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I have several rules which mark items as read and then send them to a specific folder. Nearly all of these folders are nested within one parent folder.

The issue is that usually when I get one of these messages, Outlook will expand the parent folder. I have no need for this sort of notification. The entire point of me automatically marking messages as read is that I don't need to know about them.

Can I stop Outlook from auto-expanding folders when they get new mail? I get dozens of these messages a day, and it's frustrating to constantly close this folder only to have it reopen minutes later.

I'm using Outlook 2010.

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Do you find that this happens if you are using "Folder List" instead of "Mail" for that pane? – techie007 Dec 12 '11 at 16:31
Just tried it under "Folder List" and it appears to still be happening. – Kris Harper Dec 12 '11 at 16:32

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Too sad, but you cannot change this behaviour. The only way do disable folder auto-expansion is to use server-side rules. These rules are available when using Outlook + Exchange Server. Unfortunately, the limited subset of conditions and actions is available in server-side rules.

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Why would it be server side? This seems like purely a client issue. Am I missing something? – Kris Harper Dec 13 '11 at 19:04
This is a client issue. This is why server-side rules do the trick: Exchange Server manages all the actions leaving Outlook unaware. – thims Dec 14 '11 at 6:09
I'm a little confused. I'm not certain that my rules are server or client side, but: A) I can create a rule (such as "permanently delete mail from a certain person") and when I save it, I get a popup that says it's client-side rule and and will only run with Outlook is open, B) I have other rules that don't give me that popup (so I assume they are server-side), but C) those rules (in B) still cause the folder auto-expansion to happen. Does that make sense? How can I specify a rule to be server-side vs. client-side? – Jer Oct 10 '12 at 20:21
Ok, I figured out one problem - many of my rules had "stop processing more rules" which I guess makes it a client-side rule. I removed that so they're all server-side now. But they are still making the folders expand - are you sure about your answer? – Jer Oct 10 '12 at 20:34
Completely sure. – thims Oct 11 '12 at 13:19

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