Mac Mail is duplicating all my messages!

Question

Mac Mail is duplicating all my messages!

At an alarming rate. it doesn't even matter if I am connected to the internet or not. It is making 2 and 3 copies of every message and I can't stop it. tried restarting, nothing.

what to do?
thanks!

macbook pro 17" 10.4.11, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Feb 2, 2008 11:23 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 3, 2008 6:11 AM in response to Sushi Sashimi

Could you give us a little more information, please:
I understand, you are using Apple Mail.app.
Let's distuingish between Mail.app and Webmail. Most mailboxen can be accessed via these two ways, at the same time. You can set preferences in Webmail which might affect Mail.app. It's important to be clear about which settings (Webmail or Mail.app) we are talking about from now on.

How many accounts are there in Mail.app?
Are they POP, IMAP or .Mac accounts?
Do you have a forwarding configured (in Webmail of the respective mailbox, not in Mail.app) or do you check mail from other accounts *via Webmail*, as described here for .Mac?

--gregor

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Answer 2

Feb 3, 2008 11:04 AM in response to madconqueror

i have 3 pop accounts synced with mail. i never actually go online to check my webmail - no. only use apple mail.

and forwarding is not configured on webmail. been using the account for 2 years now and it suddenly started happening yesterday -really out of nowhere.

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Answer 3

Feb 3, 2008 11:08 AM in response to Sushi Sashimi

it is only happening to 1 of my accounts. it's duplicated messages and then triplicating them.

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Answer 4

Feb 3, 2008 11:18 AM in response to Sushi Sashimi

Could you please verify if Mail.app actually duplicates/triplicates the messages: Do they only show up once in the respective account using Webmail?

At the moment I see only one possibility in Mail.app causing this behaviour: Rules.
Go to Mail.app > Preferences > Rules and check whether there is a rule, that is copying these messages.

If neither of these apply, could you please post the long headers of two of the messages you received double? (Please make sure you delete the mail addresses before posting - We're mainly interested in the Time headers). I'd like to compare them.

You can view the long headers by selecting the message and then using the key combo shift-cmd-h (cmd being the Apple key).

--gregor

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Answer 5

Feb 3, 2008 12:03 PM in response to madconqueror

they show up once yes - it's doing it categorically. every single message. the time stamps are the same.
as I said - it doesn't need to be connected to the internet necessarily. I can take it off line and it will still duplicate.

there is no rule in my preferences.
THANKS for the help gregor!

From: apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com
Subject: Guess who you're compatible with...
Date: February 2, 2008 11:32:13 AM PST
To: MY EMAIL
Reply-To: apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com
Return-Path: <apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com>
Delivered-To: MY EMAIL
Received: (qmail 69269 invoked by uid 11257); 2 Feb 2008 19:32:13 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO mx-out.facebook.com) ([204.15.20.132]) (envelope-sender <apps+h- -?mu@facebookmail.com>) by 199.238.171.249 (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for <MY EMAIL>; 2 Feb 2008 19:32:13 -0000
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X-Facebook: from zuckmail ([208.76.70.27]) by api.facebook.com with HTTP (ZuckMail);
Message-Id: <c74bec9643abf1f00c5299d4e96b32b2@api.facebook.com>
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X-Facebook-Notify: platform_email
Errors-To: apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="b1_c74bec9643abf1f00c5299d4e96b32b2"
Status:

From: apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com
Subject: Guess who you're compatible with...
Date: February 2, 2008 11:32:13 AM PST
To: MY EMAIL
Reply-To: apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com
Return-Path: <apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com>
Delivered-To: MY EMAIL
Received: (qmail 69269 invoked by uid 11257); 2 Feb 2008 19:32:13 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO mx-out.facebook.com) ([204.15.20.132]) (envelope-sender <apps+h- -?mu@facebookmail.com>) by 199.238.171.249 (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for <MY EMAIL>; 2 Feb 2008 19:32:13 -0000
Received: from api.facebook.com (intlb01-mip3.sctm.tfbnw.net [10.1.240.8]) by mx-out.facebook.com [email009] (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id m12JWDcX028838 for <MY EMAIL>; Sat, 2 Feb 2008 11:32:13 -0800
X-Facebook: from zuckmail ([208.76.70.27]) by api.facebook.com with HTTP (ZuckMail);
Message-Id: <c74bec9643abf1f00c5299d4e96b32b2@api.facebook.com>
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: ZuckMail [version 1.00]
X-Facebook-Notify: platform_email
Errors-To: apps+h- -~mu@facebookmail.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="b1_c74bec9643abf1f00c5299d4e96b32b2"
Status: RO

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Answer 6

Feb 3, 2008 12:21 PM in response to Sushi Sashimi

OK, the messages are exactly the same aside from the Status: tag in the end, which I haven't found out yet what it is about - I don't see it in my messages, at least not in the ones I checked in the last five minutes.

