Duplicate Messages in Mail

My Mail app is loading multiple copies of the same email, even after being deleted multiple times. I've erased all rules, so it's not that. And on my iPhone, I only get it once, so I know it's the Mac mail app itself. Any thoughts?

Is it a POP account? If so, then the MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3 file has perhaps gotten corrupted. If you purge it (Home/Library/Mail/MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3) then all messages remaining on the POP server will once more be downloaded, but for the last time.
If you have had this account through earlier versions of OSX (pre-Leopard) then remove any files of that similar name that are leftovers, usually in the POP account folder itself.
Ernie

Similar Messages

How to remove duplicate messages from Mail in Mavericks (POP)

Hello
I'm having some significant problems with Apple Mail, and despite having researched widely, I haven't been able to find a solution yet. Here is my tale of woe...
My set up is that I use Mail with 5 separate accounts, downloading all messages using POP. I keep all my mail so that I have a permanent record of all conversations, going back more than 10 years - this is about 250,000 emails. I'm running the latest version of Mavericks on a 2010 MBP. I have no intention of moving to IMAP - I need to keep a local archive of all my mail.
A few months ago I was having problems with Mail being very slow to load and search emails. I decided to rebuild the mailboxes, but afterwards discovered that thousands of messages in the inbox of one of my accounts (and some of the sub-folders) had disappeared. Once I realised I tried to go back to a recent Time Machine back up, but, for whatever reason, that part of the back up hadn't worked properly and I was unable to recover the previous status. Ileft it while I decided what to do, and had time to deal with it.
The last 2 years worth of emails on that account were still archived on gmail, so last week I decided to try redownloading the whole lot (something like 72,000 messages), and then uplanned to use one of the scripts I was aware of to remove the duplicates to the trash, and then remove any duplicates in the trash forever. That ought to mean I at least had an archive of the last two years of missing messages, even if I had no record of which ones had been flagged or replied to, etc.
The downloading took about 24 hours to complete, and I now have almost 70,000 messages in the inbox of that account. However, I hadn't figured on two things:
1. Mail 'hides' duplicate messages, meaning that all of the messages I've downloaded are showing as unread, and I can't differentiate the ones I already had in my Inbox, and the new downloads. When I click on those apparently unread messages I can see if they have been replied to or forwarded, etc, but there's no obvious way for me to remove the ones I have already dealt with to the trash, without going through them all manually, which is clearly impossible.
2. The scripts I'd found for removing duplicates don't work. Andreas Amann's Remove Duplicates script doesn't work under Mavericks, and he has abandoned the project. I've also tried the remove-duplicate-messages.scpt made by Jolly Roger (http://jollyroger.kicks-***.org/software/), and while it *sometimes* works on individual subfolders on my Mac (but as far as I can tell removes the duplicate in that folder, rather than the newly downloaded version), mostly it doesn't work at all - it creates a 'Remove Duplicate Messages' folder on my desktop, a log inside it and a folder for removed messages, but nothing appears in the duplicates folder.
So, I'm left in a position where I have 70,000 apparently unread messages in my Inbox, a massively bloated Mail library (which has pretty much doubled in size), a slow and unresponsive Mail program. I figure I have a number of options. Either I could abandon the last week's efforts and revert to the version of

Apologies, this was posted here in error. Please find updated post here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/27261965#27261965

TS3276 Duplicate messages in mail

I get messages left in my drafts folder, but they also show in my sent folder. How can I keep from getting these duplicates? Or what am I doing that causes them? Doesn't happen for everything. Also happens in 10.7

Is it a POP account? If so, then the MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3 file has perhaps gotten corrupted. If you purge it (Home/Library/Mail/MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3) then all messages remaining on the POP server will once more be downloaded, but for the last time.
If you have had this account through earlier versions of OSX (pre-Leopard) then remove any files of that similar name that are leftovers, usually in the POP account folder itself.
Ernie

How do I keep duplicate messages in Mail and Gmail?

