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Outlook Rules - Add condition as an "or" rather than "and"

Donny Limbert 20 Reputation points
2026-03-26T12:40:05.2333333+00:00

Using Outlook 16.107.2 (26032211), and it seems the ability to add an "or" based condition is no longer available or at least it's not very obvious to me now how to be able to select an "or" based condition. Can anyone throw me a bone? This used to be very simple in previous versions.

Outlook | MacOS | New Outlook for Mac | For business
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  1. Jayden-P 18,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-26T13:38:36.3666667+00:00

    Hi @Donny Limbert

    You mentioned you are able to do this in previous version of Outlook; do you mean Legacy Outlook or version 16.106 of New Outlook Mac?

    From my testing, New Outlook for Mac only support server-side rules, it does not support client-side rules like Legacy Outlook.

    However, "OR" does exist but only within the same condition. For example, I have Condition "From" and I have 2 senders (Admin and Lee Gu), it means that if Admin OR Lee Gu send to me, the condition will be triggered.

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    In conclusion, if you have multiple values in 1 condition, it is OR. If you have many conditions, they will be linked with AND (FROM and SUBJECT INCLUDES).

    You can also provide how do you want your rule look like, I will try my best to assist you, either combine all the conditions in 1 rule or create 2 separated rules.

    I look forward for your reply.

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-26T12:40:14.8766667+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    New Outlook has reduced rule capabilities compared to classic Outlook. Some rule conditions and actions that existed before are no longer supported, and client-side style flexibility (including some OR-style combinations) is not available.

    In new Outlook (including on Mac), rules are now server-side and follow the supported feature set. If the UI no longer offers a way to express a particular OR condition that was possible in classic Outlook, that scenario is currently not supported in new Outlook rules. The only workaround is to recreate what is possible using the available conditions/actions; if the needed option does not appear, it cannot be configured.

    For more detail on which rule features are supported in new Outlook versus classic Outlook, see the rule feature comparison in the documentation.

    References:

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