
get-mailbox | set-mailbox -rulesquota 256kb

Note: Please make sure the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service is started.

Any questions, feel free to let me know.

Tony Chen

TechNet Community Support

• Marked as answer by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Wednesday, March 14, 2012 7:38 AM

Unfortunately - if you have upgraded to 365, Microsoft has completely taken away this ability.  Tony - have you heard if they plan to fix this bug?  Frankly - it's a stupid move on their part and has left a lot of professional users cold.  Would love any insights if you have seen similar problems.

Thanks!

I am not sure about it. Maybe in next version of Office 365 will address it.

Please be assured that any improvements in the product are based on users' requirements. Our developers strive to capture Microsoft users' ideas and are working hard to create a more powerful and easy-to-use product.

Again, thank you for your feedback.

Tony Chen

TechNet Community Support

• Edited by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Wednesday, March 14, 2012 7:38 AM

i'm using version 2010... why is there a limitation at all on the size of the rules?

It is an unbelievably useful tool until it hits this limit.

Hello,

As I previous said, the limit is not depend on Outlook client site, but server site. Are you using Office 365 but not internal Exchange Server?

Tony Chen

TechNet Community Support

You can use Auto-Mate Add-in for Outlook to manage your Outlook rules. There is no limit to the number of rules you can run. Well, the only limit will be computing and network resources.

http://www.pergenex.com/auto-mate

Please note: these are client-side rules only since Auto-Mate is an Outlook add-in.

This is a completely ridiculous limit, am hitting it in about 20+ rules.

And on exhange 2010 or 365 I don't have authority to change it, and getting hold of a proper admin would be a hassle not to mention I hit the limit after less than half a year with this account, and would have kept adding rulessince I am a filer  rather than piler of emails, so even 256 kb seems very limiting, with the way the rules seems stored if 20 rules hits 64kB.

Beyond that the system is ridiculously broken since all my rules ar "client-side" "on this compyuter ony" and they are sti required to be stored on server, there is no work around, os even though there is no usefulness with server-siderules for me the server side limitation is still ruining my outlook experience.

COme on, this needs to addressed, eithe ri na way to keep rules client side and avoid limitation, or by upping the rules quota in an intelligent way that takes less space on the server or runs more efficiently with a vastly increased quota. Why are there not hordes of analysts and coders trying to solve this optimization problem, you can't expect that a 2-fold increase since 2003 would be anywhere near sufficient can you?

I am thoroughly amused by the solutions page work workarounds that Microsoft put out, if has at least 5 different strategies that are all different levels of dumb-hack workarounds including the staple solution of "use less character is the rules", more the files to a shorter more direct drive path etc etc, and the tens of steps needed on each one of the "solutions" (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/886616). It must have taken more time and effort to compile those workarounds on your help pages than it would take to implement a efficiency server side solution... I have no mandate to tell you what to do, but please heed my wish of doing something different than what you are currently doing ;) and I'll be a very happy user again.