I am trying to understand why I lost all of my Outlook email rules and how to restore them

Hi Chris Sassouni

I understand that your Outlook.com rules suddenly disappeared and you want to know whether they can be restored. Please confirm:

• Were the rules originally created in Outlook.com in the browser, new Outlook, or classic Outlook for Windows?
• Did you recently switch Outlook versions, remove/re-add the account, change aliases, or use any cleanup/security tool?
• Do you have any saved .rwz rules backup from classic Outlook?

Meanwhile, check the following:

1) Confirm the rules are missing from Outlook.com directly

• Sign in to Outlook.com in a browser.
• Go to Settings > Mail > Rules.
• Check whether the rules are:
  • Missing completely
  • Turned off
  • Listed under another connected account, if you use more than one mailbox

2) If you previously exported rules from classic Outlook, import that backup

If you used classic Outlook for Windows and exported your rules before, you may be able to restore them from the saved .rwz file.

• Open classic Outlook.
• Go to File > Manage Rules & Alerts.
• Select Options.
• Select Import Rules.
• Choose the saved .rwz rules file.
• Select Open.

See: Import or export a set of rules in classic Outlook | Microsoft Support

3) If there is no .rwz backup, recreate the rules in Outlook.com

• In Outlook.com, go to Settings > Mail > Rules.
• Select Add new rule.
• Add the rule name, condition, and action.
• Select Save.
• If needed, use the option to run the rule on existing messages after recreating it.

4) If the rules were made in classic Outlook, check whether they were client-side rules

Some rules created in classic Outlook may depend on the Outlook desktop app or local conditions. If you recently changed Outlook versions, removed and re-added the account, or switched between classic Outlook, new Outlook, and Outlook.com, the rules may not behave the same way across clients. If the rules no longer appear and no backup exists, recreate the important rules in Outlook.com or classic Outlook.

5) If the rules disappeared from Outlook.com and no backup exists

If the rules are not visible in Outlook.com and there is no exported classic Outlook .rwz backup, unfortunately they can not be recovered.

If you use classic Outlook, you can export a backup copy of your rules by using File > Manage Rules & Alerts > Options > Export Rules.

Please tell me how it goes. If the problem persists, please don’t hesitate to reply to this thread and I will be happy to help. Have a lovely day!  

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".   

Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.