I just found out I've been missing the odd email here and there due to Outlook using rules on messages I'm receiving.

My basic Outlook work flow is that I assign categories to most of the emails that I receive. I then have a bunch of rules that take the category of the messages in my inbox and use that to move the emails to various folders.

I recently noticed that I had missed some emails from a customer. Seems the category is being preserved when the email is sent by me, and subsequently when the reply comes back. So instead of the mail sitting in the Inbox it automatically is being filed as it is received.



Is there any way to prevent this behaviour?

I tried setting up a rule to strip categories from messages I send, but it also strips the categories from all the messages in my inbox.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I've reached the point of confusion.

Any assistance would be appreciated.