Entourage downloads duplicate emails

[DebW]

Hi,

I've looked through the other posts with similar subjects but most
seem to be about Entourage re-downloading emails from the past. My
issue is that I get two of almost every new email every time I receive
email. There are a few exceptions to this; for instance email I send
home from work and some I get forwarded from a group (maybe the second
one in this case is staying on the group's server?) comes in singly.

Entourage 2004, v. 11.4.0
Mac OS X (10.4.11)
ISP - Comcast (POP email)

It is very annoying to have to delete nearly every other email. I've
tried a couple of scripts for deleting duplicates but this is not a
good long term solution. I just need to find out what setting I need
to change (or who I need to calI!) I hope someone has a solution to
this.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Diane Ross]

I've looked through the other posts with similar subjects but most
seem to be about Entourage re-downloading emails from the past.

Is it possible you have a forwarding set up on your account and it is
set to not delete after forwarding?

Use your web browser to log into your accounts and check your settings.

 

[DebW]

Is it possible you have a forwarding set up on your account and it is
set to not delete after forwarding?

Use your web browser to log into your accounts and check your settings.

Dear Diane,

Thank you for your rapid reply. The settings are as follows:

Email Settings Current Status
Spam filter ON
Email forwarding OFF
Email auto-reply OFF
Email restrictions OFF

This seems to be a common Entourage problem that apparently has been
affecting people for YEARS in various versions and with varying
effects. I've looked all over for a solution and have come up empty.
Some suggestions have included rebuilding some data file and
reinstalling the software. I don't feel comfortable with either of
these due to the time it might take (computer stuff always takes
longer than you think it will) and the risk of losing email address,
address groups and the actual emails. I also have a couple of scripts
for deleting duplicate emails but, since most of my email goes
automatically into folders, the scripts don't find them. Oddly,
Entourage only filters ONE of the incoming emails in each pair; the
other ends up in my Inbox. Also, for non-filtered emails Entourage
will sometimes flag one as possible junk mail and leave the other
alone.

It seems impossible to me that with all the time that has gone by, no
one has posted a definitive solution (or a definitive statement that
there is none).

Thanks again for your help.

Kindly,
Deborah

 

[DebW]

Dear Diane,

Thank you for your rapid reply. The settings are as follows:

Email Settings Current Status
Spam filter ON
Email forwarding OFF
Email auto-reply OFF
Email restrictions OFF

This seems to be a common Entourage problem that apparently has been
affecting people for YEARS in various versions and with varying
effects. I've looked all over for a solution and have come up empty.
Some suggestions have included rebuilding some data file and
reinstalling the software. I don't feel comfortable with either of
these due to the time it might take (computer stuff always takes
longer than you think it will) and the risk of losing email address,
address groups and the actual emails. I also have a couple of scripts
for deleting duplicate emails but, since most of my email goes
automatically into folders, the scripts don't find them. Oddly,
Entourage only filters ONE of the incoming emails in each pair; the
other ends up in my Inbox. Also, for non-filtered emails Entourage
will sometimes flag one as possible junk mail and leave the other
alone.

It seems impossible to me that with all the time that has gone by, no
one has posted a definitive solution (or a definitive statement that
there is none).

Thanks again for your help.

Kindly,
Deborah

Hello again. I've been patiently waiting for some sort of reply to
this question. In the interim I've noticed a few more things about my
duplicate emails. There are SOME emails that I get regularly that are
NEVER duplicated. Other email that I get from the same originating
organization will be duplicated. Also, on emails that are duplicated
ONE will have a message at the top that there remains a copy on the
server and the duplicate email will not have that message. I am
desperately trying to find the KEY to this problem. I'm not getting
much help...

Deborah

 

[Diane_Ross_MVP]

Hello again. I've been patiently waiting for some sort of reply to
this question. In the interim I've noticed a few more things about my
duplicate emails. There are SOME emails that I get regularly that are
NEVER duplicated. Other email that I get from the same originating
organization will be duplicated. Also, on emails that are duplicated
ONE will have a message at the top that there remains a copy on the
server and the duplicate email will not have that message. I am
desperately trying to find the KEY to this problem. I'm not getting
much help...

Look for a rule that is copying the message. Check the Mailing List Manager
too.

How many accounts do you have? Are dupes all coming from the same account?

 

[ChuckS]

Hi Deborah,

Yesterday, I believe that the same thing happened to me. That is, I received lots of duplicate messages. The moment I saw 95 incoming messages I clicked "Stop All" (in the progress window) and went off line (by selecting "Work Offline" in the Entourage menu). Next, I logged into my webmail interface and confirmed that the duplicate messages were not on the server. In Entourage, I noticed that all emails that should be marked as on server (confirmed by webmail) were marked as not on server. The freshly read duplicate messages were marked as on the server.

