entourage keeps pulling down the same emails over and over

[D_oh!]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: pop

for some reason, and this just started recently, entourage pulls down emails from my .mac mail account that have already been received previously. i don't recall changing any settings, and maybe the problem is with .mac mail, but it is a real drag getting the same 179 emails every other day.

note, this doesn't happen with every email retrieval operation against my .mac mail account, and it *never happens with my gmail or aol or other pop accounts. the * refers to the fact that it did happen to one of my pop accounts, one time recently, but just once. it happens frequently with my .mac mail account now. any ideas? [also posted issue on the apple discussion board]

 

[Diane Ross]

for some reason, and this just started recently, entourage pulls down emails
from my .mac mail account that have already been received previously. i don't
recall changing any settings, and maybe the problem is with .mac mail, but it
is a real drag getting the same 179 emails every other day.

note, this doesn't happen with every email retrieval operation against my .mac
mail account, and it *never happens with my gmail or aol or other pop
accounts. the * refers to the fact that it did happen to one of my pop
accounts, one time recently, but just once. it happens frequently with my .mac
mail account now. any ideas? [also posted issue on the apple discussion board]

Usually it's the server that is causing this behavior. The best way to deal
with the duplicates is to use one of the remove duplicates scripts. You
could also remove the mail from the server so there are no old messages to
download again. Either that or move them out of the Inbox on the server

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/duplicates.html>

Remove Duplicate Messages Author: Jolly Roger

This script uses a thorough method of examining message
headers that guarantees it won't mistakenly mark two messages that
happen to have the same subject as duplicates.

This script takes a lot more time than the other scripts. I've used them all
with no problems.

 

[D_oh!]

thanks. y'know, i realized, this behavior happens after i go use the wi-fi at a Cosi location (probably would be true at other free wi-fi sites that require you to 'accept' their service as opposed to just letting you dive right in). it's all fine, i go to Cosi, then i come back to my wireless, and it starts pulling all the email again... i'm not saying that makes sense, but anecdotally it's true. anyway, thanks for the script into. it's certain to be a big help.

 

[Nolin]

I've experienced this with another IMAP account (not a .mac account). I think I've narrowed it down to changing network connections without closing my Entourage, hence not properly terminating the IMAP connection.

I think there may be some sort of IMAP connection sign-off that syncs message-read flags, and when I switch network connections without closing down Entourage properly, I end up re-downloading those 'unread' messages.

Try ensuring you've closed Entourage prior to putting your Mac to sleep and/or changing network connections, and see if that works. You can help me test my theory.