For the past few years messages would appear in both my Mail and Gmail inboxes. If I deleted a message in Gmail, the duplicate would REMAIN in Mail. Therefore, I could keep some messages in my gmail account that pertained to work and delete their duplicates in Mail (since I wouldn't need them at home). Likewise, I could keep some messages organized in my Mail folders and delete their counterparts in the Gmail account.
At some point I must've downloaded an update or something because the accounts are now totally synced. If I delete a message in my Gmail inbox (or even move it to a Gmail folder), it vanishes from my Mail inbox.
I know this is how most people like these programs to work together, but is there a way to revert it back to the way it was? I tried toggling off POP, then testing it (didn't work). Then I toggled off IMAP (still didn't work). Then I toggled both of them off (still didn't work). My Mail account is listed as IMAP for what it's worth.

Try posting this in the 10.7 Mail forum. You'll get more help there.
DALE

Purging duplicate messages Apple Mail / Gmail

After about 5 years of using Apple Mail to access my Gmail account, I've belatedly set up it up 'properly' so that I'm no longer storing a local copy of the "All Mail" folder from my Gmail account (i.e. everything I've ever sent/received, which was often duplicated if I didn't 'delete' it!). This successfully purged several GB.
I also changed the settings so that my Gmail "Sent" and "Drafts" folders are used as the same on Apple Mail. However, I think I might still have some duplicates of the "Sent" and "Drafts" folders / messages? I say this because in Finder, I see that I have the following folders:
Hugo -> Library -> Mail -> [email protected] -> [Gmail -> Sent Mail.imapmbox
Hugo -> Library -> Mail -> Mailboxes -> Sent Messages (Gmail).mbox
These are 2.81GB and 856MB respectively, so it feels like there's probably some duplication. Any thoughts?

in case you haven't found the answer yet... using an imap account in apple mail, select the mailbox [Gmail]/drafts. go to the menu Mailbox/Use This Mailbox For and select "Drafts". same goes for sent, trash, and junk. though i recommend reading google's help on using imap before making these kinds of changes. and be aware that gmail and apple mail don't play together perfectly.

How to disable detection of duplicate messages in Lion Mail?

When Mail in Lion detects duplicate messages in a mailbox, it groups them together and shows the link in the header "x Duplicates", where x is the number of duplicate messages found. When that link is clicked the duplicate messages show in the mailbox separately. But I'd like Mail to stop grouping them together to begin with.
Running OS X 10.7.3 and Mail 5.1

To disable automatic grouping of duplicate messages, quit Mail then run this command in Terminal:
     defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool true
To revert to the default setting, run this command:
     defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool false
or simply delete the setting altogether with this command:
     defaults delete com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates
If you want to see how Mail behaves with this setting enabled, but without modifying your preference file, start Mail from Terminal with this command:
     /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail -AlwaysShowDuplicates YES
I learned of Mail's modifiability (is that a word?) from here:
     http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2004101603285984
and here:
     http://erikslab.com/2007/07/16/os-x-mailapp-logging/
I found the AlwaysShowDuplicates option by looking for interesting words similar to 'duplicates' in the Mail executable like this:
          strings /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail | grep -i duplicat

