I have a jobs@domain.com account that has been auto replying to applicants just using a message saying thanks for your interest, etc... Well, apparently for some reason it has stopped working. I've opened the jobs user account in outlook and verified that the rules were still existing. I've tried removing the auto reply rule and adding it back and still not ending up with any success. I've tried adding this same rule under my personal exchange account at work and it worked perfectly. Also, on the jobs account in Outlook, I can have it auto forward emails and it work just fine as well. Any idea why this would happen specifically when using auto reply rules? Also, I've double checked that the setting "Allow auto reply and Auto allow forward" are checked in Exchange's global settings.

Possibly the rules table is corrupt in the mailbox. Close outlook, go to start menu, run box and type outlook /cleanrules Note that this will delete all rules so if you have many rules you may want to back them up so you can create them later. Then try recreating your autoforward rule. Also does the rule not work both internally and externally?James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Thanks for the quick reply. I've tried that as suggested from another forum. It cleared out the rules except for the "Clear mail categories" rule. I went ahead and tried adding it again and it still didn't work.

open the mailbox with MFCmapi and delete all the rules and then recreate the rules. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dvespa/archive/2009/09/02/how-to-configure-a-mapi-profile-to-connect-to-exchange-2010.aspx

I would move the mailbox to another store, possibly the mailbox is corrupt in some way.James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

open the mailbox with MFCmapi and delete all the rules and then recreate the rules. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dvespa/archive/2009/09/02/how-to-configure-a-mapi-profile-to-connect-to-exchange-2010.aspx Should this work considering we're using Exchange Server 2003?

I would move the mailbox to another store, possibly the mailbox is corrupt in some way. James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com I thought about that too. Will it be ok if you could direct me in that path in case LMurthy's suggestion does not work? I appreciate your reply as well.

I also ran across this article by Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028839 But it appears that it must have a client Outlook software running. On top of that, it only works one time when Outlook IS running. Is there a way to fix this on the server side? Not sure how it got broken to begin with.

I would disregard that KB since it says Note: This problem does not occur when your Outlook rules are run automatically as new email items arrive in your mailbox. Your issue is it doesn't work at all. You can use mfcmapi to delete the rules, use the article instead. If this fails, just move the mailbox, must faster than trying to determine the issue. How to delete corrupted and hidden rules from a single mailbox in Outlook 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924297James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Export all the rules from Outlook. Start Outlook with the /cleanrules switch Recreate the rule See if it works.

I would disregard that KB since it says Note: This problem does not occur when your Outlook rules are run automatically as new email items arrive in your mailbox. Your issue is it doesn't work at all. You can use mfcmapi to delete the rules, use the article instead. If this fails, just move the mailbox, must faster than trying to determine the issue. How to delete corrupted and hidden rules from a single mailbox in Outlook 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924297 James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com Hmm, it seems like that tool isn't supported by Windows 7. Also, on the download page is just a .pdf and .xps but Microsoft shows there's an exe there... Am I missing something? Thanks for your reply. As far as moving the mailbox, we only have 1 server and I guess 1 mailbox store since it's greyed out to move to. If I wanted to delete the mailbox considering it's just a jobs@domain.com account, will it re-create itself from scratch?

Try the /cleanrules option in Outlook first. The latest mfcmapi is here: http://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/

Try the /cleanrules option in Outlook first. The latest mfcmapi is here: http://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/ Already tried the outlook.exe /cleanrules thing. That deleted the rules but adding it again ended up with the same problem. I'm going to go ahead and try the mfcmapi solution and let you know how that goes. Thanks.

I think using the MFCMAP solution fixed the problem where it only happened one time and wouldn't reply anymore, but now is there a way to fix the serverresponse? Instead of having this work only when outlook is running?

Are you replying with a template? I beleive that only works when Outlook is open. You may also want to consider mail-enabling a public folder and creating an auto-reply there instead. By the way, auto-replies are generally a bad idea. They can lead to mail loops and get your org placed on Block Lists responding to spoofed messages.

you can use a tranport rule http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124703.aspx

Are you replying with a template? I beleive that only works when Outlook is open. You may also want to consider mail-enabling a public folder and creating an auto-reply there instead. By the way, auto-replies are generally a bad idea. They can lead to mail loops and get your org placed on Block Lists responding to spoofed messages. How would I go about the public folder? It's been set up this way for I'm guessing tens of years but just wanting to get it back working during the time being. Our network was managed by an ex administrator and since then, everyone's trying to brush up on exchange and other things that were left behind.

PF are being phased out...I would advise to use tranport rules (server side rule)

Eh, it'll be months before we migrate to Exchange 2010. We're using Exchange 2003 at the moment and I don't think transport rules exist.

