Deluged with old, duplicate messages

R

Rick O'Shey

Suddenly, I began to receive hundreds of messages -- duplicates of originals
that I received many months ago.

Does anyone know why?
 
A

Adam Bailey

Rick said:
Suddenly, I began to receive hundreds of messages -- duplicates of originals
that I received many months ago.

Does anyone know why?
Click to expand...

Is this a POP account? Do you choose to leave mail on the server?
 
W

William Smith [MVP]

Rick said:
I deleted many of the messages from the server a long time ago.
Click to expand...

If you're receiving messages again from the server then you probably
only thought you deleted them. Most service providers offer webmail
access to your mail accounts. Verify your account online and see what's
still there and what's been deleted.

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>
 
R

Rick O'Shey

If you're receiving messages again from the server then you probably
only thought you deleted them. Most service providers offer webmail
access to your mail accounts. Verify your account online and see what's
still there and what's been deleted.
Click to expand...


Very surprising.


Flaky server, inattentive ISP, or weak protocol?
 
W

William Smith [MVP]

Rick said:
Very surprising.


Flaky server, inattentive ISP, or weak protocol?
Click to expand...

Well, that depends on what you found. I suppose your messages were still
there?

The protocol is well-established so I doubt that's the problem. Go to
Tools --> Accounts... and double-click your POP account to edit its
settings. What are your delete settings under the Options tab? You may
need to adjust them here.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>
 
R

Rick O'Shey

Well, that depends on what you found. I suppose your messages were still
there?

The protocol is well-established so I doubt that's the problem. Go to
Tools --> Accounts... and double-click your POP account to edit its
settings. What are your delete settings under the Options tab?
Click to expand...

Since I had indicated that I had deleted the messages from the server, I
thought it was understood that I had set my prefs to leave them on the
server as my default. My usual practice is to delete messages from the
server (via Entourage) after I read them, except for a small percentage that
I want to leave on the server as a "backup."

Apparently, telling Entourage to "Delete Message from Server at Next
Connection" doesn't always work.
 
D

Diane Ross

Apparently, telling Entourage to "Delete Message from Server at Next
Connection" doesn't always work.
Click to expand...

I was doing some cleanup tonight and found a bunch of old messages still on
the server that had not been deleted.

If you do keep mail on the server, move it out of the Inbox so you don't
have to download it again if there are problems.
 
R

Rick O'Shey

I was doing some cleanup tonight and found a bunch of old messages still on
the server that had not been deleted.

If you do keep mail on the server, move it out of the Inbox so you don't
have to download it again if there are problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion.

Any idea if it's a problem with Entourage or the ISP?
 
D

Diane Ross

Any idea if it's a problem with Entourage or the ISP?
Click to expand...

Both. If you rebuild Entourage, it looses the IDs for messages downloaded
and will download all again, but if the server reboots or updates it's
security software this can also reset the message IDs and Entourage will
download again because the IDs were changed.

The bug in Entourage is it doesn't always honor delete from server. I would
venture to say it works 99% of the time in my experience. I've seen this for
older versions of Entourage as well.

Last night I booted from another volume to update it to 10.5.7. When I
restarted using the same user's folder so the same Entourage Identity, it
caused Entourage to download a bunch of messages already downloaded. It was
during this process of sorting by unread that I found messages dating back
to January that should have been deleted from the server.

In this incidence, it was a combo of the Apple updater and Entourage not
deleting as directed that caused the problem.

Regardless of who or what is to blame, the best option is to keep older mail
in an archive folder and not in the InBox.

Hope this helps!
 
R

Rick O'Shey

In this incidence, it was a combo of the Apple updater and Entourage not
deleting as directed that caused the problem.
Click to expand...

What about the updater might cause this type of problem?

Regardless of who or what is to blame, the best option is to keep older mail
in an archive folder and not in the InBox.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. (I imagine it makes sense even under IMAP.)
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

It does. Thank you.
 
D

Diane Ross

What about the updater might cause this type of problem?
Click to expand...

I first installed the Apple updater on my sandbox that aliases by User's
folder. No problem, but when I booted into my main HD and updated it, the
same Identity had problems. So why would it do it one time and not another??

I also only had to restart once with the sandbox and twice with the main
drive. (these were the auto restarts)
 
R

Rick O'Shey

I first installed the Apple updater on my sandbox that aliases by User's
folder. No problem, but when I booted into my main HD and updated it, the
same Identity had problems. So why would it do it one time and not another??

I also only had to restart once with the sandbox and twice with the main
drive. (these were the auto restarts)
Click to expand...

Strange indeed.
 
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