How do I filter on the BCC field in Outlook?

2

I have a filter set in Outlook that puts any message I send to myself, where my name is not on the To or Cc line, to a specific folder. I use this when I send emails I need to follow-up on. I Bcc myself, and my rule sorts the email into my "Follow-up" folder.

I'm running into a problem with Exchange email groups. I'll receive an email that was sent to "EmailDistributionGroup", but because my name isn't explicitly on the To or Cc lines, my filter picks it up and moves it into my "Follow-up" folder.

If I could filter based on whether or not my name was on the Bcc line, I could avoid this. Does anyone know of an extension or add-on that makes this possible?

GregB

Posted 2012-01-12T17:04:36.413

Reputation: 187

6If you could read Bcc it would be kind of pointless, wouldn't it? – Daniel Beck – 2012-01-12T17:06:34.333

possible duplicate of How To Filter On Bcc Info - It has an interesting take, since there's no BCC info to make a rule against, they aim for a rule that is fired when the name isn't in the To: or CC: fields.

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-01-12T17:15:31.557

@techie007 It's absolutely not a duplicate since I've already implemented the filter in the referenced article, and have noted that the exception part of the rule does not catch emails sent to me through an Exchange group because my email address is not explicitly on the To or Cc lines. – GregB – 2012-01-12T18:27:03.673

@Daniel Beck Not really. If I added 100 people to the Bcc line on an email and sent it, I don't think it's unreasonable to look for some kind of indicator on the message as to which email address that single message was sent. If I have 3 aliases sending to one account, and someone adds one of my aliases to the Bcc line, I should be able to find out which alias they used. – GregB – 2012-01-12T18:32:48.003

1Yes, it's in the transit information added by mail servers. The raw headers used are Received. You need to realize that the To: and Cc and Bcc fields are not actually used to decide where to deliver an email. I can (and have, during early script development) sent completely empty emails to an email address. They contained neither of the three fields. – Daniel Beck – 2012-01-12T18:41:22.883

So it sounds like anything like this would have to be done server side, which is way more work than it's worth. I'll just go back to assigning a category. I just wish category rules weren't processed client-side only. Thanks. – GregB – 2012-01-12T19:44:06.147

Answers

4

the bcc list isn't transmitted - hence the "b" in bcc. try filtering on from=me and to and cc do not include you.

ddyer

Posted 2012-01-12T17:04:36.413

Reputation: 457

4

If you're sending yourself the messages, create a rule that moves the messages where you are the sender.

The key here is you want to move messages that you have BCCed to yourself, and not all messages where you were BCCed.

If the issue is for when you send emails to a distribution list for which you are a member, then filter out your DL in the exceptions.

Your rule will look something like:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
from people or public group (YOU)
move it to the specified folder (FOLDER)
except if sent to people or group (DISTRIBUTION LISTS)

shufler

Posted 2012-01-12T17:04:36.413

Reputation: 1 716

Asked: 2012-01-12T17:04:36.413

Viewed: 6 628 times

Active: 2013-04-25T13:41:37.620