Oh, sorry. To create a mail enabled PF, check out http://www.msexchange.org/articles/MF021.html

Oh, sorry. To create a mail enabled PF, check out http://www.msexchange.org/articles/MF021.html Thanks! Getting ready to head out of the office and will try this solution once I make it in tomorrrow.

This article has exactly what you are looking for http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Public-Folder-Basics-Part2.html

* The public folder should be mail enabled * the job account user shoud have send as permission for the public folder * add the user jobs@domain.com and mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group * on the distribution group, select the option "send out-of-office messages to originator" Refer the article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325469Thanks Joseph Pradeep

Thanks. One question real quick. Instead of going to public mail folder, would it be easier to just delete the jobs account mailbox and recreate it?

You could, but you may run into the corruption issue again in future.

What I don't understand is using http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Public-Folder-Basics-Part2.html to create the public mail folder and mail-enable it, it doesn't show you how to connect to it using Outlook... I already have a jobs@domain.com mailbox... How do I connect the account in Outlook to the public folder?

PF are being phased out...I would advise to use tranport rules (server side rule) PFs are alive and kicking. Until they do not exist anymore in any form within Exchange, I would continue to use them when appropriate.

What I don't understand is using http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Public-Folder-Basics-Part2.html to create the public mail folder and mail-enable it, it doesn't show you how to connect to it using Outlook... I already have a jobs@domain.com mailbox... How do I connect the account in Outlook to the public folder? You dont connect it to Outlook, they are viewed in the folder tree ( and from OWA as well). You just need to browse to the folder.

What I don't understand is using http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Public-Folder-Basics-Part2.html to create the public mail folder and mail-enable it, it doesn't show you how to connect to it using Outlook... I already have a jobs@domain.com mailbox... How do I connect the account in Outlook to the public folder? You dont connect it to Outlook, they are viewed in the folder tree ( and from OWA as well). You just need to browse to the folder. Thanks. Sadly even when creating an auto-reply rule on the mail-enabled public folder, there is a "Changes to the rule cannot be saved" issue. This seems like this is happening as well to others. Permissions are correct and I am doing this from a domain administrator account. I actually made sure the account had full control on the system manager side and outlook side (send as)

SEND AS perms can take awhile to kick in. How long ago did you give the account those perms?

SEND AS perms can take awhile to kick in. How long ago did you give the account those perms? Probably about 15-20 minutes. How long should I wait?

I'd give it an hour ( I know, crazy)

I'd give it an hour ( I know, crazy) Lol. Sounds good. Thanks again for all your help. I'll post back to let you know what goes on.

Ok, I was able to add the auto-reply with a template. One question now though. I think I may have incorrectly set something up wrong. How do I direct mail to that public folder? It's created and the auto-reply template's set up, but no mail goes to it even after sending the mail to job@domain.com

Make sure that anonymous is set to "Contributor". If it is, check messages tracking and send to it from the outside and inside and if you get a NDR post it here.

Make sure that anonymous is set to "Contributor". If it is, check messages tracking and send to it from the outside and inside and if you get a NDR post it here. Just made sure that it was. Let me asks you this though. How does the public folder know which inbox to look at? Am I supposed to make a forwarding rule or something on jobs@domain.com? Just curious of how does all incoming mail to jobs@domain.com point to the public folder I just created.

Hi open the your mailbox using Outlook Application The public folder should be mail enabled * the job account user shoud have send as permission for the public folder * add the user jobs@domain.com and mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group * on the distribution group, select the option "send out-of-office messages to originator" * goto the Public folder * right-click on the public folder and select properties * go to administration [TAB] and click on the Folder assistant folder * Click on add rule * sent to : select the Distribution email address * Check the Reply with option * click on the template and save the template message * send a mail to the distribution group and sender would receive the template message ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * on the server, enable diagnostic logging [troubleshooting] Set-eventlogginglevel "MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Rules" -Level Expert Restart the Information store serviceThanks Joseph Pradeep

Hi open the your mailbox using Outlook Application The public folder should be mail enabled * the job account user shoud have send as permission for the public folder * add the user jobs@domain.com and mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group * on the distribution group, select the option "send out-of-office messages to originator" * goto the Public folder * right-click on the public folder and select properties * go to administration [TAB] and click on the Folder assistant folder * Click on add rule * sent to : select the Distribution email address * Check the Reply with option * click on the template and save the template message * send a mail to the distribution group and sender would receive the template message ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * on the server, enable diagnostic logging [troubleshooting] Set-eventlogginglevel "MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Rules" -Level Expert Restart the Information store service Thanks Joseph Pradeep Thanks for the help and I think we're very close to getting the solution. After following the steps above, and trying to send an email to the distribution list again, I got this error come back from system administrator Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: <Distribution Group> on 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator. <exchangeserver.domain #5.2.1> Is it because I didn't restart the information store service? I can't even send a test email to the public mail folder itself. I get undeliverable message

