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Remove duplicate emails?
Posted on 2001-08-22
Is it possible to construct a rule / filter / VB script or some other way to remove duplicate emails from my mailbox. I have yahoo mail. Sometimes Outlook downloads the same mail messages two or more times. I don't want to have to go through all my mail and manually delete duplicates, is there an automatic way in Outlook 2000 or Outlook XP. Also is there a way I can merge several mail pst files so that duplicates are not copied.
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7 Comments
For removing duplicate messages see the following tool:
http://www.lbehelpdesk.com/otmain.htm
I do not believe you can merge pst files and avoid duplicates.
http://www.lbehelpdesk.com/otmain.htm
I do not believe you can merge pst files and avoid duplicates.
I tested the OToolbox program and it did not work. It scanned my email box for over 20 minutes but it did not remove any duplicate emails. And I have hundreds.. I'll keep this thread open for other suggestions and award points later. Thanks.
You could write some sort of VBA program to take care of duplicates, but the (kinda convoluted) process below using Microsoft Excel should work for you and takes just a minute or two (excluding the import/export time which might take a while if you have a whole lot of data in the folder).
To get rid of your duplicate emails try this:
1. Go to folder with duplicate email messages
2. Go to FILE->IMPORT & EXPORT and choose EXPORT TO A FILE
3. Choose "Comma Seperated Value (Windows)" and save the file to your desktop.
4. Open the CSV file on your desktop in Microsoft Excel
5. Highlight all cells containing your data
6. Choose DATA->FILTER->ADVANCED FILTER and set it to "Filter the list, in-place" and check "Unique records only", then click OK.
7. Now choose EDIT->COPY, then open a new Excel worksheet, and choose EDIT->PASTE.
8. Save the new worksheet as a CSV file and close Excel
9. Open Outlook, create a new folder (just in case) and go to the new folder.
10. Choose FILE->IMPORT&EXPORT->IMPOR
Hopefully, you now have a new folder with all of your email but no duplicates. If so you can replace the contents of the original folder with the contents of the new folder you created to import into.
As an FYI, if you are thinking about upgrading to Office XP, this process becomes a whole lot easier. Just export the folder to a CSV file, then import the CSV file into an empty folder choosing "Do not import duplicate items" and your duplicates should be gone.
However, I a have found that for some reason the duplicate filter in Outlook 2000 doesn't work for this type of issue, and that's why I came up with the convoluted process above. You might try this first in Outlook 2000, it might work for you like it does on my XP machine, if not the Excel filtering method should work.
To get rid of your duplicate emails try this:
1. Go to folder with duplicate email messages
2. Go to FILE->IMPORT & EXPORT and choose EXPORT TO A FILE
3. Choose "Comma Seperated Value (Windows)" and save the file to your desktop.
4. Open the CSV file on your desktop in Microsoft Excel
5. Highlight all cells containing your data
6. Choose DATA->FILTER->ADVANCED FILTER and set it to "Filter the list, in-place" and check "Unique records only", then click OK.
7. Now choose EDIT->COPY, then open a new Excel worksheet, and choose EDIT->PASTE.
8. Save the new worksheet as a CSV file and close Excel
9. Open Outlook, create a new folder (just in case) and go to the new folder.
10. Choose FILE->IMPORT&EXPORT->IMPOR
Hopefully, you now have a new folder with all of your email but no duplicates. If so you can replace the contents of the original folder with the contents of the new folder you created to import into.
As an FYI, if you are thinking about upgrading to Office XP, this process becomes a whole lot easier. Just export the folder to a CSV file, then import the CSV file into an empty folder choosing "Do not import duplicate items" and your duplicates should be gone.
However, I a have found that for some reason the duplicate filter in Outlook 2000 doesn't work for this type of issue, and that's why I came up with the convoluted process above. You might try this first in Outlook 2000, it might work for you like it does on my XP machine, if not the Excel filtering method should work.
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