Automatic replies and automatic forwards to Internet recipients are disabled in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003 (266166)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Outlook 2002
This article was previously published under Q266166

SUMMARY

By default, the Allow Out of Office responses, Allow automatic forward, and Allow automatic replies options are disabled in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3 (SP3) or a later version, and in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. When Outlook clients create rules to automatically forward messages to Internet recipients, to automatically reply with a specific template in a rule, or to use the Out of Office feature, the rule fails and no response is sent to Internet recipients. The "More Information" section discusses how to modify this behavior if automatic replies and automatic forwards are required. However, you may not want automatic replies to be sent outside your Exchange organization.

MORE INFORMATION

To modify the settings for automatic replies and for automatic forwards, follow these steps:
  1. Start Exchange System Manager.
  2. Double-click Global Settings, and then click Internet Message Formats.
  3. In the Details pane, right-click a domain name, and then click Properties . The default Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) domain is * (asterisk).
  4. In the Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
  5. In the Allowed Types area, click to select the check boxes for the required settings.
  6. Click OK.
After you modify these settings, you do not have to restart the Exchange services. But you must quit and restart Outlook for the rules to function correctly. If you want to confirm that the rule fired successfully, do not rely on your Sent Items folder, or on the Forward flag appearing on the message that was autoforwarded. Messages that are autoforwarded with a rule will not appear in the Sent Items folder. Also, the original message will not be flagged with the Forward icon. No errors will be logged on the client for autoforward rules that do not fire successfully.

To troubleshoot rules that do not fire, examine the following:
  • Verify that Outlook remains open if the rule in question is marked as (Client Only). Such rules require that Outlook is in an open state to fire.
  • Verify the rule configuration, and make sure that another rule is not pre-empting the non-firing rule. If a rule to move an item to another folder exists, and if that rule fires first, subsequent rules will not fire. Incorporate the actions into a single rule.
  • If you suspect that the rules are corrupted, you may have to use the MDBVue or CleanSweep tool to resolve the issue. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

    320022 How to use the Mdbvu32 utility to remove Inbox rules

    174045 Installing and using the CleanSweep tool

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:3/1/2006
Keywords:kbinfo KB266166
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