Duplicate email after moving to Outlook 2003

MiserlyMartin

Hi

I've surfed the web for a solution to this problem to no avail. I've moved from Outlook Express to Outlook 2003. Now I seem to get 2 copies of most emails recieved, the time stamp is about 6 minutes apart on each copy, ie the 2nd copy is 6 minutes later. I can't figure out for the life of me why and how this would be happening. Is it a problem in Outlook or is it the way its been setup? Hoping somebody knowledgable can offer some help, thanks in advance, Martin.

Red_Rose_Exile

Try this

In Outlook 2003

Go to Tools | E-mail Accounts and click View or change existing e-mail accounts and click Next.


Highlight the entry for your mail account and select Change then click More Settings.



Under the Advanced tab, there is a check box next to Leave a copy of messages on the server. If you uncheck it and then click OK, Next and Finish, this should fix the problem.


The steps for Outlook Express are very similar.


The next time you check mail your messages will be removed from the server and each time you check mail you will pull down the new messages only once.

MiserlyMartin

Hi thanks for replying. Unfortunately I've already checked each mail account and the box (leave copy of msg on server) is unticked on all accounts. I've just double checked again. Its strange. I only ever get 2 copies of the email than never the same mail again, so they are being deleted from the email server ok. Any other suggestions?

Red_Rose_Exile

Have a read of M$KB 885870

Make sure you have installed Office Service Pack 2 at least,

MiserlyMartin

I had a good read. I have Service Pack 3 installed. I'm still getting them tonight. Sometimes 3 or 4 copies of the same email. Other mails are ok with only one copy, its really confusing. Plus annoying to have to delete loads of duplicates. Any other ideas anyone?

GaryS

I have had this happen to me on the very odd occasion, not sure what causes it though.

My setup is to leave messages on the server on the laptop, and remove them when using the desktop.

This allows me to check mail from the laptop without being unable to keep them on the other "Master" PC.

superscaper

Very strange. I've seen this happen a couple of times with Outlook 2003 on different pcs and each time it was completely solved using the exact method Red Rose Exile posted. So I don't know why it's not working. It must still be leaving a copy on the server or not deleting it properly. Who is your email with? It's starting to almost sound like a problem between Outlook and your pop3 server company.

peterbaker

I have had several episodes of this over the years and I use Outlook Express, and I think I've generally seen it in POP3 accounts rather than those set up as IMAP4.

I think my conclusion is that it is a spurious POP3 mail server fault, perhaps triggered by something in your local Outlook client, but mostly a transient server thing whereby for a period your server doesn't register that you have already downloaded the mail ... sorry I can't be more specific, but I've found that it generally stops after a few days ...

isofa

I too have this occasionally, I think it perhaps is when the IDs of messages become corrupt or lost in the Outlook file, so it then forgets they have already been downloaded and fetches the message again from the server - but I could be wrong... (I always leave a copy of messages on the server for a week, so if needs be I can access then whilst away from my main computer).

Office 2003 SP3 was released last month, it may help, download from:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885870

You don't have two accounts set-up in Outlook to fetch the same mail do you, just a final thought?

MiserlyMartin

No, but I do have more than one email account setup on outlook. I've just noticed that the duplicate mails come only from one of them - my NDO mail account. This account has a spam filter at the NDO server end (set to weak I think). Could this be to do with it? I got the Money Saving Tips email 3 times yesterday with timestamps of 1:24pm, 1:33pm and 2:23pm on each mail respectively! I'm starting to think its the NDO end?

I have SP3.

superscaper

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

No, but I do have more than one email account setup on outlook. I've just noticed that the duplicate mails come only from one of them - my NDO mail account. This account has a spam filter at the NDO server end (set to weak I think). Could this be to do with it? I got the Money Saving Tips email 3 times yesterday with timestamps of 1:24pm, 1:33pm and 2:23pm on each mail respectively! I'm starting to think its the NDO end?

I have SP3.

Well Outlook can't regenerate the emails. There's only two possibilities really, Outlook isn't deleting them properly from the server for whatever reason or the server is regenerating them once they're deleted/collected.