How to Remove Duplicate Emails in Outlook? Step-by-Step Guide

Daily, the number of emails is increasing in our mailboxes. It becomes necessary to remove duplicate emails in Outlook mailbox so that it can enhance performance and manage the data file size. One has to be careful while remove duplicate messages in Outlook, as it might lead to storage space issues, slowing down Outlook performance, and many more such problems. Whether it occurred due to a synchronization error, incorrectly configured rules, or multiple imports, all challenges will be addressed in this article.

So, to prevent these issues, in this article, we will demonstrate the effective methods to remove email duplicates Outlook.

All such reasons make users think twice about how to get rid of duplicate emails in Outlook. Thus, to make this task easier, there’re multiple ways on how to delete duplicate emails in Outlook.

Let’s learn and understand them one by one:

Important: Make sure to take backup of your Outlook mailbox before performing any of these methods. This way if something goes wrong, you will have the original mailbox file.

#Method 1: Import/Export Option to Delete Duplicate Emails

With help of Import/Export feature, you can also remove duplicate email messages in Outlook. This method allows you to remove duplicate items in Outlook by exporting your mailbox without duplicates and then re-importing it. Follow steps mentioned below in two stages:

Stage 1: Export without duplicates

1. Open Outlook.
2. Now, go to File, then Open & Export, then Import/Export.
3. Here, select “Export to a File” and then choose Outlook data file (PST).
4. Select all folders that you want to deduplicate.
5. Finally, choose “Do not export duplicate items” and finish procedure.

Stage 2: Import without duplicates

1. Open Microsoft Outlook and navigate to File → Open & Export → Import/Export option

2. In Import and Export Wizard window, choose Import from another program or file option and click on Next button

3. Now, choose Outlook Data File (.pst) on Import a file window and click on Next button

4. On Import Outlook Data File window, simply Browse .pst file and check Do not import duplicates option → Next button

5. Now, choose Outlook Data File and select “Import to same folder in:”. At last, select mailbox from which emails were exported in Stage 1 and click Done.

#Method 2: Use Clean Up Tool to Remove Duplicate Emails from Outlook

Microsoft Outlook has a Clean Up Tool that lets you delete duplicate items from Outlook. This built-in tool can serve as a basic duplicate email removal for Outlook by cleaning up conversations, folders, or subfolders. To use it properly, follow steps mentioned below:

1. First of all, open MS Outlook application
2. Then, click on Clean Up tool from ribbon bar and expand all options.
3. As you expand it, three options will be displayed, i.e., Clean Up Conversation, Clean Up Folders, and Clean Up Folders & Subfolders.
   
4. Here, you have to choose Clean Up Folders & Subfolders option
5. Now, a Clean Up Folder dialog box will pop up, asking you whether to proceed with clean up or cancel. Simply, click on Clean Up Folder option
6. After that, click on Settings option to enter Deleted Items folder location manually
7. As you click on Settings, an Outlook Options window will open. Click on Browse button to add PST file
8. Now, Select Folder pop-up will appear in front of you. Choose Deleted Items → OK button
9. Finally, click on Clean Up Folder option to remove duplicate messages in Outlook mailbox.

#Method 3: Deduplicate Outlook Emails in Preview Mode

This method relies on visually checking and comparing emails and then deciding on deletions. It works most efficiently when there are only a few duplicates in a known folder.

Steps to Use Preview Method for Removing Duplicates in Outlook:

1. Switch to Preview Mode
   • Change view of PST folder containing duplicate emails to “Preview” mode in Outlook.
     
2. Differentiate Columns for a More Favourable Comparison
   • Access to View Settings menu.
   • Click on Columns… button.
   • Choose from available columns for display by clicking Add (e.g. Size, Subject, Date, Sender).
3. Sort your Emails for Easily detection of Duplicates
   • Click Column Header (for example, “Size”) to group emails according to shared characteristics.
   • Otherwise, use Sort button in View Settings and sort your emails based on filters like Subject, Received Date, Sender, etc.
     • Go to View > View Settings > Sort…
       
     • In Sort window, from drop-down lists, select your sorting criterion and click OK.
     • Click OK again in Advanced View Settings dialog box to save changes.
4. Manually Find Out and Delete Duplicate Emails
   • Once all emails are organized, you can start a visual comparison to determine which ones would be counted as duplicates.
   • Now, Outlook remove duplicate emails manually.

This method takes considerable labour, especially when there are a lot of emails organized into several folders. It would also require much effort to review the messages to make sure one does not delete that all-important email wrongly.

However, if it is only a few duplicates and they are all at one particular known location, this should work quite well for you. But perhaps for larger-scale removal of duplicate files, you might consider automated applications or other filtering methods as being more efficient.

Working of This Trusted Tool

1. Download and install the duplicate email removing utility.
   
2. Click Add File or Folder button to upload supported files.
   
3. You can choose between the two options to delete duplicates: Within or Across Folders.
   
4. Choose location to save the resultant PST file.
   
5. Choose data items, i.e., Emails, Contacts, Calendars, Journals, Tasks, and Notes, to remove duplicates.
   
6. Now, choose Specify Duplicate Criteria option to specify to remove duplicate emails in Outlook.
   
7. Click Next as you are done with the process of removing duplicate emails from Outlook.
   

Also Read: How to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook?

Comparison of Outlook Remove Duplicate Emails Options

Since the Preview method is all about how users find and Outlook delete duplicate emails process by the user, we are not going to include it in the comparison table.

Concluding Words

Handling duplicates is one of the difficult tasks faced by users. Thus, to make this task easier, in this well-explained article, we have shown you multiple ways to remove duplicate emails in Outlook using all possible manual and professional ways efficiently. A user can pick between the discussed solutions to delete duplicate emails in Outlook as per his or her requirements. To avoid any deletion risk, always take a backup of your files.

FAQs on How to Delete Duplicate Emails in Outlook?