How to block out of office reply emails in Outlook?

Author Siluvia Last modified 2025-01-10

Receiving numerous out-of-office reply emails can clutter your inbox and distract you from important messages. Fortunately, Outlook and Kutools for Outlook (KTO) provide effective ways to block or filter these automated replies. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through two methods to block out-of-office reply emails, including a powerful feature from Kutools for Outlook.

Block out of office reply emails with rule (8 steps)

Block out of office reply emails with Kutools for Outlook (2 steps)

Block out of office reply emails with rule

You can create a rule to block out of office reply emails in Outlook. Please do as follows.

1. Click Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts under Home tab. See screenshot:

the screenshot of step about blocking out of office reply emails in outlook 1

2. In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click the New Rule button.

the screenshot of step about blocking out of office reply emails in outlook 2

2. In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click the New Rule button.

3. In the first Rules Wizard, click Apply rule on messages I receive, and then click the Next button. See screenshot:

the screenshot of step about blocking out of office reply emails in outlook 3

4. In the second Rules Wizard, you need to:

4.1 Select the with specific words in the subject option in the Step 1 box;

4.2 Click the link text “specific words” in Step 2 box;

4.3 Enter all words which relative with out of office you will receive in the email subject and click the OK button;

4.4 Click the Next button. See screenshot:

the screenshot of step about blocking out of office reply emails in outlook 4

5. You can move all out of office reply emails to a specified folder or just delete it directly. Here I select the delete it option in the following Rules Wizard. Click the Next button to go ahead.

6. In the next select exceptions rules wizard, click the Next button directly without any selection.

7. In the last Rules Wizard, name the rule as you need and then click the Finish button. See screenshot:

the screenshot of step about blocking out of office reply emails in outlook 6

8. Click the OK button in the Rules and Alerts dialog box to finish the rule.

From now on, when receiving out of office reply emails which the subject matches what you have specified above, it will be deleted from the Inbox or moved to certain folder immediately.

Block out of office reply emails with Kutools for Outlook (2 steps)

Kutools for Outlook simplifies blocking out-of-office replies with its Block Subject feature. This tool allows you to block emails with specific subject lines effortlessly.

👉 Kutools for Outlook has a free version now, whose 70+ features are free for a lifetime. Download the Free Version Now.

Step 1. Download and install Kutools for Outlook, open Outlook, find the auto-reply email you received, and click on it. Then click Kutools > Junk > Block Subject.

Note: for quick finding the auto-reply email, you can type "subject:auto" into the Search bar on the top of Outlook and press the Enter key, all messages which subject contain auto will listed.