Windows 7: receiving duplicate emails

Windows Live Mail has suddenly begun downloading duplicates of mail I have already received - it shows a list of over 1800. How do I stop it, without blocking my new mails?
Any help as to why it is doing this would be appreciated.

Hello dubdub and welcome to Seven Forums.

I found this Microsoft Answers forum thread that may help. Particularly the parts about turning off email scanning in your antivirus, and increasing the time to scan for new emails. I don't have anything else to offer. Sorry.

Windows Live Mail - hundreds of duplicate messages for one account - Microsoft Answers

Thanks Marsimar - nothing hitting the nail yet, but I will work through it, and report back later.

I don't think this is specific to Windows Live Mail. I've had the same problem with Outlook Express and Windows Mail. I believe it has to do with the mail database being "corrupted" - the DB doesn't know that the client already downloaded the files.

What did I do? Different things - the "easiest" is to move the existing eMails to a backup-em-up Storage folder and then let the duplicates download. I know it's not easy for the user, but it's easier for the client.

Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm simply making an observation based on what you (and apparently many other people) have experienced.

All of the email products mentioned are from Microsoft. Perhaps anyone experiencing these duplicate email issues should consider a different product (Mozilla Thunderbird, Incredimail, even Google's Gmail.) Just a thought. And now I'll zip it.

My apologies for jumping back in.

No apologies necessary, marsimar. All of the MS mail clients are built on the same oe base, so all of them might experience the same problem at some point in time.

I was attempting to offer another solution path - you know, try to find a way to tell the DB that it's up-to-date.... or something along those lines. I might have known a way some time ago, but that knowledge is long gone.

But not to worry - offence is rarely taken and all help is welcome - jump in anytime. Now I'll go search for a way to correct the client DB.

   Quote: Originally Posted by marsmimar

Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm simply making an observation based on what you (and apparently many other people) have experienced.

All of the email products mentioned are from Microsoft. Perhaps anyone experiencing these duplicate email issues should consider a different product (Mozilla Thunderbird, Incredimail, even Google's Gmail.) Just a thought. And now I'll zip it.

My apologies for jumping back in.

I found an interesting workaround.

If your mail server support IMAP
- change the POP3 account so that it is not included in "receiving synchronizing" - on the genral tab of the properties page of the account.
- create another account in WLM to access your server using IMAP and use this as the primary account.

You can check the support page for your mail server. I'll give you a hand if you tell me what you're using (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Outlook.com.....private domain Godaddy, Network Solutions....)

Thanks Slartybart and Marsmimar for your help and advice - I have been away all afternoon and evening (I'm in S.Africa) and will continue in the AM - I intend just letting all the duplicates download, and will then see if it is a once-off happening, or a continuing problem. I'm encouraged to see that any new mails coming through are not being duplicated - at least not so far! A friend suggested that I un-tick "leave a copy of messages on server", in advanced options. This I have done in the meantime.
Thanks again to you both.

@dubdub: Unticking "leave a copy of messages on server" will certainly prevent future re-downloading as the msgs will no long be on the server.

However, since they're no longer on the server, you can't use another client to view old msgs from somewhere else (a web base client). If you need this type of functionality (Windows Client and Web Client - both see all msgs) then you'd be better off setting up your Windows client to use IMAP.

W3Schools TCP/IP

POP - Post Office Protocol: The POP protocol is used by email programs (like Microsoft Outlook) to retrieve emails from an email server.

If your email program uses POP, all your emails are downloaded to your email program (also called email client), each time it connects to your email server.

IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol: The IMAP protocol is used by email programs (like Microsoft Outlook) just like the POP protocol.

The main difference between the IMAP protocol and the POP protocol is that the IMAP protocol will not automatically download all your emails each time your email program connects to your email server.

The IMAP protocol allows you to look through your email messages at the email server before you download them. With IMAP you can choose to download your messages or just delete them. This way IMAP is perfect if you need to connect to your email server from different locations, but only want to download your messages when you are back in your office.

Food for thought.

Thanks for clarifying this for me, Slartybart. I will certainly take it in to consideration.