The problem:
Sometimes Entourage will not recognize that previously read email on the server does not need to be downloaded again. For me, the problem occurred when I put my laptop to sleep, went to a cafe (using a different network connection) then read my email. It appears that Entourage erroneously marks previously read email on the server as off the server (causing the messages to be downloaded again). In the cafe, I got a network error alert saying that someone was using my IP address. When i use Ethernet, I'm use DHCP. At home, my ISP is Comcast. I use a pop server with my account configured to leave email copy on server and delete from server after 14 days.

Possible solution:
1. Go to Accounts then Edit Account and Options tab. Uncheck "Leave a copy of each message on the server."
2. Read email for this account.
3. Delete duplicate messages. Sorting by "Received" by could help. See the "Arrange By" menu item in the View menu. Hiding the Preview pane (also in the View menu) could also help.
If you would like, you could go back to "Edit Account" and re-check "Leave a copy of each message on the server" for a given number of days.
To possibly prevent this problem, I suggest quitting Entourage before reading email from a different WiFi connection. This is a guess. This bug appears to be infrequent.
Simply unchecking "Leave a copy of each message on the server" should also resolve the issue, but this will make it be a problem if you read email from other clients (e.g. iPhone or another computer).

I'm using Entourage 12.2.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.3, but I would guess that this is a long standing bug that is difficult to reproduce. I've seen it happen before.

Can anyone confirm what I'm reporting or tell me that this is a known bug? Is there a formal way to report a bug?

Chuck

 

[DebW]

Hi Deborah,
Yesterday, I believe that the same thing happened to me. That is, I received lots of duplicate messages. The moment I saw 95 incoming messages I clicked "Stop All" (in the progress window) and went off line (by selecting "Work Offline" in the Entourage menu). Next, I logged into my webmail interface and confirmed that the duplicate messages were not on the server. In Entourage, I noticed that all emails that should be marked as on server (confirmed by webmail) were marked as not on server. The freshly read duplicate messages were marked as on the server.
The problem:
Sometimes Entourage will not recognize that previously read email on the server does not need to be downloaded again. For me, the problem occurred when I put my laptop to sleep, went to a cafe (using a different network connection) then read my email. It appears that Entourage erroneously marks previously read email on the server as off the server (causing the messages to be downloaded again). In the cafe, I got a network error alert saying that someone was using my IP address. When i use Ethernet, I'm use DHCP. At home, my ISP is Comcast. I use a pop server with my account configured to leave email copy on server and delete from server after 14 days.
Possible solution:
1. Go to Accounts then Edit Account and Options tab. Uncheck "Leave a copy of each message on the server."
2. Read email for this account.
3. Delete duplicate messages. Sorting by "Received" by could help. See the "Arrange By" menu item in the View menu. Hiding the Preview pane (also inthe View menu) could also help.
If you would like, you could go back to "Edit Account" and re-check "Leave a copy of each message on the server" for a given number of days.
To possibly prevent this problem, I suggest quitting Entourage before reading email from a different WiFi connection. This is a guess. This bug appears to be infrequent.
Simply unchecking "Leave a copy of each message on the server" should also resolve the issue, but this will make it be a problem if you read email from other clients (e.g. iPhone or another computer).
I'm using Entourage 12.2.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.3, but I would guess that this is a long standing bug that is difficult to reproduce. I've seen it happen before.
Can anyone confirm what I'm reporting or tell me that this is a known bug? Is there a formal way to report a bug?
Chuck

Hello Chuck,

Thank you for your reply. Actually, I believe I've checked the things
you mention. For me it is very consistent and when there are
duplicates, they are identical (except for the on the server/not on
the server message at the top). They come in at exactly the same time
(the duplicates are not received at a later time). I don't read my
email from any other devices/locations. Also, if you read above, most
of my email is filtered into folders which makes it difficult to
separate the duplicates and delete them efficiently. In the case of
these emails (the ones that have folders) one will go into its folder
and the other one will land in the inbox.

Thanks again for your willingness to offer a possible solution.

Deborah

 

[DebW]

Look for a rule that is copying the message. Check the Mailing List Manager
too.

How many accounts do you have? Are dupes all coming from the same account?

OK, now I feel like an idiot....I'm not sure how it happened but there
WAS a rule that was duplicating emails....Thank you so much for making
me check I don't know why I would have made a rule like that but
apparently I did.

Deborah

 

[Diane Ross]

OK, now I feel like an idiot....I'm not sure how it happened but there
WAS a rule that was duplicating emails....Thank you so much for making
me check I don't know why I would have made a rule like that but
apparently I did.

Sometimes Rules get corrupt and change a setting. It¹s possible you have a
³move² that was change to a ³copy² and/or it could have been a slip of the
finger when creating the rule.

Glad the problem is finally fixed.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

 

[DebW]

Sometimes Rules get corrupt and change a setting. It¹s possible you have a
³move² that was change to a ³copy² and/or it could have been a slip of the
finger when creating the rule.

Glad the problem is finally fixed.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page   <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog  <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://tinyurl.com/bzcrjy> <-- Entourage mailing list
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/entouragehelp>

Me, too!

Thanks, again.

Deborah