View Duplicate Messages in Apple Mail 7.3 in Mavericks

Hello,
Up till at least OS X Lion, if there were duplicate email messages, there would be a blue link in the header of the message in Apple Mail that you could click on to reveal the duplicate messages.
Im currently running Mavericks and Apple Mail 7.3.
By default, there no longer seems to be any indication that there are duplicate messages?? Is that correct???
I have found the Terminal commands that will allow me to "ungroup" duplicate messages:
To disable automatic grouping of duplicate messages, quit Mail then run this command in Terminal:
          defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool true
To revert to the default setting, run this command:
     defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool false
or simply delete the setting altogether with this command:
          defaults delete com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates
If you want to see how Mail behaves with this setting enabled, but without modifying your preference file, start Mail from Terminal with this command:
          /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail -AlwaysShowDuplicates YES
These seem to work fine as far as listing the duplicate messages in the message list.
HOWEVER . . .
What I am wondering is . .
Is there no way to leave the duplicates "grouped" so there is only single entry in the message list BUT have the link in the header that indicates that there are duplicates and allow you to click on that link to reveal the duplicates in the message list???    I find having the link in the header easier to work with rather than having ALL of the duplicates ungrouped in the message list.
ALSO - for what it's worth:
I also tried setting the "Show Header Detail" option in Mail Preferences to "Custom" which includes an entry called "Duplicates" in the list of times displayed in the custom header but I still do not get any indication (that I can see) that there are duplicate messages . . .
Any ideas or experience with this????
John

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4045156
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4863
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3276
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH8200
Maybe some of these might help, hope. I had as imilar issue, I deleted my mail and recreated it.

Duplicate email messages in Mail

Dear Common Wisdom:
Hi!
Can anyone think of a reason why I would receive duplicate messages in Mail?
I have communicated with my provider and they see only one message.
Thanks in advance for your assistance!
kostas

Can you figure why this is confusing Mail?
It seems to me that you are using an IMAP account and storing your messages on the server, but you didn't answer my question as to what type of account you had. IMAP accounts let you synchronize your messages between your Mac and the mail server so they each have the same contents. But you say you're getting duplicate messages, even though your mail provider only sees one--that doesn't sound right at all.
Have you tried rebuilding your Mail index for those accounts, and/or repairing permissions? If not, you should do that to see if the problem continues afterward.
Mulder

Duplicate messages in sender mail adapter

Hi,
We are using the sender mail adapter to retrieve messages from an IMAP mail server. Messages are being picked up correctly, but when we have large messages (with e.g. PDF attachments) things go wrong.
The time it takes to retrieve the mail message is longer than the poll time. In this case the adapter logs in again in the mail server to retrieve the first new message from the inbox. However the first adapter threat is already retrieving that message. This results in a duplicate message in XI. (messages are set to be deleted when read).
We have tried all kind of settings in the adapter but without any results. The adapter works fine with very small messages.
Does anyone recognize this problem?
PS. please do not post links to sap help or the mail adapter FAQ. Useful answers will be rewarded.
Thanks,
Christiaan Schaake

Hi Christiaan !
I understand your problem. Could you set your IMAP account to avoid multiple simultaneous sessions?? maybe if there is only one session allowed per user or per time, then parallel XI threads will not be able to start downloading the messages.
If you cannot use a longer poll interval, then you could develop an adapter module for the Mail sender adapter that could be used to verify if the current mail is just being downloaded by other thread. This adapter module could check the unique mail data (date/time + subject + etc.) against a local table.
Regards,
Matias.
PD: please award points if helpful.
Message was edited by:
Matias Denker

