A disclaimer is added twice to an email

Problem:

You use an Exchange Online transport rule (mail flow rule) to add disclaimers to emails and CodeTwo software to add signatures. You noticed that the same disclaimer is added more than once (usually twice) to each message.

Solution:

When you use CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 to add cloud (server-side) signatures, your emails are routed through CodeTwo services to be processed (get signatures), and then they are sent back to your Microsoft 365 tenant. If the Exchange transport rule responsible for appending a disclaimer is set to be applied before the processing at CodeTwo, then the rule might be applied again when an email goes back to Microsoft 365 after the CodeTwo processing. As a result, the message gets two disclaimers and a signature added by CodeTwo software.

To solve this problem, you need to:

• modify your Exchange Online transport rules accordingly, depending on where you want the disclaimer to appear:
  • Below CodeTwo’s signature
  • Above CodeTwo’s signature
• or disable the transport rule in Exchange Online and use CodeTwo software to add both the signature and the disclaimer. This is the recommended solution.

Modify Exchange transport rules to append a disclaimer below CodeTwo’s signature

1. Sign in to the Exchange admin center and use the menu on the left to navigate to Mail flow > Rules.
2. Make sure that the CodeTwo Exchange transport rule has the highest priority (0), and that the disclaimer-adding rule is lower on the list, as shown in Fig. 1. If necessary, change rule’s priority by selecting it and using the Move up and Move down buttons above the list.

Fig. 1. The correct order of the rules on the list.

3. Click the CodeTwo transport rule and, in the pane that opens, click Edit rule settings (Fig. 2.).

Fig. 2. Accessing the rule settings to edit them.

4. Locate and enable (select) the Stop processing more rules option, as shown in Fig. 3.

   Important

   Each email getting a signature is processed by Exchange Online twice:

   1. For the first time: immediately after being sent. This is when the message should directly reach the CodeTwo cloud service. Selecting the Stop processing more rules option helps achieve this as it forces the CodeTwo Exchange transport rule to be the only one to be applied, provided it has the top priority (0).
   2. For the second time: after leaving the CodeTwo service. This is when the message (with added signature) should next be processed to get the disclaimer. Because the CodeTwo Exchange transport rule is not executed again, the Stop processing more rules option is not taken into consideration. It means that any other transport rule configured for your tenant will still be executed.

   To summarize, using the Stop processing more rules option will NOT block other transport rules you’ve configured in your Exchange admin center. The CodeTwo Exchange transport rule (with the option in question) will be executed only during the first stage mentioned above. Other rules will be executed during the second stage as usual.

Fig. 3. Turning on the option to first process the CodeTwo Exchange transport rule only.

5. Apply your changes by clicking Save.

The problem with double disclaimers should now be fixed, and the disclaimer should appear below CodeTwo’s signature.

Modify Exchange transport rules to append disclaimer above CodeTwo’s signature

1. Sign in to the Exchange admin center and use the menu on the left to navigate to Mail flow > Rules. 
2. Make sure that the disclaimer-adding transport rule is executed before the CodeTwo transport rule (it needs to be higher on the list, as shown in Fig. 4.). If necessary, change its priority using the Move up and Move down buttons above the rules list.

Fig. 4. An example list of Exchange Online transport rules.

3. Click the disclaimer-adding rule to select it. In the pane that opens, click Edit rule conditions to open it for editing (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Opening the disclaimer rule for editing.

4. In the Except if section, click the + button to add a new exception and use the drop-down lists to choose The message headers > matches these text patterns (Fig. 6.).

Fig. 6. Adding an exception to the disclaimer-adding transport rule.

5. Click the Enter text link below the drop-down lists (see Fig. 6.). In the pane that opens, type/paste the following header name: X-CodeTwoProcessed, and click Save (Fig. 7.).

Fig. 7. Adding the name of the CodeTwo-specific header.

6. Click the Enter words link below the drop-down lists (see Fig. 6.). In the pane that opens, type true, and click Add and Save (Fig. 8.).

Fig. 8. Providing the value for the CodeTwo-specific header.

7. Save the rule's configuration by clicking Save. Note that it might take a while before the changes are propagated across your Microsoft 365 tenant.

The problem with double disclaimers should now be fixed, and the disclaimer should appear above your signature.