Multiple Copies of Email in Outlook

Getting multiple copies of emails in Outlook or Outlook Express?

Seeing the same exact email two or three times instead of only once?  This is a common issue when your mail client (ie. Outlook) is setup to leave copies of your mail on the server.  Outlook compares the headers of emails already on your computer with those on the server - if they differ, or have been corrupted for some reason, your Outlook will download the email again.

How can I prevent receiving the same email over and over?

The only foolproof method to prevent Outlook from re-downloading the same email is to tell it to stop leaving mail on the server.  Here's how to do it in Outlook/ Outlook Express:

• Browse to your email accounts settings (Tools -> Email Accounts - View or Change Existing)
• Click on your email account and hit "change" or "properties" at right
• Click on the "more settings" button
• Under the "advanced" tab you'll want to uncheck "leave copies of messages on server"

More solutions

Some other solutions we've encountered in case the above doesn't work for you:

• If you are using aliases (forwarding) for your email, make sure that the alias is not setup to check emails in a different profile
• Move all your inbox messages to a new folder
• Create a new profile/ pst folder