Lindsey Smith | July 18th, 2021 | MS Outlook, Technology
When users encounter duplicate emails in their mailbox, it becomes difficult to manage them. This is the reason we all are here. In this blog, multiple ways to remove duplicate emails in Outlook are discussed. However, duplicates in Outlook mailbox can create many annoying problems such as corrupt mailbox data, performance degrades, etc. To overcome all such issues of Outlook, you have to remove duplicate email messages in order to maintain the continuity of work. But before that, it is important to find out the cause of duplicate emails.
Outlook doesn’t provide an option to view all emails in the same folder. This is because each mailbox is a synced copy of one on a server your provider manages. However, you can click the search box at the top of the main window in the mail view and change the location to “All mailboxes.”. Turning the setting on or off is a simple matter that works the same way for Windows Mail and Outlook for Windows. Instructions in this article apply to Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, and Mail for Windows 10. Multiple subscriptions to a mailing list. If you are receiving duplicate messages from only a single mailing list, you might be subscribed to that list more than once. Request to see the subscriber list and examine it. Look for multiple occurrences of your email address, as well as the addresses of other mailing lists you receive.
Email communication is the type of communication famous among the business users. Nowadays, all small and big information is shared between the users is via emails only. Thus, emails are one of the most important resources of the users. Therefore, proper management in any mailbox is always necessary as it keeps lots of crucial information. When it comes to the management of mailbox, the hardest one is to remove duplicate emails in Outlook.
Have you ever seen email deduplication in your Outlook mailbox?
If you did not pay any attention towards removing duplicate email messages in Outlook mailbox, it can create lots of issues. Are you looking for a direct and simple solution to eliminate items that are replicas in Outlook? If yes, download the application below free of cost.
This works best if you have multiple email accounts managed by the same Outlook installation. Pick one of your email accounts and create a new folder, named Unified Inbox. Next, find the Manage Rules section under File or on the home tab of the main Outlook ribbon. This brings up your email rules dialogue box.
It is a foolproof formula to deal with any type of duplicate items in Outlook in just a few simple clicks. In addition, it is 100% safe and secure to download and remove duplicate emails from your Outlook PST file.
Why Should One Remove Duplicate Emails in Outlook 2016 & 2019?
Microsoft Outlook is the widely used email application so, keeping it in a working state is really important. However, duplicate email messages in a mailbox can badly affect its performance. Apart from this, there are many other problems faced by the users and are listed below:
- Unable to Locate Message: When you try to search for any email via search option in Outlook, it displays a complete list of messages and take more than the desired time.
- Increase Mailbox Size: If you keep receiving duplicate emails in Outlook with attachments, the size of mailbox also keeps on increasing. However, if the size of mailbox is large, the performance degrades.
- Occupy More Space: As the number of duplicate items increase, it will occupy more storage on the hard drive and CPU usage will also be higher. In addition, it increases the chances of data corruption also.
- Other Issues: There can be many other common issues faced the users as the time increases. For example, Outlook becomes slow, starts freezing, or stop even responding! In addition, it can corrupt Outlook PST file also.
All Possible Causes Leading Users to Eliminate Duplicate Emails in Outlook
- Rules Are Not Configured Properly: If rules in Outlook are not configured properly, it will create a confusion as an email message arrives. Afterwards, it results in duplication of the emails.
- Synchronization Issue: If inbox updates with very low frequency, it will create synchronization problem and generates duplicate items in the mailbox.
- Incorrect Account Settings: It is possible that the same email account is configured twice or in different devices. There is a possibility that it results in repeated synchronization of inbox. Hence, create duplication in Outlook mailbox which makes the users look for solutions to remove duplicate emails in Outlook.
- Mailbox is not setup Properly: When set up a mailbox in Outlook and it is not configured properly, there are chances of receiving same email multiple times.
- Other Technical Issues: It is quite possible that there is technical problem in the mail server and leads to duplicate Outlook items. The main reason behind this is you have left Leave Messages on the Server option checked.
Not doubt the reason behind duplicates emails in Outlook matters a lot always. The point is, it will surely hamper the performance, continuity, and productivity of Outlook. Thus, it is important to remove duplicate email messages of Outlook in a proper way.
Simple Tricks to Eliminate Duplicate Emails in Outlook
There are many approaches available that the user can try to remove duplicate email messages. In order to know about the same, continue reading the blog.
Trick #1: Configure Rules Correctly
The very first step is to make sure that Outlook Rules are configured correctly as it creates confusion in multiple email folders
Trick #2: Change Inbox Update Frequency
Next, you can modify Inbox update frequency by following the steps below:
- First of all, open MS Outlook and click on the Send or Receive button
- After that, choose Define Send or Receive Groups option
- Here, you can set the ‘Schedule an automatic send/receive every’ value between 15 and 30 minutes
Trick #3: Run Inbox Clean Up Tool to Remove Duplicate Emails in Outlook
Microsoft Outlook includes an inbuilt application named as Clean Up tool to eliminate duplicate emails of Outlook. You can run the tool within the Outlook only. To begin clean up process of removing duplicated emails, follow the steps below:
- First of all, open MS Outlook application
- After that, choose Inbox folder containing duplicate emails
- Then, move to Home menu and select the Clean Up option
- Now, choose any of the following option as per the reason of duplicate occurrence:
- Clean Up Conversation: Remove and move duplicate email messages from conversations to Deleted Items folder
- Clean Up Folder: Delete the duplicate email messages from a specific folder
- Clean Up Folder and Subfolders: To clean up folders and subfolders both
5. At last, right-click on the Deleted Items folder and choose Empty folder option. This will eliminate duplicate emails in Outlook mailbox permanently.
