The way I learned te-form is that if it ends with …e-ru than it is a group 2 verb but in this case when I use that exact rule it says that it is wrong, following the (うつる(only a-る,u-る, and o-る) rule. Is this an exception to the rule? Did I understand the rule wrong?
The rule is actually that if it doesn’t end in eru/iru it must be a godan verb. If it ends in eru/iru it may be (and most of the time is) an ichidan verb, but it doesn’t have to be.
You can think of this as an exception if you want, or just change how you think about the rule. There are some fairly common verbs that end in eru/iru that are actually godan verbs. For example:
- 帰る
- 減る
- 要る
- 喋る
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so is the rule that “aru”, “oru”, “uru”, or just “ru”) is godan? like if the “e” or “i” sound is in the kanji and not as an ending then it doesn’t count as ichidan and it ends up just being godan?
That is often the case, but you can’t treat that as a rule either. In the end, some of these just have to be memorized.
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Here’s a good article by Tofugu that will hopefully clear up the confusion:
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Why is 滑る(suberu) a godan but 出る(deru) is an ichidan? Is there another rule for this or do I have to memorize a bunch of exceptions? I read the tofugu article but it didn’t really explain this part 
You just have to memorize them.
For instance, 要る (いる) was given as an example of godan, but 居る (いる) is ichidan. And 煎る (いる) is godan. And 射る (いる) is ichidan. And 炒る (いる) is godan. And 鋳る (いる) is ichidan.
If you look around, you may be able to find linguistic research papers that explain how some of them ended up the way they are, which would give you the “why”, but wouldn’t practically help you remember how to keep them separate.
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ok then, thanks anyways!
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