How to remove duplicate POP messages in Mail under Mavericks

Hello
I'm having some significant problems with Apple Mail, and despite having researched widely, I haven't been able to find a solution yet. Here is my tale of woe...
My set up is that I use Mail with 5 separate accounts, downloading all messages using POP. I keep ALL my mail (even the trash) so that I have a permanent record of all conversations, going back more than 10 years - this is about 250,000 emails in around 250 subfolders. I'm running the latest version of Mavericks on a 2010 MBP. I have no intention of moving to IMAP - I need to keep a local archive of all my mail.
A few months ago I was having problems with Mail being very slow to load and search emails. I decided to rebuild the mailboxes, but afterwards discovered that thousands of messages in the inbox of one of my accounts (and some of the sub-folders) had disappeared. Once I realised I tried to go back to a recent Time Machine back up, but, for whatever reason, that part of the back up hadn't worked properly and I was unable to recover the previous status. I left it while I decided what to do, and had time to deal with it...
The last 2 years worth of emails on that account were still archived on gmail, so last week I decided to try redownloading the whole lot (something like 72,000 messages), and then planned to use one of the scripts I was aware of to remove the duplicates to the trash, and then remove any duplicates in the trash forever. That ought to mean I at least had an archive of the last two years of missing messages, even if I had no record of which ones had been flagged or replied to, etc.
The downloading took about 24 hours to complete, and I now have almost 70,000 messages in the inbox of that account. I also rebuilt all the folders again, which doesn't seem to have resulted in any further loss of messages as far as I can tell. However, I hadn't figured on two things:
1. Mail 'hides' duplicate messages, meaning that all of the messages I've downloaded are showing as unread, and I can't differentiate the ones I already had in my Inbox, and the new downloads. When I click on those apparently unread messages I can see if they have been replied to or forwarded, etc, but there's no obvious way for me to remove the ones I have already dealt with to the trash, without going through them all manually, which is clearly impossible.
2. The scripts I'd found for removing duplicates don't work. Andreas Amann's Remove Duplicates script doesn't work under Mavericks, and he has abandoned the project. I've also tried the remove-duplicate-messages.scpt made by Jolly Roger (http://jollyroger.kicks-***.org/software/), and while it *sometimes* works on individual subfolders on my Mac (but as far as I can tell removes the duplicate in that folder, rather than the newly downloaded version), mostly it doesn't work at all - it creates a 'Remove Duplicate Messages' folder on my desktop, a log inside it and a folder for removed messages, but nothing appears in the duplicates folder.
So, I'm left in a position where I have 70,000 apparently unread messages in my Inbox, a massively bloated Mail library (which has pretty much doubled in size, because of the 'hidden' messages), a slow and unresponsive Mail program. I've come to the conclusion that there must be some corrupted email somewhere, which probably caused the original email haemorrhage, and may still be causing the inability to remove duplicates. Mail is so slow as to be almost unuseable.
I figure I have a number of options:
1. I could live with the situation and just archive most of the Mail in my inbox, with the side effect that there will be a bunch of messages I have never replied to that are missed.
2. I could abandon the last week's efforts and revert to the version of Mail I was using a week ago, and then redownload the recent emails from my various accounts. That would still leave me without those thousands of emails I lost on my local machine.
3. I could find another way to deal with this. Can I get the remove duplicates script working? Should I revert to the version of Mail from a week ago, download ALL the messages again, but do it in a way that allows me to find the duplicates and remove them? Should I move to another email program altogether (which would presumably be massively disruptive to my work!)
Anyway, apologies for the essay length of this request, and thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer!

hi Eric
thanks for the tip, but I don't think that solves my problem, which is that Mail apparently hides the duplicates, so they're still there, you just can't differentiate or remove them. I actually *need* the duplicates there so I know I've got everything, but then I need to be able to move the ones I know I've dealt with from my inbox to an archive/trash, and/or remove them completely so Mail isn't totally bloated

How can I prevent Mail from applying actions (moving/copying/flagging/marking read) to duplicate messages?

I use Mail to check multiple accounts. When I receive the same e-mail in multiple accounts, actions applied to an e-mail in one account often (though not always) affect duplicate messages in other accounts.
Example 1
Someone sends an e-mail to both me and my wife. Mail is set up to check both accounts. If I open the message in my Inbox, it marks it as read in my Inbox as well as in my wife's Inbox.
Example 2
For historical reasons, I have chosen to have all my e-mail forwarded (by the server) to a second account, to be used essentially as an un-touched archive of all incoming mail. If I manually move a message from my main account Inbox to another mailbox, the destination mailbox will end up with 2 copies, one from my main account Inbox and the other from the "un-touched archive" Inbox (which has obviously now been altered unintentionally).
Does anyone know of a way to prevent this behavior. I can manage my own duplicates. I don't want Mail to do it for me.
(Btw, I already have the "AlwaysShowDuplicates" option set using "defaults delete com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates")

There are certainly many ways of organizing things so that Mail never has to deal with multiple accounts and duplicate messages (separate user accounts, separate computers, separate mail clients, etc., etc). That's just not what I was asking. I'd like to know how to fix Mail's behavior when it does have to deal with multiple accounts and duplicate messages.
I was hoping there might be another hidden preference or something (and by the way my original post should have said "defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool true", instead of the "defaults delete ...")

