Rules Suddenly Broken; Duplicate Email Message

[Sue Donum]

I recently got a new iMac, and imported all of my OS 9 OE files into
Entourage 2004. In OE, I had an extensive set of rules that I had set up to
work with an equally extensive set of folders. Everything was working as it
had in OE...until a couple of weeks ago. At first, virtually all of my
incoming email was ending up in my Inbox. Then things improved, but never
returned to normal: Several rules still seem to remain "broken," as the
emails they're supposed to act on continue to end up in my Inbox.

Sometimes, I can select one of those messages, and tell Entourage to "Apply
All Rules," and that message will be moved to the appropriate folder; other
times, that doesn't work, but selecting the particular rule to apply does;
still other times, neither works, and I have to tell Entourage to move that
message (or manually drag that message) to the particular folder it belongs.

I've tried disabling the rules that appear to remain broken, and then
creating new versions of them and enabling the new ones instead. That had no
effect.

Then today, I discovered that a new email that arrived in my Inbox (which is
where it was supposed to end up -- it wasn't subject to any particular rule)
was mysteriously replicated in one of my other folders. I deleted it from
that folder. However, when I returned to that folder later, another
"duplicate" email appeared. No matter how many times I delete the duplicate,
another duplicate appears in its place the next time I visit that folder. No
other emails are exhibiting this mysterious behavior.

Any idea what's causing these strange behaviors?

 

[Ed Kimball]

I recently got a new iMac, and imported all of my OS 9 OE files into
Entourage 2004. In OE, I had an extensive set of rules that I had set up to
work with an equally extensive set of folders. Everything was working as it
had in OE...until a couple of weeks ago. At first, virtually all of my
incoming email was ending up in my Inbox. Then things improved, but never
returned to normal: Several rules still seem to remain "broken," as the
emails they're supposed to act on continue to end up in my Inbox.

Sometimes, I can select one of those messages, and tell Entourage to "Apply
All Rules," and that message will be moved to the appropriate folder; other
times, that doesn't work, but selecting the particular rule to apply does;
still other times, neither works, and I have to tell Entourage to move that
message (or manually drag that message) to the particular folder it belongs.

I've tried disabling the rules that appear to remain broken, and then
creating new versions of them and enabling the new ones instead. That had no
effect.

Then today, I discovered that a new email that arrived in my Inbox (which is
where it was supposed to end up -- it wasn't subject to any particular rule)
was mysteriously replicated in one of my other folders. I deleted it from
that folder. However, when I returned to that folder later, another
"duplicate" email appeared. No matter how many times I delete the duplicate,
another duplicate appears in its place the next time I visit that folder. No
other emails are exhibiting this mysterious behavior.

Any idea what's causing these strange behaviors?

Have you checked the Mailing List Manager (Tools -> Mailing List Manager) to
make sure you haven't inadvertently created any rules there? It's easy to do
without realizing it.

 

[Sue Donum]

Have you checked the Mailing List Manager (Tools -> Mailing List Manager) to
make sure you haven't inadvertently created any rules there? It's easy to do
without realizing it.

I just checked it...there's nothing there (the list is entirely empty).

And now a strange new behavior just began: Whenever I open Entourage, I
receive the alert "Entourage has recovered the interrupted messages and
saved them in your Drafts folder." And, sure enough, there are copies of a
bunch of old emails (emails that are still in my various email folders) in
my Drafts folder. (I might not be have been surprised if this alert occurred
after a force quit of Entourage or an unexpected system shutdown while
Entourage was running. However, that's not the case. Just to be sure, I
tested it several times by quitting Entourage and opening it, and each time
the same alert appeared, and duplicates of old emails appeared my Drafts
folder.)