Outlook is one of the most popular email client software that can be found out there. That’s particularly the case within the business environment. If you have been receiving duplicate emails in your Outlook, then this article is for you. This is an issue that people get every now and again. Getting duplicate emails can leave your inbox clogged, which makes it difficult to manage your messages. So, what causes the duplicate emails issue in Outlook and what are the steps that you need to take to resolve it?
Causes of duplicate emails in Outlook
It can be annoying to get duplicate messages in Outlook, but what causes this issue? Understanding the causes will help us take measures to prevent the issue from recurring in the future;
- You have set up the same account on different devices. This could be one of the causes of the duplicate emails issue.
- Subscribing to the same mailing list more than once can also be the reason for duplicate messages issue. In this instance, the problem will not be with Outlook itself but with the mailing list to which you have joined.
- Perhaps the person who has sent you the email has done so more than once. In that case, you will end up having duplicate emails in your Outlook inbox. Again, this particular problem is not with Outlook, but with the source of the emails.
- An unstable internet connection can also lead to the duplicate emails issue. Should Outlook fail to properly synchronize your messages, it may end up downloading the same messages multiple times.
- This issue may also occur if there is a problem with synchronization between the mobile app and the Outlook desktop. Such an issue could occur if you use apps that are not up to date.
- It’s also possible that the same email is being sent from different address. The result is that you will have duplicate messages in your inbox.
- You have created another folder and have copied emails to that folder without removing them from the original folder.
- There are multiple email accounts in your Outlook, all of which are receiving the same email.
- The issue may also be caused by antiviruses that scan emails, thus interrupting synchronization in Outlook. Outlook will then redownload messages, thus contributing to duplicates.
How to resolve the issue?
Now that you understand some of the causes of the duplicate emails problem in Outlook, it’s time to take a look at what can be done to resolve the issue. We need to mention here that the issue is not an easy one to solve. You will have to do a lot of trial and error to pin down the cause of the issue. You will also need to do a lot of work to find solutions. The following are some of the steps that you can take to remove duplicate emails from your Outlook;
Remove duplicates using software
The good news is that there is software out there that you can use to remove duplicate emails in Outlook. With these tools, you will be able to remove these messages, thus saving space and providing you with a cleaner interface. One advantage of using these utilities is that they come with the ability to automatically remove duplicates, thus saving you time.
Manually remove duplicates
Another option is to manually remove duplicate emails from your Outlook. That’s only possible if you have a few duplicates. If your inbox is clogged with duplicate messages, you are going to have difficult hunting each down and removing them manually. It’s way better to use the method outlined above to clean up your messages.
Log out of Outlook on all but one device
We noted above that this issue can arise if you have Outlook open on multiple devices at once. Then synchronization may occur individually on these devices, thus contributing to duplicate email downloads.
It may also be the case that you have multiple instances of Outlook running on the same computer. You can solve these issues logging out of Outlook on all but one device. In the event that Outlook is running multiple times on your computer, what you need to do is to close these instances using Task Manager.
Disable email scanning by your antivirus
Most antiviruses will scan emails for viruses. That’s logical considering that a lot of viruses are spread across the internet via email attachments. However, as noted above, this scanning can trigger the duplicate emails issue. The solution here would be to disable email scanning by your antivirus.
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