Why Outlook is Downloading Duplicate Emails?

Nilesh Kumar | Modified: September 1, 2022 | Email Tips, MS Outlook | 5 Minutes Reading

There are various Outlook users who reported that they are receiving duplicate emails in their Outlook POP3 account. But the thing is that they don’t know why Outlook is downloading duplicate emails and how to stop it. Therefore, in this, we are going to discuss all the major reasons and how to delete duplicates from Outlook.

Now, if we talk about the reasons why Outlook is downloading duplicate emails, then this will happen when users enable an option to leave mail on the server. Because Outlook Mail Manager always tracks of messages that we download with an associated account. Beyond this, there are some more reasons that are responsible for download Outlook duplicates which are mentioned below:

Incorrect rule settings in Outlook account

Two instances running at the same time

Some third-party antivirus program

Techniques to Deal with Duplicate Emails in Outlook Account

After understanding the reasons behind why Outlook is downloading duplicate emails. In this section, we are going to discuss some manual troubleshooting methods to deal with the issue on how to stop duplicate emails in Outlook. So, keep reading the blog because you are so close to fixing it.

#Method 1: Disable Leave a Copy of Message on Server

As we said above you cannot avoid Outlook from downloading duplicate emails from the POP3 account until you are not going to disable leave a copy of the message on the server.

Here are the steps to disable leave a copy of the message on the server.

Open Outlook on your computer

Click on the File tab option

Now, click on the Info option >> Account Settings.

Go to the E-Mail tab.

Select your account and click on the More Settings.

Now, click on the Advanced tab and uncheck the Leave a copy of the message on the server.

#Method 2: Turn Off the Rules if any

If you have rules to move the contents of the email of the inbox to a temporary folder, then turn off the rules. And if you are using Outlook 2007 and up then you do not need to move your mail out of the inbox, just change the location from Account Settings. This will resolve the issue of why Outlook is downloading duplicate emails.

#Method 3: Disable Antivirus Email Scanning Option

There are many anti-virus programs that scan your emails which causes this issue as well. Generally, when the messages are large in size, then the software can cause a timeout to the server before it sends back a flag that identifies the message as being read. As a result, you will receive the message over and over.

So, if you want to fix it, then simply disable the email scanning option from your antivirus program.

How to Delete Duplicate Emails in Outlook Inbox?

The above-discussed solution is just to fix for not downloading duplicate emails from Outlook accounts in the future. None of the above solutions will be going to delete duplicate emails from Outlook if you already have in your mailbox So, in this section, we are going to discuss some effective methods that will easily remove duplicate emails from your account in Outlook.

#Technique 1: Delete Duplicate Emails Using the Cleanup Tool

Well, Microsoft Outlook has its own cleanup utility to deal with duplicate emails in Outlook. So let see how you can use this utility to clean the duplicate from Outlook. Now, to run the Cleanup tool follow the mentioned below guidelines

1: Firstly, you have to launch Microsoft Outlook

2: Now, select a mailbox folder.

3: After that, select Home and then choose Cleanup

4: Now, select the following options

Clean up Conversation: This option will delete the duplicate emails that are in the conversation section.
Clean Up Folder: This option will delete the duplicate emails from the folder
Clean Up Folders and Subfolders: This option will draw out the duplicate from folders and subfolders

5: Now, right-click the Deleted Items folder and then click Empty Folder to delete duplicate emails.

#Technique 2: An Instant Way to Delete Duplicate Emails from Outlook

Are you looking for a reliable and instant way to delete duplicate emails from Outlook? Then go for the highly recommended Outlook Duplicates Remover Tool to complete the task in just a few clicks.

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Here are the five working steps to the tool to remove duplicate emails from Outlook

1: Install and launch the software on your Windows machine.

2: Click on the add folder or add files to add PST, OST, or BAK files.

add outlook file

3: Select the Filter and Duplicate criteria to remove duplicate items.

select filter

4: Now choose the action option to select the action that you want to apply to duplicate items.

apply actions

5: Click on the next button to start the process of de-duplication and then click on OK.

start deduplication

The Final Verdict

Many users face email duplication problems in Outlook. Therefore, in this blog, we have explained the reasons why Outlook is downloading duplicate emails and how to fix it. Additionally, we have also discussed the methods to delete duplicate emails in Outlook.