Hi open the your mailbox using Outlook Application The public folder should be mail enabled * the job account user shoud have send as permission for the public folder * add the user jobs@domain.com and mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group * on the distribution group, select the option "send out-of-office messages to originator" * goto the Public folder * right-click on the public folder and select properties * go to administration [TAB] and click on the Folder assistant folder * Click on add rule * sent to : select the Distribution email address * Check the Reply with option * click on the template and save the template message * send a mail to the distribution group and sender would receive the template message ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * on the server, enable diagnostic logging [troubleshooting] Set-eventlogginglevel "MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Rules" -Level Expert Restart the Information store service Thanks Joseph Pradeep Thanks for the help and I think we're very close to getting the solution. After following the steps above, and trying to send an email to the distribution list again, I got this error come back from system administrator Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: <Distribution Group> on 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator. <exchangeserver.domain #5.2.1> Is it because I didn't restart the information store service? I can't even send a test email to the public mail folder itself. I get undeliverable message WHat is the exact NDR when you send to the pf?

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: Jobs on 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator. <exchange.domain.com #5.2.1> That was the exact message except I just masked our domain. "Jobs" is the name of the mail-enabled public folder. I disabled the auto-reply rule and just wanted to try getting mail through to it first.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: Jobs on 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator. <exchange.domain.com #5.2.1> That was the exact message except I just masked our domain. Is the sender internal to Exchange or external? That 5.2.1 is a classic permissions issue. Verify the permissions again. What version of Exchange is this?

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: Jobs on 4/6/2011 9:21 AM The message reached the recipient's e-mail system, but delivery was refused. Attempt to resend the message. If it still fails, contact your system administrator. <exchange.domain.com #5.2.1> That was the exact message except I just masked our domain. Is the sender internal to Exchange or external? That 5.2.1 is a classic permissions issue. Verify the permissions again. What version of Exchange is this? Yeah, it was from an internal email address. This is Exchange 2003. I was sure I had the correct permissions. In Outlook > right click the public folder > properties, I verified that my domain account has Owner role and that Anonymous has "Contributor" role. In System Manager, I made sure the Client permissions were the same (My domain account with Owner role and Anonymous has Contributor role). Also made sure that in Directory Rights, I made sure that "Self" has the "Send as" permission as well as my domain account having full control. Is there something I'm missing?

I created another mail-enabled public folder. Apparently there were some type of email address conflict with the jobs one. There was another email at first with that jobs@domain.com besides the mail-enabled public folder. Is there anything I need to clean up in exchange when I delete a mail-enabled public folder? As of now, I'm just waiting on the "Send as" permission to kick in.

I would mail-disable it first, wait a few minutes, then remove. If you are still having issues, ensure that the mail-enabled object was deleted from AD under the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container for your domain.

I am supposed to have "Self" as "Send as" right? And not my domain account?

I still can't save the auto reply rule with the template :\. I believe the permissions are set up correctly.

As a side not here we use a program called exclaimer to handle our auto replies. It has to be installed on all your hub servers. It's not very expensive and we have not had any issues since we implemented it.http://about.me/mikevirata

What's crazy is I assigned Everyone FULL control in the Directory Rights and Administrative Rights ACL. In the outlook folder properties, the Default, User, and Anonymous have Owner roles... So why can I still not save an auto-reply with a template?

What's crazy is I assigned Everyone FULL control in the Directory Rights and Administrative Rights ACL. In the outlook folder properties, the Default, User, and Anonymous have Owner roles... So why can I still not save an auto-reply with a template? Whom did you give SEND AS perms to on that public folder? Just give to it everyone and test. Full Access is not the same as SEND AS.

What's crazy is I assigned Everyone FULL control in the Directory Rights and Administrative Rights ACL. In the outlook folder properties, the Default, User, and Anonymous have Owner roles... So why can I still not save an auto-reply with a template? Whom did you give SEND AS perms to on that public folder? Just give to it everyone and test. Full Access is not the same as SEND AS. "Everyone" has "Send As" permissions in the Directory Rights but still can't save the template. Guess I'll have to wait again and see, lol.

