How to Set Up Email Forwarding Rules in Microsoft 365: Complete Guide

Issue Description

Users may need to automatically forward specific emails (such as payment notifications, alerts, or reports) to additional email addresses within their organization.

Methods to Create Rules

Method 1: Outlook Desktop App (Client-Side)

1. Right-click an existing message
2. Select Rules > Create Rule...
   
   
3. Choose Advanced Options
   
   
4. Configure conditions as desired:
   • Select From contains [sender email]
     adjust conditions to filter only the emails you want forwarded
   • Click Next
     
5. Check Forward it to people or public group
   • Click Select People and add forwarding address.
   • Note you can only forward within your organisation unless outbound-spam rules in Exchange Admin have been configured to allow automatic forwarding.
6. Configure any exceptions, click Next.
7. Give the rule a Name
   1. To apply the rule to existing messages, select the Run this new rule now on messages already in the current folder checkbox
8. Click Finish to save
   
   

Method 2: Outlook Web App (OWA)

1. Click Settings
2. Select Email then select Rules.
3. Click Add new rule
4. Enter rule details:
   • Name your rule
   • Add condition: "From" contains [sender email]
   • Add action: "Forward to" [recipient email]
   • By default, the Stop processing more rules option is turned on. With this option on, when a message arrives in your inbox that meets the criteria for more than one rule, only the first rule will be applied. If you don't select this check box, all inbox rules that a message meets the criteria for will be applied.
5. Click Save

Method 3: PowerShell (Admin Only)

Prerequisites

• Windows PowerShell 5.1 or later
• Exchange Administrator or Global Administrator role in Microsoft 365
• Exchange Online PowerShell module installed

Installing Exchange Online PowerShell Module

1. Open PowerShell as administrator
2. Install the module by running:

   Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement

3. If prompted about untrusted repository, type 'Y' and press Enter
4. To update an existing installation, run:

   Update-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement

Creating the Forwarding Rule

In the script below:

• Replace $user with the email address of the mailbox where you want to create the rule
• Replace $forwardTo with the email address that will receive the forwarded messages

Connect-ExchangeOnline
# This will open a sign-in window - use an account with Exchange Administrator or Global Admin role

$user = "user@domain.com"
$forwardTo = "destination@domain.com"

New-InboxRule -Mailbox $user -Name "Forward Specific Emails" -FromAddressContainsWords "sender@example.com" -ForwardTo $forwardTo -StopProcessingRules $false

After running Connect-ExchangeOnline, a popup window will appear requesting authentication. Sign in with an account that has Exchange Administrator or Global Administrator privileges in that M365 tenant.

Important Notes

• Rules created in Outlook desktop or web app run on Microsoft Exchange servers
• Your computer doesn't need to be running for the rules to work
• Rules process in order from top to bottom
• The "Stop processing more rules" option prevents subsequent rules from running on that message
• Rules can be temporarily disabled without deletion

Best Practices

1. Use specific conditions to avoid unwanted forwards
2. Test the rule with a sample email
3. Regularly review and clean up unused rules
4. Consider security implications when forwarding to external addresses
5. Use descriptive rule names for easy management

Follow Up

After creating a rule:

• Send a test email to verify forwarding works
• Confirm both original recipient and forwarding address receive the email
• Check that other email rules continue to function

Follow Up

If you've encountered this issue and followed the steps outlined in this article, we'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below to share whether this solution helped resolve the problem. Additionally, if you found a different method that worked, we encourage you to share that as well. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us and others who may face similar issues.

Further Assistance

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