{"id":460,"date":"2014-07-30T11:28:18","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T11:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sperrysoftware.com\/Email-Tools\/?page_id=460"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:17:53","slug":"how-to-prevent-and-remove-outlook-duplicates","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sperrysoftware.com\/Email-Tools\/how-to-prevent-and-remove-outlook-duplicates\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Prevent And Remove Outlook Duplicates"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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How to Prevent And Remove Outlook Duplicates<\/span> <\/h1> <\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThis page contains answers to common problems about how to prevent and remove Outlook duplicates, where they come from, and how to avoid them. All of the information contained pertains to Microsoft Outlook, the desktop client. To find out more see our FAQ, including how to find out which Outlook version is installed.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe best way to prevent and remove Outlook duplicates is with a divide-and-conquer strategy. So this page is broken up into two parts: how to prevent the duplicates from occurring in the first place and then how to clean up the mess.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Prevention<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMany things cause duplicates to appear, including synchronization with phones, restoring Exchange public folders from backups, incorrect Outlook rules and many other reasons. Preventing them from occurring in the future is the first step to eradicating them.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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  1. How to stop receiving duplicate email messages<\/a><\/li>
  2. How to prevent sending duplicate email messages<\/a><\/li>
  3. How to prevent seeing duplicate names when viewing the \u201cSelect Names\u201d window after clicking \u201cTo:\u201d<\/a><\/li>
  4. How to prevent duplicate appointments<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Removal<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
    \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRemoval is the second step to eradicating the duplicates. Once you are sure that no more duplicates will be created, you can use these methods to clean up the duplicates.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    1. How to remove Outlook duplicates, including email, contacts, appointments, and tasks<\/a><\/li>
    2. How to remove duplicate Outlook Today and Personal Folders<\/a><\/li>
    3. How to remove duplicate Outlook address book entries<\/a><\/li>
    4. How to remove duplicate holidays<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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      Prevention<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      1. How to stop receiving duplicate email messages<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThere are a few things you can check to stop duplicate email messages.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      Start by checking Rules to be sure that copies are not being made to the Inbox, and make sure that all your rules end in \u201cStop Processing\u201d actions.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThen check the task manager to be sure that there is only one instace of Outlook running. Two instances of outlook.exe running can produce two messages arriving at the same time. You will need to then determine why two instances of Outlook were running in the first place.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAnother thing you can do is to delete\/remove ALL your e-mail accounts and recreate them. This worked for some people.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      Finally, another person had this happen when he had two e-mail accounts set up \u2013 using two e-mail addresses, but the same POP3 incoming and same SMTP outgoing. What happened is that the second account was getting the e-mails from the POP3 server before they were actually deleted after the first account was finished. If this is the problem you can disable the receive on the second account. There is a Microsoft article explaining the problem more thoroughly at\u00a0microsoft support<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      2. How to prevent sending duplicate email messages<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      Sending multiple email messages can be the result of Norton Anti-Virus and Outlook combined. Apparently when Norton scans outgoing emails it may send it out twice. The quick fix is to change the Norton properties to not scan outgoing messages, but you may want to consult the\u00a0Symantec Knowledge Base<\/a>\u00a0about your software.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      3. How to prevent seeing duplicate names when viewing the \u201cSelect Names\u201d window after clicking \u201cTo:\u201d<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      What you may be seeing is an entry for an email address and one for business fax numbers. This is because Outlook considers fax numbers as \u201cvalid transport addresses\u201d. You can prevent these duplicate names from appearing by prepending \u201cFax:\u201d before the number in the contact. This has the effect of preventing Outlook from seeing the fax number as a valid transport address, so you only get one name (the email address). This technique is useful if you have too many contacts to process, and you can either export them all to Excel, change the numbers, then import them back, or you can use our Hide Fax Numbers<\/a> add-in to process them all. The add-in will also automatically process the fax numbers in contacts as you add them.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      In addition, there may be other solutions that exist. See the Resources<\/a> page for more information about these solutions.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      4. How to prevent duplicate appointments<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      Check to see if you have more than one Outlook running. Having more than one Outlook process running while synchronizing can lead to duplicate appointments. To see if you have more than one running, quit Outlook, open the Task Manager and go to the processes<\/strong> tab. Once there, click once on the \u201cName\u201d column to sort alphabetically, then look for \u201cOutlook.exe\u201d. If it\u2019s listed there, then highlight it and click on \u201cEnd Process\u201d. Some people report finding up to four<\/strong> copies of Outlook running using this method. You should be able to resume your synchronization after performing this step.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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      Removal<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      1. How to remove Outlook duplicates, including email, contacts, appointments, and tasks<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      If you have just a few duplicates, it may be easiest to manually remove them. For emails, this is no problem but for any other Outlook item it is easiest to view the items in a table view, then select the duplicates, then delete them.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      To accomplish this, go to View\u2026By Category (or \u201cBy\u201d anything really). This gets the view into a mode you can work with. Click either names or subjects (or any shown field) in the column header (in the gray area) to gather similar items together. You can then delete all the duplicates you find.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      Note: Sperry Software offers 8 different Outlook duplicate eliminators<\/a>, including a bundle package composed of all 8 for one price. But so that you have all the information, we are aware of cheaper and sometimes free solutions to resolve duplicates (see the Resources page).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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      2. How to remove duplicate Outlook Today and Personal Folders<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      There are three things you can try:<\/p>