Trick #4: Anti- Virus Software
In some cases, anti-virus app is also responsible for closing in Server connection. And, if the connection is not terminated accurately, the email message is not flagged when received. This is the reason behind duplicate emails in the mailbox. To cross-check this, move to anti-virus instruction manual to find out the to disable email protection.
If none of these work, you can go for the next solution which is going to help you in the required field and make the task easy for you.
Trick #5: Professional Solution to Remove Duplicate Emails in Outlook
If any of the above tricks does not work perfectly to eliminate duplicate items in PST file of Outlook, switch to some professional solution. Outlook Duplicate Item Remover is one such application that can help you in removing duplicated emails, calendars, tasks, notes, journals, contacts in Outlook. It is one of the finest application to deal duplicate emails in problem. It let users remove duplicate Outlook items from multiple PST/OST/BAK files in batch also. When it comes to remove duplicate emails via email fields, it is the best option to go for. Moreover, it supports both ANSI and UNICODE type PST files.
Time to Wrap Up
Duplicate items in mailbox can be annoying sometimes or start creating issues. Therefore, multiple tips and tricks to remove duplicate emails in Outlook are covered in the blog. You can try them and get rid of duplicated items problem in Outlook mailbox.
Outlook has a lot of features to split your inbox up into different inboxes, which you can use for different purposes. It also has tools to merge inboxes into one, so you can manage everything from one place. It’s not difficult to set up, but figuring out exactly which method you need to use can be a little tricky. This guide should help. Just pick what task you’re trying to accomplish, and follow the steps.
It’s worth noting that there will be different methods of combining inboxes, with varying levels of complexity and effectiveness. Outlook doesn’t provide an easy merge feature, which is a bit of a disappointment, but I suppose keeping everything segmented is a powerful organizational tool for businesses. Regardless, you have several options. Just remember that many of them, particularly the ones that work with Outlook Rules, will only apply moving forward. To create a unified inbox with all of your archived mail, you will need to merge PST files as well, which is a whole other issue.
Combine Multiple Folders into One Inbox with Rules
Multiple Of The Same Email In Outlook 2019 Pdf
Maybe at some point in the past you set up a bunch of filters or rules to segment your Outlook inbox into multiple folders, and now you want them all combined back into one. You can do this to cease filtering items into folders, or you can move everything from an existing folder into an archive folder or into your inbox.
Personally, I feel like having everything in one inbox is easier, because Outlook’s search is good enough to find anything I’m looking for. Though, I also semi-aggressively delete old messages I know I won’t need, so it’s easier to manage when I don’t have 100,000 messages a year clogging up the archive.
The first thing you should do is go into your outlook rules by clicking on File and then Manage Rules. Look for any rules in the list that filter incoming messages into the inboxes you are planning to delete. Select and delete the relevant rules. Since the folder will no longer exist, Outlook may freak out and handle those emails poorly, or it may create the folder if it doesn’t exist. I’m actually not sure on their default behavior, to be honest. Still, it’s a good idea to remove those filter rules if you’re removing their destination.
Setup Yahoo Email In Outlook
Next, go into the folder you want to merge and make sure your view is showing you everything. Highlight everything in the folder and right click. Choose Move and choose your inbox or archive folder as the destination to move those messages. You may have to wait a moment as Outlook reconfigures those locations. You may also have to repeat this process numerous times, if Outlook isn’t showing you everything that appears in the folder. This happens because of view limitations, so you will have to repeat this process several times for especially large inboxes.
Once the folder is empty, you can then delete it. Just note that if the folder is specifically an inbox folder, rather than a subfolder, you will not be able to delete it. Every mail account needs a primary inbox. Still, removing all of the other inboxes is a good way to merge everything and make searching easier.
The Search Folder Workaround
Maybe you want a dynamic “inbox” that isn’t really an inbox. For example, an inbox that shows you everything you’ve received in the last week can be quite handy. Older messages drop out and go back to your main inbox, while newer messages remain in the display folder.
The way to do this is with a “search folder”, something Outlook introduced in the last few years. Outlook search folders are basically just saved searches, configured to appear as folders. They aren’t actually folders, they’re just shortcuts to performing the same search again. This is how they can be dynamic.
To set up a search folder, open Outlook and click on the Folder tab across the top. Click on New Search Folder and a dialogue box will open up that allows you to configure your search. You have a variety of different options here. You can choose if you want only unread messages, messages that are flagged, messages that are labeled important, and so on. You can also choose specific senders, specific recipients, and organizational structures as well. You have a lot of options, so make sure to configure the search the way you want it.
