You need a reliable backup of every email you send from Outlook. Manually adding your own address to the BCC field for every message is tedious and easy to forget. Outlook can automatically send a blind carbon copy to you for every outgoing message. This article explains how to set up this automatic BCC rule for a complete sent mail archive.
Key Takeaways: Automatically BCC Yourself in Outlook
- Rules and Alerts > New Rule > Apply rule on messages I send: Creates an automatic action that adds your address to the BCC line for every new email.
- Step 3: Select condition > Next (without selecting anything): Configures the rule to run on all outgoing messages without exceptions.
- Step 1: Select action > ‘send a copy to the people or public group’: The core action that places your email address in the BCC field upon sending.
How the Automatic BCC Rule Works
Outlook’s Rules feature can process messages as you send them. A rule with the ‘sent by me’ condition and the ‘send a copy’ action will intercept your outgoing email. It adds your specified email address to the BCC field just before the message is transmitted to the mail server.
This process happens instantly and invisibly. The BCC recipient, which is you, will not appear in the message header for any other recipients. The rule runs on your local Outlook client or within Exchange Online if you use a Microsoft 365 work account with server-side rules enabled. You need one primary email account set up in Outlook to create this rule.
Steps to Create the Automatic BCC Rule
Follow these steps to configure a rule that always sends a BCC copy to yourself. The steps are identical for Outlook as part of Microsoft 365 and the standalone Outlook 2021 or 2019 application.
- Open the Rules and Alerts dialog
In the Outlook ribbon, go to the Home tab. Click the Rules button in the Move group, then select Manage Rules & Alerts. - Start creating a new rule
In the Rules and Alerts dialog box, click the New Rule button. This opens the Rules Wizard. - Select the rule template
Under ‘Start from a blank rule’, select ‘Apply rule on messages I send’. Click Next to proceed. - Skip selecting conditions
Do not check any boxes in the list of conditions. This tells the rule to apply to every single email you send. Click Next. A dialog will appear asking if you want to run the rule on all messages. Click Yes. - Choose the BCC action
In the ‘What do you want to do with the message?’ list, check the box for ‘send a copy to the people or public group’. In the Step 2 pane at the bottom, click the underlined text ‘people or public group’. - Select your own email address
In the Rule Address dialog, select your own email address from the address book or type it into the ‘To’ field. Click OK. The address will now appear in the Step 2 pane. Click Next. - Add any exceptions
You can add exceptions if needed, such as excluding messages with specific words in the subject. For a universal backup, do not add any exceptions. Click Next. - Finish the rule setup
Give the rule a descriptive name, like ‘BCC Myself for Backup’. Ensure the ‘Turn on this rule’ box is checked. Click Finish, then click OK to close the Rules and Alerts dialog.
Verifying the Rule Works
Send a test email to a colleague or a secondary email account you own. After sending, check your Inbox or the folder you specified for sent items. You should receive the BCC copy of the email you just sent. The original sent message in your Sent Items folder will not show your address in the BCC field, but the copy you received will.
Common Mistakes and Limitations
Rule Does Not Run on Specific Accounts
Outlook client-side rules typically run only for the email profile you created them in. If you have multiple accounts in one Outlook profile, the rule usually applies to all. For Exchange Online accounts, you can create a server-side rule in Outlook on the web. Log into outlook.office.com, go to Settings > Mail > Rules, and create a new rule with similar conditions and actions.
BCC Copies Fill Your Inbox
Receiving a copy of every sent email can clutter your primary Inbox. You can modify the rule to file these copies automatically. When choosing the action in Step 5, also check ‘move a copy to the specified folder’. Select a dedicated folder like ‘My Sent Backup’. This keeps your Inbox clean while maintaining the archive.
Rule Interferes with Other Email Actions
If you have other rules for sorting or processing sent mail, rule order matters. In the Rules and Alerts dialog, use the up and down arrow buttons to prioritize. The BCC rule should run before any rule that moves or deletes the sent message from your Sent Items folder.
Client-Side vs Server-Side BCC Rules
| Item | Outlook Desktop Client Rule | Exchange Online Server Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Only on the computer where Outlook is open and running | On the Microsoft 365 server, works from any device |
| Processing trigger | When you click Send in the Outlook app | When the server receives the outgoing message |
| Device dependency | Rule only works if that specific PC is on and Outlook is open | Works for mail sent from Outlook desktop, web, or mobile |
| Rule management | File > Manage Rules & Alerts in Outlook desktop | Settings > Mail > Rules in Outlook on the web |
| Backup scope | Only emails sent from that instance of Outlook | All emails sent from your account, regardless of client |
You can now automatically archive every email you send by BCCing yourself. This creates a reliable, searchable backup in your mailbox. For a more advanced setup, create a server-side rule in Outlook on the web to ensure backups even when your desktop app is closed. Use the ‘move a copy to the specified folder’ action in your rule to direct all BCC copies into a dedicated folder, keeping your Inbox organized.