Exchange 2007 and E-mail Rules Limits

Back in Exchange 2003 times the most frequent complaint users had with Exchange was the 32kb quota on e-mail rules. Even casual users would hit this limit as they tried to organize their Inbox and Microsoft listened to the feedback. So with Exchange 2007 the rule size doubled to 64kb, still far short of some demands. Exchange 2007 supports 256kb rules, but how do you enable that?

First let’s see if you are an e-mail rules whale. If you try to put too many rules using Outlook you will receive this error:

“One or more rules could not be uploaded to Exchange server and have been deactivated. This could be because some of the parameters are not supported or there is insufficient space to store all your rules.”

If you then try to confirm that it’s not just an Outlook issue, Outlook Web Access 2007 will give you the following error:

“Outlook Web Access cannot save the rule that you specified. Either the rule exceeds the maximum size limit for individual rules, or all your rules together, including this rule, exceed the size limit for rules. Remove some conditions, actions, or exceptions and try again.”

But we are in 2007, you paid for 256kb of rules and darn it, you are going to use it all! Here is a quick tip to extend your e-mail rules quota to 256kb:

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

Execute and confirm:

That’s all there is to it, you are free to celebrate your new rules quota and add far more rules to your stack.

Tip #1: How do I know it worked? Well, the fastest way is to just check that setting on your account:

get-mailbox vlad | fl rulesquota

Obviously substitute your own username for vlad (thats me!) and you should get the output “RulesQuota : 256KB”

That’s all! Enjoy.

If you have any questions regarding these settings, or need help with their implementation, please refer to the excellent Microsoft Support newsgroups and let Exchange MVPs like myself help you out right away. Please feel free to contact me at vlad@vladville.com as well.