Duplicate messages in Snow Leopard Mail

Is there a quick way to find/delete duplicate messages in Snow Leopard Mail?
Thanks,
Don

neighbour had this problem, found RSS icon was above inbox within the program. When RSS was move downward below the trash, program rebuilt/closed and reopened, this issue disappeared.

How to ENABLE detection of duplicate messages in Mavericks Mail?

Hello,
There was a good discussion of how to disable detection of duplicate messages in Lion mail - https://discussions.apple.com/message/18265121#18265121
but unfortunately nothing seems to work to turn them ON in Mavericks.
In Lion or Mt. Lion I do see duplicate messages - but in Mavericks I do not - but I want to see if there are duplicates for a variety of reasons.
In the post referenced above none of the command line suggestions seem to make a difference. My mail perference settings are idential on each system, be it Lion, Mr. Lion or Mavericks. Settings as follows:
Please note 'include related messages' seems to make no difference either way.
Can anyone please tell me how to display duplicates in Mavericks. Thank you very much in advance.
E.

As a quick update, the following command DOES in fact show the duplicates in the mail folder:
defaults write com.apple.mail AlwaysShowDuplicates -bool true
So, if there are two exact messages (one sent to me at [email protected] and one forwarded to that email address and sent to me at [email protected], BOTH will show up as separate messages.
But to be clear, what I want to see is a single message with the '1 Duplicate' indicated in the message header.
Any way to do that in Mavericks?
Again, thanks in advance.

How do I find duplicate messages in Apple Mail?

Hi,
How do I find (and delete) duplicate messages in Apple Mail ?
I will have to verify about 1000 messages in different mailboxes, all in Apple Mail.
My system: Mail 4.5 (1084) and Leopard 10.6.8.
Many thanks,
D.M.

in any window on a mac, if you just type a letter on the keyboard, the selection in that window will go to a file beginning with that name. In Eudora, if mail window was sorted by NAME and you typed "E" the selection would move to the last email received from a person who's NAME began with "E", if you typed "El" it would move to the most recent email received from a person named "El" if you typed "Ela" the selection would move to the most recent email received from a person named "Ela". If mail was sorted by SUBJECT, it would move to the SUBJECT with those same beginning letters. In mac mail the selection doesn't pick the most recent email, but a completely random one, and it doesn't differentiate between subjects and senders. If I type "josh" it goes to an email with subject: josh, from 2011, not the most recent email from my friend josh that I got yesterday, even though I have my mail sorted by name. If I type "Karen", selection moves to an email received from Karen in 2010, not the one I received 2 weeks ago. In other words, it's completely random and useless.
only way to find something in macmail is to type a name into search box, then organize by name, then scroll to that name, only sometimes those name emails are not sorted by date, so you have to look through to find the most recent one. then once you found it, you need to delete what's in the search box, and reset the sortation to be by date in order to have a chronological listing of you emails. In other words, many complicated steps instead of one simple one.

Mail adding duplicate messages as not read in my inbox

My mail started adding old and duplicate messages in my inbox and won't stop. It is not happening in any other format that is using this email adress (smartphone, etc) continues even when offline. after 12 hours of it I am up to 35000 messages. Can anyone help?

Hi there,
You can try the following:
1. Open your messages icon
2. In the messages windows press the menu key(left of trackball) and click options.
3. Do you see Email Reconcilation? If so where it says Delete On, make sure it only says Handheld.
Hope this helps.

Duplicate Messages in Mail

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for