Outlook Rules Not Saving – "There is Insufficient Space Error"

cannot save rules

Rules help you rule your account in an organized way by managing emails from chosen senders in specified folders. However, technology has a tendency of failing when you need it the most. Similarly, there are conditions where even rules tend to fail either in working or in creation.


Here is detailed information about one of those times when you are unable to create rules and get the error - can't save outlook rules; there is insufficient space. With the help of this blog, learn how to deal with the condition by simply following the suggested fixtures.

Why Does Outlook Rules Not Working?

There are many instances where you might be stuck while saving the concepts or may not be able to get through with the creation process itself. In one such cases, an error occurs stating that outlook cannot save rules any more because there is insufficient storage space (in your mailbox probably).

What is actually happening in this case is that you are unable to save constructs because Exchange is incapable of storing rules more than that. Nothing is wrong with your mailbox but it is Exchange Server is acting up in this condition. There is a limitation associated with Exchange server that only enables the storage of 32 KB of rules at a time. Only this many rules can remain actively working at the same time. Deactivated regulations are not considered in this limitation.

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However, unfortunately a user doesn’t have the option to check the size remaining for storing / creating more rules in Exchange. This way it can get difficult to manage and coordinate with the storage limit to avoid crossing it.

Nevertheless, as part of a workaround, you can store as many as 40 rules and actively use them on your mailbox at a time without surfacing the storage limitation.

The availability of more complex rules in a mailbox will result in reducing the quantity of rules that can remain active at a time and thats why Outlook rules not saving.

Exchange Limitation for Cannot Save Rules Error

Well to deal with such a situation, here are some rules and tips defined for user easiness.

In the server’s 2007, 2010 and 2013 version users have the freedom to exceed the limit of 32 KB of storage capacity for rules. The limit in the latest versions of Exchange Server has been exceeded to a default of 64 KB. However, the administrator has the authority to extend it up to a maximum of 256 KB. This is applicable on all the Outlook versions too and not just the 2007, 2010, and 2013.

An Exchange Server administrator can make changes to this setting by using the SetMailbox -RulesQuota command in PowerShell.

Workaround for Outlook Rules Not Working Issue

Apart from employing the latest Exchange version or keeping the ratio of rules to an approximate number, you can customize the information in your rules to help lower the storage space occupied on an individual basis.

All you need to do is choose / assign shorter names for outlook rules, which affects the size of a rule. Therefore, by using a limited number of character set while assigning name to rules also you can control the size of individual rules and as a result for the entire storage.

Other than that, you can limit using more than the defined number of rules at a time. Moreover, the usage of more than necessary rules for a single mailbox can also result in performance issues by burdening the storage with more than it is designed to handle. Thus, to prevent errors like ‘outlook cannot save rules; there is insufficient space’ you can either use a recent version of Exchange server or limit the number of active rules at a time, if not necessary.

Upshot – Outlook Rules not Saving

From these above-mentioned fix for "cannot save Outlook rules; There is insufficient space". User can easily do the fixture by applying these simple DIY methods to resolve this error completely.

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