Outlook downloads the same email until its deleted through webmail

A

Answer Tech

New member
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
3
All of my clients that run Outlook, including the new Outlook 2003 have the same problem.

They have multiple computers that check the same mailbox so the outlook setting is set to delete email after "x" amount of days.

For some reason, some of the emails get "stuck" and keep getting downloaded as new. Every time the Outlook checks for new mail it downloads the same email.

This wont stop until I go into webmail and manually delete the email.

Anyone else have the same problem?

Suggestions?

Fixes?

Heellppp.. :(
 
Actually what might be happening is webmail could be causing this...

If you have outlook to check the messages via pop3 and then you check you account with webmail (that specifically uses imap such as squirrelmail), this will kind of confuse you mailbox as to which messages have been download or not, and therefore when you check you mail via outlook again all the messages come in.

So what are you options?

You could just check your mail with imap w/i outlook (sometime this isn't a good option when you check a lot of boxes.

You could use a webmail that uses pop3 (or trick squirrelmail by not checking the account directly but using mail fetch, which is pop3).
 
Thank you for the reply! :)

I have heard this answer before but I dont think this is the problem.

The email message or message (usually its just one) that downloads with every check for new email will happen continously until the email is deleted through webmail (not necessarily squirrelmail)

It's as if the mail server "hiccups" and doesn't realize that this message has been already downloaded, although I guess this could be an Outlook problem as well.

It's also happened to users that never go into webmail, or haven't gone into it in a long time.

soo.... :confused:
 
I am having this same problem with pop copying the same email message down if I delete the message as well. It also happens if I move the message on my local machine to another folder it wil copy the message from the server again.
 
Are you sure you didn't set the option (in Outlook -> Extra -> Accounts -> E-mail -> Properties (of the address you use) -> Advanced) 'leave a copy of the messages on the server'? If this is selected, you should de-select it and the problem would be resolved. If that's not it, I don't know what is causing the problem...
 
You might want to try bumping up the "Server Timeouts" in Outlook. This is a typical Outlook problem ESPECIALLY if the client computer is also running Norton AV which creates a mail proxy between the client and server. Basically, the client/server communications don't complete and the messages are not marked as read or deleted.

The only other time I have seen this is when the email is large. Outlook has a very bad time when there are either many messages or large attachments. Again, extending server timeouts will aid this problem. Sometimes the only thing to do is send them off to webmail to delete the offending message.
 
I have this problem too and its really bugging me.

Interestingly the mails that keep repeating are only from certain contacts.

I believe the problem started when I went over my mailbox quota once.

Also someone mentioned unticking the leave mail on server flag on outlook. I need to keep that flag set as I check my mail from work and on my home machine I have it unset so I can keep a permanent copy of mail received.

Any ideas anyone?
 
If you're telling Outlook to leave email on the server and it's doing that, then I don't see any problem with DA.

If you're telling Outlook to delete email after a certain number of days and it's not, then the problem is that Outlook isn't telling the POP program to delete the email.

Again, this doesn't sound like a DA problem, especially since only Outlook users are reporting it.

Did you read the response from lukeski? Are you or your users also using IMAP or squirrelmail to check mail?

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
If you're telling Outlook to leave email on the server and it's doing that, then I don't see any problem with DA.
Click to expand...


Yes it is leaving it on the server, the problem is the mail isn't being marked as read and so constantly gets downloaded each time I do a send/receive.


If you're telling Outlook to delete email after a certain number of days and it's not, then the problem is that Outlook isn't telling the POP program to delete the email.
Click to expand...
I don't have my mail set to delete after a certain amount of days.


Again, this doesn't sound like a DA problem, especially since only Outlook users are reporting it.
Click to expand...
Yes you could be right, however i've been using outlook for years with various mail providers and this is the first time I've came across this problem.



Did you read the response from lukeski? Are you or your users also using IMAP or squirrelmail to check mail?

Jeff
Click to expand...
No, not using imap or squirrelmail.


If I get some free time I'll try setting up another email client and see how I get on.

Thanks for your help.

Rob.
 
Rab said:
Yes it is leaving it on the server, the problem is the mail isn't being marked as read and so constantly gets downloaded each time I do a send/receive.
Click to expand...
Are you sure it's not being marked?

The only way to be sure it's not being marked is to cut and paste and entire email (including all headers) before you download it the first time, then download it, then cut and paste it again (both cut and pastes from the:

/var/spool/virtual/example.com/username

file.

Then compare the two to see if the email has new headers or not. If it's exactly the same with no new headers, then it wasn't marked as read. If it has a new header added, it was marked as read.

Jeff
 
we are suffering the same problem. Tthis sendmail/ensim we dont have it.. maybe an exim thing?
 
if this work with qmail, with sendmail, and not with exim, well we can think that's an exim problem..
 
Last edited:
If what works with qmail and with sendmail but not with qmail? Did you ever answer whether or not you saw a difference in headers.

I can tell you honestly that I leave email on the server from time to time, and it never downloads to the same server again; it's NOT an exim problem.

Jeff
 
I have the same problem with Thunderbird.

- Mail is left on server for 7 days
- Mail is not marked as read in Squirrelmail, even though it's been downloaded in Thunderbird
- When logging in to Thunderbird again, after checking in Squirrelmail, certain messages automatically downloads again.

Is there any way of making mail read in a client show up as read in Squirrelmail as well?
 
torp said:
I have the same problem with Thunderbird.

- Mail is left on server for 7 days
Click to expand...

Did you check your Thunderbird settings? Perhaps it's set to leave messages on the server, but delete read messages from the server after seven days.
- Mail is not marked as read in Squirrelmail, even though it's been downloaded in Thunderbird
- When logging in to Thunderbird again, after checking in Squirrelmail, certain messages automatically downloads again.
Click to expand...
Do you have Thunderbird set use POP or to use IMAP ?

If you're using POP on Thunderbird you can't synchronize Thunderbird and Squirrelmail.

But if you use IMAP on Thunderbird, your mail will be kept on the server.

It's the nature of how email works.
Is there any way of making mail read in a client show up as read in Squirrelmail as well?
Click to expand...

Once you download email with Thunderbird, if Thunderbird is set to delete email from the server, then it shouldn't even show up in Squirrelmail.

Jeff
 
Thanks Jeff!

It's set to delete mail after seven days.

I used a webmail system once that actually managed to mark mail as read on server, even though I used POP in Thunderbird and left mail on server. Don't know if that was a POP or Imap system though... Im just looking for the same functionality in Squirrel or Exim. But it's not very important. I'm slightly more disturbed of the fact that Exim resends email to Thunderbird. But I haven't been using the system for long, I'm actually still testing my DA box. I'll post a reply here if I find any pattern in the error...
 
It's not exim; it's the pop daemon.

What's probably happening is that squirrelmail is resetting the email when you use it to log in.

Jeff
 
Dear All expert,

I also experience this big problem.

after the user downloaded all mail ( and leave 7 days email in the server)

after he go to the squirrelmain webmail interface to read the mail again.

the outlook express will download such message again.

Is there anyway to fix this ???
 
See this thread. To summarize, many DA users are having similar problems. Personally, I have found that if I use an IMAP client (e.g., DA's instance of Squirrelmail, or Snappermail for Treo) to check messages on a DA server, then use a POP client to check the same messages (e.g., Eudora for Macintosh), the messages are duplicated in the POP client. The IMAP clients do indeed add headers to the messages each time they check them.

The interesting part is that when I use the same clients to check mail on non-DA servers (e.g., Ensim, iPlanet Messenger Express), this problem does not occur.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top