Since we’re talking about a combined inbox here, one such option you can use for configuration is to choose all mail that has arrived in the last week or last month, from any sender and to any recipient. This will give you a dynamic “recent items” folder that merges all of your inboxes.
Once you have the search configured the way you want it, save the folder. This will create a “search folders” section in your inbox list, with your saved search as one of those folders. Now whenever you want to view this “recent items” inbox, or whatever saved search you’ve chosen, you can simply click the folder.
If you’re using an older version of Outlook that doesn’t support search folders, you will still be able to use this technique, you just won’t be able to create a folder-based shortcut. Unfortunately, you simply have to run the search again each time you want to view this inbox. It’s inconvenient enough I would recommend upgrading your platform.
Merged Folder Rules
Another option you have is to use more rules, rather than less, to achieve a unified inbox. This works best if you have multiple email accounts managed by the same Outlook installation.
Pick one of your email accounts and create a new folder, named Unified Inbox. Next, find the Manage Rules section under File or on the home tab of the main Outlook ribbon. This brings up your email rules dialogue box.
Start a new rule with “apply rule on messages I receive.” Click to check “through the specified account” and click to choose which account you want specified. Add the account you used for he Unified folder, then click OK.
As for what you want the rule to do, tell it to move the item into the specified folder, and choose the Unified Inbox folder you created earlier. This will forward every message that arrives in that account into the one unified Inbox. You can then repeat these steps to create the same rule for each other inbox you have, all pointing at the same Unified Inbox. All mail you receive will now be forwarded to that centralized inbox for your management.
For ease of access, in your main Outlook screen, find the Unified Inbox and drag it into the Favorites section. This way it will always appear at the top for easy access.
Changing POP3 Account Settings
Another option you have for merging different email inboxes is to change your account settings and changing the delivery location for each account to the same inbox folder.
To do this, you need to open up Outlook and then find the Account Settings wizard. Under File, click Account Settings, and then Email. Find the account you want to change. This works best with POP3 accounts. Click the “change folder” button and specify the new destination folder for this account. It can be an existing inbox or you can create a new folder through this wizard.
Repeat this process for each account until they are all delivering mail to the same folder. You will not be able to do this with IMAP email accounts, but it works with both POP3 and Exchange accounts. Also, note that this will only deliver new incoming messages, it will not transfer over old messages.
To transfer old messages into a unified account, you will need to use some kind of PST merging tool. There are many such tools out there – this is one example – that are either cheap or free to use.
Be aware that if you’re merging two PST files into one, you may run into issues. Increasing the size of a PST file will make Outlook run a lot more slowly, and if it’s too large, you may encounter issues with opening it at all. You may also want to split your PST, or perform some cleaning and reduce the number of emails you’re archiving before you merge.
Merging IMAP Inboxes
Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to merge Outlook inboxes if one or more of the email accounts you’re using are IMAP. The easiest option you have is to set up a forwarding rule. Such a rule will automatically take any messages sent from one account and forward them to the other account. You may need another inbox rule to then file them into the specific inbox you want to use.
Setting up such email forwarding is quite easy. In settings, simply navigate to the mail forwarding option and choose a new email to receive your forwarded messages, on the web interface. If you’re using Outlook’s stand-alone app, you will once again need to set up a rule. Go to the rules settings menu and create a new rule. Tell it to choose all new incoming messages, and for your action, forward them to your primary email account.
Other Third Party Options
There are a bunch of different plugins for Outlook out there, many of which can give you similar options to merge emails but with a cleaner interface and fewer steps.
Kutools is one such app. If you choose to use this plugin, your instructions are pretty easy.
To merge multiple inboxes, use the Kutools merge inboxes tool. You can click the “add” button to choose the inboxes you want to merge, and choose if you want each inbox to mirror the other or to choose a specific inbox as the destination. You can choose a date range to merge old emails, or just merge them moving forward. Click OK, and choose your destination folder.
The link above will guide you through both an account settings change and the merge folders options, with screenshots to guide you.
Mailbird is another app you can use. It’s actually kind of its own email client, rather than a plugin for Outlook, but it serves your purposes to create a unified inbox. Simply download the app and link up all of your different email accounts, as well as any other integrations for messengers you want to use. This can include Twitter DMs, Facebook Messenger, and even other integrations like Asana and Dropbox.
Mailbird has a ton of useful features, but foremost among them is the unified inbox. When you link an account to Mailbird, it imports all of your messages and your contacts to merge into one inbox. You can then segment and manage it as robustly as you want.
Mailbird isn’t free, but it’s cheap enough that pretty much anyone can use it. The personal account can be purchased for a one-time fee of $100, or billed on an ongoing basis for just over $3 per month. You can also use a business version for about $7.50 per month.
There are dozens of other email management platforms you can use, but they kind of go against the spirit of telling you how to arrange a unified inbox in Outlook, because they’re stand-alone platforms. Nonetheless, if you would like to recommend your favorite unified email platform in the comments, I certainly won’t stop you.
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