Replicate the content into the domain ran the command in the dc repadmin /syncall Thanks Joseph Pradeep

Replicate the content into the domain ran the command in the dc repadmin /syncall Thanks Joseph Pradeep Is this OK to do without causing any interruption? Also, what will this solve?

refer this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc835086(WS.10).aspx this comand will sync the content among the dc's any error happen we have to work on ad replication issue.Thanks Joseph Pradeep

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group?

enable the diagnostic logging Set-eventlogginglevel "MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Rules" -Level Expert restart Information service again send email to distribution group post the event warnings like event id 1155Thanks Joseph Pradeep

enable the diagnostic logging Set-eventlogginglevel "MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Rules" -Level Expert restart Information service again send email to distribution group post the event warnings like event id 1155 Thanks Joseph Pradeep Well, the only problem is there's about 75 people with emails going back & forth throughout the day. The server is running 2003 and it's very old and slow, so if any errors occurred during the service restart, it'd be a pain for us. It just seems like it's not replying only if the email was sent to the distribution group and forwarded to the public folder, but sending it directly to the email address of the public folder works.

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group? Is Send Delivery Resports to Message Originator enabled for the DL? Though that may not work since DLs typically disable auto-replies and that is by design.

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group? Is Send Delivery Resports to Message Originator enabled for the DL? Though that may not work since DLs typically disable auto-replies and that is by design. Yep, it's enabled for the distribution list.

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group? Is Send Delivery Resports to Message Originator enabled for the DL? Though that may not work since DLs typically disable auto-replies and that is by design. Yep, it's enabled for the distribution list. You should associate the required SMTP address with the public folder and if you want users to see any message sent to the PF, use rules in the public folder to forward messages to that DL.

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group? Is Send Delivery Resports to Message Originator enabled for the DL? Though that may not work since DLs typically disable auto-replies and that is by design. Yep, it's enabled for the distribution list. You should associate the required SMTP address with the public folder and if you want users to see any message sent to the PF, use rules in the public folder to forward messages to that DL. I actually thought about that as well. Thanks. I should be able to simply remove the distribution group and change the SMTP address in the public folder right?

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group? Is Send Delivery Resports to Message Originator enabled for the DL? Though that may not work since DLs typically disable auto-replies and that is by design. Yep, it's enabled for the distribution list. You should associate the required SMTP address with the public folder and if you want users to see any message sent to the PF, use rules in the public folder to forward messages to that DL. I actually thought about that as well. Thanks. I should be able to simply remove the distribution group and change the SMTP address in the public folder right? Yes. Or add it as an additional SMTP address.

Ok guys, I think I have this... The only problem I have now is that after adding the mail-enabled public folder to the distribution group, it doesn't reply from there, but if I send the email directly to the pubblic folder's address, it replies instantly. Any idea why it doesn't reply when sending to distribution group? Is Send Delivery Resports to Message Originator enabled for the DL? Though that may not work since DLs typically disable auto-replies and that is by design. Yep, it's enabled for the distribution list. You should associate the required SMTP address with the public folder and if you want users to see any message sent to the PF, use rules in the public folder to forward messages to that DL. I actually thought about that as well. Thanks. I should be able to simply remove the distribution group and change the SMTP address in the public folder right? Yes. Or add it as an additional SMTP address. Thanks. I ended up removing "Everyone" again from the permissions so now I'm getting the "Changes to the rule cannot be saved". I added Everyone back and going to wait. I'm sure once I can save this rule, the problem should be fixed. Thanks for your help!

When I send an email to the jobs@domain.com from the internal network, I get this in response. Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/7/2011 10:54 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: <distribution group> on 4/7/2011 10:54 AM The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address. <exchange.domain.org #5.1.1> But when I do this from external, it goes straight through with no problem.

When I send an email to the jobs@domain.com from the internal network, I get this in response. Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/7/2011 10:54 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: <distribution group> on 4/7/2011 10:54 AM The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address. <exchange.domain.org #5.1.1> But when I do this from external, it goes straight through with no problem. Can someone assist me with that as well?

When I send an email to the jobs@domain.com from the internal network, I get this in response. Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients. Subject: test Sent: 4/7/2011 10:54 AM The following recipient(s) cannot be reached: <distribution group> on 4/7/2011 10:54 AM The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address. <exchange.domain.org #5.1.1> But when I do this from external, it goes straight through with no problem. Can someone assist me with that as well? I suspect you have cached the previous entry in Outlook. Try from another OUtlook client. OWA, picking the address explicitly from the Address Book, or if it autocompletes in Outlook, delete the cached entry.

I want to know the distribution group is whether universal or security. go to the exchange system manager * select the global settings and highlight the internet message format * right hand side, right click on the default and go to the properties * click on the advanced tab * check allow automatic repliesThanks Joseph Pradeep

I want to know the distribution group is whether universal or security. go to the exchange system manager * select the global settings and highlight the internet message format * right hand side, right click on the default and go to the properties * click on the advanced tab * check allow automatic replies Thanks Joseph Pradeep Thanks for your reply Joseph. That option was already set. Everything's working just fine now. I think the Outlook issue will fix itself after another day.