What do you meant by "there is no rule in my preferences"?
There should be at least one rule named "News from Apple".

--gregor

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Answer 7

Feb 3, 2008 12:24 PM in response to madconqueror

yes sorry
there is that news from apple rule. what I meant was the one you ask about.

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Answer 8

Feb 3, 2008 12:47 PM in response to Sushi Sashimi

You say, all messages in one pop account get duplicated, correct. Does this always happen?

I'd try to find out, if the messages are really duplicates or if it is only Mail.app not showing them correctly.
To do this, count the messages in the respective INBOX, then go to
/Users/ _yourhomefolder__/Library/Mail/POP__the_account_in_question_/INBOX.mbox/Messages/
IF the duplicates are real, the number of the files in this folder should match your count in Mail.app exactly.
If there's only (but exactly) half of the files, we'd know that it is only Mail.app not showing the correct number of mails there are. This would lead me to assume you might have a problem with with the so called "Envelope Index".

I say "you might" – I'm sorry I can't give you a definite answer.
If the Envelope Index causes problems, this entry on hawkwings.net might be of some help to you.

Please make sure you have a backup copy of your Mail folder and follow the instructions exactly.

--gregor

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Answer 9

Feb 3, 2008 1:05 PM in response to madconqueror

yes - it's all message on ONE pop account. and the messages really ARE duplicated. the inbox folder you specified is growing in messages. I am watching it happen real time. I can let this thing run and just delete all the new messages (as they are all old ones). so that is what i am going to do for now, unless it loops back and keeps doing this... then I have problems.

that entry you linked too didn't seem to be relevant to this problem.
any other options?

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Answer 10

Feb 3, 2008 1:06 PM in response to Sushi Sashimi

well I let it run and am just deleting hte duplicate messages... seems that the problem ran its course. strange!

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Answer 11

Feb 3, 2008 1:29 PM in response to Sushi Sashimi

The entry is relevant to the health of the Envelope Index. As a side-effect, it will speed up Mail.app, for some users, considerably.
The other option would be to disable the account in question and create a new one in its place with the same settings. This would cause Mail.app to write a new preference file and open a new folder in your user account. You could the import the old messages.

What baffles me, is that the sqlite command worked for you, although the messages were duplicate on the file system.
Well, just post back to this thread, if the problem occurs again. If not, please remember to mark it as answered.

--gregor

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Answer 12

Feb 4, 2008 3:49 AM in response to madconqueror

Hi
Same problem here. I keep deleting the messages and they reappear the next download. For some reason I had a mass of emails returning to me from some spoofer. I mean over 2000 Now I am getting the last three days worth triplicated as well as my regular messages. Not getting duplicates from .Mac account only earthlink. I tried deleting on the earthlink site not sure if this batch is after the webmail deletion.
Enio

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Answer 13

Feb 6, 2008 8:36 PM in response to Sushi Sashimi

I have been having a similar problem since Jan 18. Just a few messages duplicated here and there. I knew there was a problem, but didn't take it too seriously. However, my problem just got much worse. I now have messages which have multiplied up to 12 times. It's getting bad now. Any other ideas of how we might try to fix this?

sterling

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Answer 14

Feb 7, 2008 1:53 AM in response to Sushi Sashimi

Hi Enio, Hi Sterling

You should open a new thread at a time with a problem. It's the way a forum works. Adding to existing threads just clutters them up.

I am not 100% sure, if the entry on hawkwings.net worked for ssack, but I'd give it a try.

Do you use any third-party tools with Mail.app, like MailTags or something alike?

--greg

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Answer 15

Feb 7, 2008 8:18 AM in response to madconqueror

madconqueror,

Thanks for the tip. I didn't try that because the previous post specifically said to try that if it was an envelope index problem, which it isn't. I didn't realize it might still work. I ran the sqlite command, so I will see if it helps the problem. If not, I will start a new thread. (I don't use any third party tools with mail)

Thanks for helping,
sterling

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