gta2011
asked on
Easy Way To Delete Outlook Express Duplicates
I have a client that imported a set of old mail folders and new mail folders (DBX files) from old OE6 installations into a new machine.
There are SOME duplicates in SOME of the folders.
Is there a good (maybe free?) utility that will delete duplicate emails in the same folder in OE6.
There are SOME duplicates in SOME of the folders.
Is there a good (maybe free?) utility that will delete duplicate emails in the same folder in OE6.
gta2011 and mayureshtodankar
Just so you are aware, I am not altogether sure of the accuracy of the "Duplicate Remover For Outlook Express" application. I installed it in my WinXP SP3 system.
It installed fine, gave me a new shortcut in the start menu, loaded properly, and obviously queried my Outlook Express "Store Folder" because it correctly presented me with the list of available Outlook Express folders in the left pane.
So far so good, but on searching one folder containing 1,858 simple messages in which I know with certainty that there are no actual duplicates, the application presented me with 6 messages that are supposedly duplicated, and a further two that are supposedly triplicated. In the application's Status Bar it shows "10 duplicates and 8 originals found", and I'm not sure that I trust the arithmetic involved there.
I noted the subject lines of the ones that were notified as "replicated" and sorted the contents of the folder in Outlook Express on the Subject Line column. I can clearly see that the subject lines are not duplicated.
This is a folder of email messages from Experts-Exchange notifying that one of my comments was accepted. I keep this to refer back to questions from time to time, and I have a mail rule that sorts them from incoming mail and moves them to that folder. The Subject lines do all start with "Good Answer!", and the recipient details are the same, however the remainder of the subject lines for all the messages in that folder are unique. In general all the messages are 3KB in size.
I cannot understand where this software is digging up an extra one, and in some cases two, replicated messages in one folder when they don't exist. This cannot have anything to do with the DBX files needing "compacted" and still having residual duplicates, because duplicates never existed in that one folder to begin with. The only thing I can think of is that there is some residual data in that DBX file from occasions over the last few years where I have accidentally deleted one of the messages in that folder to the "Deleted Items" folder and then dragged it back to its original folder to restore it. These folders have been compacted many, many times since that last happened to me though. Perhaps the software is finding that data, but it certainly doesn't exist as actual visible messages.
Personally I would NOT trust this software to to a batch delete of duplicates based on the options in the "Removal Settings". With that said, however, it would still be interesting to see what messages show as duplicates on your client's computer.
Unfortunately I don't have any better ideas to do what you need. The method I have used previously, which involves extracting the messages from a copy of the DBX file to separate *.eml files, would give a pretty quick verification of duplicates, but the problem is when the *.eml files are dragged and dropped into a new folder in Outlook Express the sent/received dates can be screwed up badly.
I will uninstall the Outlook Express Duplicate Removal Tool from my system now.
Just so you are aware, I am not altogether sure of the accuracy of the "Duplicate Remover For Outlook Express" application. I installed it in my WinXP SP3 system.
It installed fine, gave me a new shortcut in the start menu, loaded properly, and obviously queried my Outlook Express "Store Folder" because it correctly presented me with the list of available Outlook Express folders in the left pane.
So far so good, but on searching one folder containing 1,858 simple messages in which I know with certainty that there are no actual duplicates, the application presented me with 6 messages that are supposedly duplicated, and a further two that are supposedly triplicated. In the application's Status Bar it shows "10 duplicates and 8 originals found", and I'm not sure that I trust the arithmetic involved there.
I noted the subject lines of the ones that were notified as "replicated" and sorted the contents of the folder in Outlook Express on the Subject Line column. I can clearly see that the subject lines are not duplicated.
This is a folder of email messages from Experts-Exchange notifying that one of my comments was accepted. I keep this to refer back to questions from time to time, and I have a mail rule that sorts them from incoming mail and moves them to that folder. The Subject lines do all start with "Good Answer!", and the recipient details are the same, however the remainder of the subject lines for all the messages in that folder are unique. In general all the messages are 3KB in size.
I cannot understand where this software is digging up an extra one, and in some cases two, replicated messages in one folder when they don't exist. This cannot have anything to do with the DBX files needing "compacted" and still having residual duplicates, because duplicates never existed in that one folder to begin with. The only thing I can think of is that there is some residual data in that DBX file from occasions over the last few years where I have accidentally deleted one of the messages in that folder to the "Deleted Items" folder and then dragged it back to its original folder to restore it. These folders have been compacted many, many times since that last happened to me though. Perhaps the software is finding that data, but it certainly doesn't exist as actual visible messages.
Personally I would NOT trust this software to to a batch delete of duplicates based on the options in the "Removal Settings". With that said, however, it would still be interesting to see what messages show as duplicates on your client's computer.
Unfortunately I don't have any better ideas to do what you need. The method I have used previously, which involves extracting the messages from a copy of the DBX file to separate *.eml files, would give a pretty quick verification of duplicates, but the problem is when the *.eml files are dragged and dropped into a new folder in Outlook Express the sent/received dates can be screwed up badly.
I will uninstall the Outlook Express Duplicate Removal Tool from my system now.
I think Outlook express itself has the option to prevent duplicates when importing mail. Only the source and destination of the mail folders must be the same.
ASKER
senad: how can the source and destination be the same>
ASKER
BillDL: than what do you recommend I use?
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Thank you gta2011
http://www.topalt.com/duplicate-remover-outlook-express-windows-mail