Force Forward Outlook

For when your IT admin is blocking automatic email forwarding from Outlook to addresses outside your organization, but you want to do it anyway.

Requirements

• Python>=3.6
• Rclone

Setup

Step 1

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/Alyetama/Force-Forward-Outlook.git
cd Force-Forward-Outlook

2. Install dependencies:

• If you want to use Docker, skip this step.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 2

1. Download and install Rclone if you haven't already. Then, create a new remote if you don't have one.

rclone config create mydrive drive

2. Create directories emails/sent:

# Replace `mydrive` with your actual remote name if different
rclone mkdir mydrive:emails/sent

Step 3

1. Log in to your outlook account, then go to Microsoft Power Automate.
2. Click + Create -> Automated cloud flow -> pick a name -> under Choose your flow's trigger search When a new email arrives (make sure to select the correct service! If you have a school/work email, it's probably Office 365 Outlook, otherwise, Outlook).
3. Click Create, then sign in to your Outlook email account and select Inbox under Folder.
4. Add a new step, then search for the cloud storage provider that you used for rclone (e.g., Google Drive) -> select Create File.
5. Under Folder path type: emails. Under File name click on Add dynamic content, then search and select Message Id. Under File content, click on Add dynamic content, then search and select Body (the one that starts with a capital letter).
6. Save, then test your workflow to make sure everything is setup correctly.

Step 4

1. In the repository directory, rename .env.example to .env:

mv .env.example .env

2. Then open it in your favorite text editor and fill out the variables value.

• FROM_EMAIL: The email you want to send from (use a Gmail address here!).
• FROM_EMAIL_PASSWORD: The password of the email you want to send from (see note bleow)*.
• TO_EMAIL: Your outlook email address where automatic forwarding is disabled.
• REMOTE_NAME: The name of the rclone remote you used in Step 2 (e.g., mydrive).

*Important note: FROM_EMAIL_PASSWORD should not be your standrad email password! Use an app password instead.

Usage

python forwardgod.py
# or in the background:
nohup python forwardgod.py &

Docker

docker run -d --env-file .env \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -v "$(dirname $(rclone config file | tail -1))":/root/.config/rclone \
  alyetama/force-forward-outlook:latest