How to Fix Outlook Rules Creating Duplicate Emails? Solved
In this well-informed article, we will guide you on how to prevent Outlook rules creating duplicate emails effectively with the best provided solutions.
MS Outlook has some built-in rules, which are essential to manage and keep your mailbox organized, along with upcoming messages. But sometimes, these rules may accidentally lead to annoying issues where Outlook creates duplicate emails. However, this might appear due to syncing issues, when rules clash, or when Outlook gets the same messages with multiple accounts.
Why Does Outlook Rules Creating Duplicate Emails?
It’s important to know the causes of why Outlook creates duplicate emails before understanding the fixes.
- The most common reason is that when more than one rule is applied, it may consider your email different every time, which causes message duplication.
- If you configured your Outlook account on different devices, then your messages get downloaded again more than once.
- It may also be due to importing the same PST file; then Outlook might consider it different and process the same again, which creates duplicates.
- Sometimes, wrongly applied or incorrectly arranged Outlook rules will cause duplication.
- If you’re a POP account user, then the “Leave a Copy of Messages on the Server” rule is enabled, which can send the email message again, leading to redundant messages.
Frequent Signs that Show Outlook Rules Creating Duplicate Emails
You may find that:
- Identical messages appear several times after deleting everything.
- Your Outlook mailbox full due to duplicates present in the inbox.
- The duplicate messages will only appear when Outlook is open.
- When you’ve changed some rule settings, then it’ll come up.
- Outlook performance gets slowed down due to a lot of duplicated messages.
If you think any of the above is happening to your account, then we need to stop the Outlook rule to prevent duplicate emails.
Effective Fixes to Stop Outlook Rules Duplicate Emails
In the following section, we’ll walk through the best methods which can solve the problem permanently & enhance smooth performance.
- Use an Automatic Software
- Arrange Outlook Rules Properly
- Turn On “Stop Processing More Rule”
- Update or Remove Faulty Add-ins
- Turn Off Older or Same Rules
- Disable “Leave a Copy of Messages on the Server”
Let’s walk through the seamless fixes:
How to Prevent Outlook Rules Creating Duplicate Emails Automatically?
If you’ve a large number of Outlook files which is facing with same problem. To fix Outlook rules duplicate emails, we recommend using SysTools Outlook Duplicate Remover Software, which automatically detects & deletes the duplicates caused by rules in the mailbox without any data loss. This effective tool ensures that Outlook rules never create duplicates again.
Let’s know more about this tool.
- Provides Dual Options for uploading and removing files & folders.
- It can efficiently remove duplicate emails in Outlook along with contacts, calendars, tasks, etc.
- Offers an Advanced Filtering Mode to make your replicates more visible.
Complete Working Guide of This Proactive Tool
- Launch the recommended tool in your respective system.
- Press Add Files or Folders option to import your Outlook files.
- Select the Destination Path to store the output file.
- Choose Data Filters such as emails, contacts, calendar, etc.
- Now, select Advanced Filters to specify the duplicated emails.
- Finally, tap Ok button to fix Outlook rules creating duplicate emails.
Fix 2: Arrange Outlook Rules Properly
These Outlook rules process from top to bottom, and if they’re not placed correctly, the messages may get copied again with various applied rules, which can cause duplication. Therefore, arranging them in their correct place is the solution. Follow the steps given below:
Steps:
- Go to File, then tap on Manage Rules & Alerts.
- Choose Change Rule Order.
- Put the relevant rule at the top and the least specific rules at the bottom.
- This ensures a clean workflow of emails.
- Avoids Outlook rules from conflicts or overlapping.
- It might be confusing for one who applied many rules.
- Requires regular maintenance after adding new rules.
Fix 3: Turn on “Stop Processing More Rule”
This method is a necessary Outlook Rule to Prevent Duplicate Emails. If there are multiple rules, then you can enable the option where Outlook will stop checking upcoming rules.
Steps:
- Click on Rules & Alerts.
- Tap Edit and make changes in the applied rules.
- Enable the stop processing more rules options.
- Finally, tap on Save the changes.
- Easy & simple to turn on the option.
- Avoids different rules to affect a single email.
- If applied incorrectly, then
- It has to be used carefully as its rule configuration is complex.
Fix 4: Replace or Fix Unnecessary Add-ins
You can remove or update the unwanted add-ins that are interfering with the Outlook rules processing, as they download the message again, which leads to duplication.
Steps:
- Go to File > Options > Add-ins
- Remove the wrongly or unwanted add-ins.
- Enhances the outlook performance.
- Lessen the duplicate messages.
- Needs to pay attention to each rule individually.
- It might remove other necessary functions of add-ins.
Fix 5: Turn Off Older or Same Rules
Sometimes, MS Outlook on its own creates duplicates, and it’s:
- When Outlook profile got corrupted.
- Account gets frozen or crashes.
- Or, Multiple imports of the same data file.
You should disable the outdated rules to ensure perfect Outlook rules.
- Enhances the accuracy of rules & prevents duplication.
- Fix Outlook rules creating duplicate emails.
- You’ve to be careful while reviewing rules.
- Very time-consuming process if you have several rules.
Fix 6: Disable “Leave a Copy of Messages on the Server”
This fix is for POP account users, where disabling this option is recommended if you don’t want backup emails on the server.
Steps:
- Nav to Account Settings, select POP account.
- Then, under More Settings, click on Advanced.
- Turn off the Leave a copy of message on the server option.
- It can stop the server from sending the same emails again.
- Reduce the storage space on both Outlook & server.
- Server backup of your older emails will be lost.
- Emails will remain on the device if they were downloaded.
After using the above methods to fix Outlook rules creating duplicate emails, now we’ll present the perfect rules, which will help you in avoiding duplicates in the future.
How to Make a Clean Outlook Rule to Prevent Duplicate Emails?
If you want to have accurate rules, then follow these steps:
- You have to create an individual rule for a particular condition, which prevents duplication of same rules.
- Always enable stop processing more rules, which ensures the user processes one message only.
- Now, you can apply the rules to a new email folder, which will prevent the message from getting copied.
- Finally, test each rule to make sure no overlap happens.
By using this advanced approach, you can surely fix Outlook rules from creating duplicate emails.
Conclusion
In this explained article, we’ve covered how to fix Outlook creating duplicate emails quickly using the best methods discussed above. Whether you’re using manual methods or a dedicated tool to delete unwanted duplicates in Outlook, they will both enhance the performance and make your mailbox organised & clean.
FAQs on Outlook Rules Creating Duplicate Emails
Q.1 How Do I Stop Outlook Rules from Creating Duplicate Emails?
A. You can stop the duplication process by disabling the POP account option, arranging your rules correctly, turning on stop processing rules, & removing older add-ins that are clashing with your Outlook emails.
Q.2 Why is My Outlook Creating Duplicate Emails Even After I Set Rules?
A. This happens due to some outdated rules being active; your POP account is downloading the emails again, or some third-party add-ins are conflicting with your emails. Thus, these mentioned reasons might cause your duplicates.
Q.3 Does POP “Leave a Copy of Messages on the Server” Account Cause Duplicate Emails?
A. Yes, if this option is enabled, then the server might deliver the same email again, & this usually happens when Outlook crashes or syncs with different devices. So, to disable the option to prevent duplication to some extent.
Q.4 How to Fix Duplicate Emails that are Already Created in Outlook?
A. You can filter out the duplicates and delete them manually, or you can use the best & automatic software mentioned above, which can help you to prevent Outlook rules creating duplicate emails across your mailbox.