      1. Right click on the folder and select \u201cClose\u201d.<\/li>
      2. Close Outlook, then right click Outlook Icon on the desktop. Select Properties, select Data Files. Remove the links to the backup .pst file.<\/li>
      3. Under the folder named HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows Messaging Subsystem\\Profiles\\Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings you will have a series of folders with long hexadecimal numbers. Two of the folder will point to your *.pst file. You will next to export one of them (Registry | Export registry) and then delete the exported hexadecimal folder. Start Outlook, if it is fubar. Close outlook and import the registry file you just exported. Export the other hexadecimal folder and delete it. Start Outlook again.<\/li><\/ol>

        If the above is too scary, you can do this:<\/p>

        1. Export the folder named HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows Messaging Subsystem\\Profiles\\Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings<\/li>
        2. Delete the folder named HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows Messaging Subsystem\\Profiles\\Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings<\/li>
        3. Go to the folder named HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows Messaging Subsystem\\Profiles\\<\/li>
        4. On the right, delete the value named: (Default Profile) \u201cMicrosoft Outlook Internet Settings\u201d<\/li><\/ol>

          Now you can start Outlook. Outlook will start like it is in a first run condition and you will have to open your old *.pst file via a File | Open | Personal Folders. Select View | Folder List. Right click on Personal Folders (the one that doesn\u2019t have Outlook Today next to it) and select properties. Near the bottom is a checkbox to have mail delivered to this set of folders, check it. Restart Outlook and you\u2019re all set.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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          3. How to remove duplicate Outlook address book entries<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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          In Tools\u2026Addressbook you may have to pick from a list that looks like this:
          Outlook Address Book
          Contacts
          Contacts
          Contacts
          Contacts
          Where only the last one has any contacts.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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          The way to remove this condition is to go to Tools\u2026Email Accounts\u2026Directories\u2026View or Change. Select your Outlook Address Book service, then change. On the next page, delete the first 3 contacts folders that appear. Close and restart Outlook and they should be gone.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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          4. How to remove duplicate holidays<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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          Highlight the calendar, go to View\u2026By Category and look at the Holiday category, then manually select and delete the duplicates.<\/p>

          This Microsoft Knowledge Base article may also help: How to Add and Delete Holidays in the Calendar in Outlook<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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          More Information From Microsoft<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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          How to troubleshoot missing and duplicate appointments in Outlook<\/a>
          Duplicate emails in Outlook<\/a>
          Outlook 2010 downloading duplicate emails over and over<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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          Sperry Software would like to thank these Outlook MVPs without whom this page would not exist. In case you don\u2019t know, MVPs are volunteers that spend time on various newsgroups, forums and web sites donating their time and knowledge to helping people overcome their difficulties with Outlook.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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          There are many kinds of MVPs, and the official MVP web site<\/a> has more information, and many MVPs have their FAQs stored at http:\/\/www.mvps.org<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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