This paper presents a novel automated microwave filter tuning method based on successive optimization of phase and amplitude characteristics. We develop an optimization procedure to determine how much the adjusting screws of a filter should be rotated. The proposed filter tuning method consists of two stages; coarse and fine tuning stages. In the first stage, called coarse tuning, the phase response error of the target filter is minimized so that the filter roughly approximates almost ideal bandpass characteristics. Then in the second stage, called fine tuning, two different amplitude response errors are minimized in turn and then the resulting filter well approximate the ideal characteristics. Performance of the proposed tuning procedure is evaluated through some experiments of actual filter tuning.