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Question
Friday, May 10, 2013 1:33 PM
Dear all,
Now we are using EXCHANGE (Outlook Web App) and encounter a problem that the OOF can be sent out ONCE to the email sender and no matter how long or how many emails someone sends to you.
That is not enough for our daily job pratice.
Our request is to send out the automatic reply to every incoming email to all the senders instead of one reply, that is because there are some scenarios in the daily jobs of a service industry are needed:
Scenario One: Quick Response to the customer, that means once we receive an email from customer, we need to send a reply to them and let he/she knows the issue is followed, so the customer don't need to call us again to check whether the message is got by us;
Scenario Two: Out of the Office Notice. When a colleague is out of office (on vacation, resignation), we need to send the automatic reply to alert the sender for the follow-up arrangement. But if the OOF is only be sent out once, that is possible that it can be missed because of the overlook, the fail delivery of the email server, and so on.
So an automatic reply to EVERY incoming email is quite necessary in our daily job.
According to the web information as below, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/157961/en-us
--Quote--
If you would like to have a reply sent for every message, use Rules instead of the Out of Office Assistant.
--Unquote--
Is there any way to make it done?
Thanks in advance.
Steven
All replies (9)
Saturday, May 11, 2013 11:41 AM âś…Answered | 1 vote
Hello Andy,
Thanks for your reply.
1. For using Microsoft Outlook rules, we need to keep the computer on, even after work or the colleague is on leave. That is not allowed in my company.
2. For sending an auto-reply email based on subject, that is impossible because the emails from customers are different and we don't have a basic standard.
3. Could you please elaborate how to set a transport rule in Exchange server to achieve the goal?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Steven
1. Only client rules require that the Outlook client remain open. An auto-reply rule should be server-side, so no need to leave Outlook open.
2. Yep!
3. Walk through the hub transport rules and you see one that replies with a rejection code. Thats the best you can get with a hub transport rule and not something I would recommend in your scenario. You could also search around for 3rd party solutions.
Twitter!:
Friday, May 10, 2013 1:40 PM
Managing Inbox Rules in Exchange Server 2010
Setting up an Auto Reply rule using Microsoft Outlook
OM (MCITP) | Blog
Friday, May 10, 2013 1:41 PM
Setting up auto-replies to the Internet at the mailbox level is a really bad idea. Not only will open up yourself to potential mail loops, you could get your org put on blocklists auto-replying to spoofed messages.
To create an auto-reply in Outlook see for an example: http://techsupport.psr.edu/AutoReply/AutoReply.htm
P.S. As far as I know, you cant create auto-reply rules like that in OWA. See:
Twitter!:
Friday, May 10, 2013 2:02 PM
Hello Om Prakash Nath,
Thanks a lot for your reply.
1. Could you please elaborate how to manage Inbox Rules in Exchange Server 2010, or provide any reference for the setting?
2. When use auto-reply rules in Microsoft Outlook, we need to turn on the computer and let the office running even after work or out of the office, that is not allowed in our company. So it's not the choice.
Steven
Friday, May 10, 2013 2:11 PM
Hello Andy,
Thanks for your reply.
1. For using Microsoft Outlook rules, we need to keep the computer on, even after work or the colleague is on leave. That is not allowed in my company.
2. For sending an auto-reply email based on subject, that is impossible because the emails from customers are different and we don't have a basic standard.
3. Could you please elaborate how to set a transport rule in Exchange server to achieve the goal?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Steven
Friday, May 10, 2013 3:10 PM
I believe the only way around is to have a rule created from Outlook as per above post.
Though you have to create the rule from Outlook but it will be a server side rule.
So, no need to keep the outlook open to have this work, I haven't tried that but worth give it a try.
OM (MCITP) | Blog
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 6:16 PM
Leaving the pc on isn't necessary ... once you create the Rule using a specific Template it should be saved Server-side.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 6:23 PM
You don't have to leave the PC on... go into Outlook Rules and under Condition make sure you choose something like sent only to me a & not 'This Computer' for Action use 'Reply with a Specific Template' make a word or something to use as a template with Text.
This should be applied Server-side when Done...
Tuesday, January 3, 2017 11:14 AM | 1 vote
I just wanted to add my own workaround for future reference. I created a script which disabled and re-enabled Out-of-Office (OOF) every night. This way it would send only 1 out of office per day to each sender, but would send a new one the day after or even the week after. This was sufficient to satisfy the people at my company.
The script... On a server with the Exchange Console installed, do something like:
#Connect to Exchange server
. 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'
Connect-ExchangeServer -ServerFqdn ExchangeServer.domain.com
#Disable and enable autoreply
Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity "[email protected]" -AutoReplyState Disabled
Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity "[email protected]" -AutoReplyState Enabled