# Troubleshooting Rules

Sometimes, particularly for more complex rule setups, your rules may not immediately do what you had intended. Here are some ideas and tips for getting your rules right:

- Simplify. Make sure that your individual rules are doing what you intend--sometimes another rule may be taking precedence and making it appear that a rule isn't working.
- Make sure you understand the different item attributes and what their values look like. Learn more about criterion attributes.
- Pay attention to hierarchy. If a parent of an item is excluded, no rules (such as inclusion rules) will be evaluated for the child item, as the folder was already excluded as a whole.