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Using Outlook 2010 with a corporate Exchange Server.

The rule I want to create is this:

After rule arrives from [email protected] and with Passed in the subject Move it to the SuccessBuilds folder and mark it Read.

When I did that, the Outlook marked the rule as Client-Side. So I removed the part about marking it Read and it became a server side rule.

So I thought, ok, maybe marking an email as read is a client-side only activity. So I sent myself an email, closed Outlook, opened the email on my iPhone (thus marking it read). Then I opened the Outlook again and the email was already marked read. So clearly marking emails read can be a server-side activity.

So why is my rule being shoved client-side?

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  • "opening the email on my [your] iPhone" may be a client-side activity. iPhone is a client. It is not the Windows Outlook client, but it is a client nonetheless.
    – Krazy Glew
    Nov 12, 2015 at 16:13
  • 6
    I think what the poster is saying is that the server does know the "read status" of a message, so the server should be able to mark a message as read without a client telling it to do so.
    – mattgately
    Mar 21, 2016 at 13:55
  • No answer so far explains how to change a client-side rule to be a server-side rule. Is this not possible? This would be much easier than re-creating all my client-side rules on the server.
    – dinosaur
    Jun 30, 2016 at 21:08
  • Microsoft provides a listing of what actions make a rule Client side: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/…
    – Joshua Drake
    Dec 27, 2022 at 14:24

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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Does your MS-Exchange server provide web-based access to your eMail? If so, try logging into that and creating the rule there (and then it will have to be server-side).

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  • 7
    This works but keep in mind that if you create a server side rule in Outlook Web Access (OWA) then you will no longer be able to edit it in Outlook.
    – Pete
    Jun 27, 2016 at 16:12
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    Also when you edit a rule in OWA and add the action mark message as read the rule becomes visible only in OWA and it's removed from Outlook
    – Ionut
    Jul 15, 2016 at 19:09
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    @Pete: note that this is true only if the rule is incompatible with the desktop app. A simple "move" or "copy" rule is fine and would still show up. It's when you add the "mark as read" action that it won't be visible.
    – Peter Duniho
    Mar 19, 2020 at 19:04
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If you have the destination folder in Personal Folders, it would be in your pst file(located in PC) and the rule will become client-only. But if you place the destination folder in inbox, the folder will be in your Exchange and the server will process your rules.

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8

Being marked as "read" is a client side action not a server action. When you opened the message on your phone it (the client) read it and then told the server to mark it as read.

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  • 13
    that is not true, Server side rule can mark as read
    – Tilo
    May 23, 2014 at 17:09
  • This worked for me - toggling "mark it as as read" on rules directly affected if the rule was "client-only".
    – ti7
    Apr 29, 2020 at 14:48
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You can using the outlook web app, set up a rule that will mark the mail as read, and it will work as if it truly was server-side. Anyways, it never pops up as unread in my iphone, even if I don't have the web app or outlook open.

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  • 7
    you are basically saying the same thing as @Randolf two years later without adding any new information.
    – mattgately
    Mar 21, 2016 at 14:25

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