Multiple Copies of Emails

I've found that if I identify a duplicate email that won't move to the trash as junk, the message disappears.

Well this time I didn't even make it a week. Two days after the last mass duplication download, it happened again. The past two times previously it has taken at least a week to dump it again. I can only hope 10.6.2 will come out fast and take care of this problem soon!

This is simply too random, no rhyme or reason as to why it is happening. What a mess.

Here are my insights into this problem (no solution):

1. I am having the problem only with my Yahoo account, NOT with two Gmail accounts.

2. The problem happens when I am hooked up to my home ISP (Time Warner NYC), but has NOT yet happened when I am hooked up to other ISPs when I am traveling.

3. I deleted the MessageUids file like everyone says, but that only temporarily solved the problem. Now, I no longer have a MessageUids file to which I could modify the read/write permissions -- it's simply not there anymore.

4. Basically what I have taken to doing is clearing out my Yahoo email account regularly so that the messages aren't downloaded repeatedly. The problem with this fix is that it prevents my iPhone from having access to the same messages.

4. This problem is INCREDIBLY annoying for someone like me who gets 400 emails a day. I have spent at least 2 full days manually deleting messages from my Mail program, to the point. For Apple to have a bug of this magnitude in a major OS release is shocking and appalling.

I was thinking we should create a consolidated list of what seems to bring out or avoid the problem.

I then thought, "Apple is probably monitoring this discussion and already has this list".

Finally I thought, "Why the (*^& don't they have the courtesy and sense to post a reply here with their current knowledge and status of the problem?"

Not a happy customer.

Regarding aviksaroy's mail: I, too, use Yahoo and rather than deleting the mail from my Inbox there, I select-all and move it to a subfolder. It doesn't get re-downloaded yet I have access to it from a browser. Not sure if that helps your iPhone situation, or if it's what you're already doing.

I don't think there is anything consistent that triggers the behavior.

I woke up this morning to having hundreds of e-mails from the last week downloaded again after the same thing happening yesterday for the first time in a week.

Nothing has changed in my settings or use of Mail. It simply just begins to download all previous e-mails on the server with no rhyme or reason.

I have both Yahoo and several NSI accounts. Both use different POP settings. If it is an ISP compatibility problem, then it is also an Apple problem. In particular my Yahoo accounts are through ATT. Ironic that I have had so many problems with ATT considering their partnership, with each side pointing the finger at the other.

Nevertheless, this all began with the update to Snow Leopard.

My personal history has been, at first it was several times a day, then once a day, then every few days, then once a week, now we're back to every day. Again, all with no changes to Mail or the internet on my part.

Interestingly enough, my experience is similar to yours, Woodwyn. In fact, I'd started to believe that the problem was solved -- I hadn't had any more email "dumps" for about a week -- and then yesterday it happened twice, and I found myself having to pick through hundreds of emails and figure out which ones I could safely delete again.

I have multiple POP accounts on different services, and I don't routinely access them from my iPhone so I don't think that's even a factor. I think the problem lies in Snow Leopard's Mail program.

I am having the same problem. You can create a Smart Mailbox that only contains the unread messages so that you can quickly delete them. As far as I am concerned, this is the worst OS release I have ever seen. I have read thousands of posts on this issue and what do we hear from Apple? Crickets! Maybe they have an 'App for that'! Maybe they will re-release the 'Lisa'! Great job!

I have multiple accounts so a dedicated smart mailbox for unread messages is not practical for me. I basically take all mailboxes offline, sort by unread messages and delete them all in a block. It's pretty easy, but a pain. Actually the bigger problem is that I receive a lot of e-mails per day and it takes quite a while for a week's worth to download again, especially when some have large attachments. Stopping it is not an option because it simply downloads them the next try and adds yet more duplicates.

I cannot agree this is the worst OS yet. I was singing Snow Leopard's praises until this started. It is by far the simplest, most trouble-free upgrade I have ever had, and my original Core MacBook runs like a brand new Core 2 with 4 GB RAM. It is disconcerting however, that the most basic and important function of anyone's computer, i.e. e-mail, seems to always have problems with every upgrade from Apple.

As for re-releasing the Lisa – since Jobs killed it in the first place back in 1985 because they kicked him off the project, it is unlikely he would bring it back now. However, except for the 5MHz 68000 CPU requirement, the Lisa OS might actually give Snow Leopard a run for its money.

I upgraded to Snow Leopard weeks ago with seemingly no problems, but this multiple email thing has JUST now started happening as I sat at the computer! The odd thing is that it seems to coincide with me having problems with my Time Machine external hard drive (which I have also never had problems with until tonight).

The only thing different from usual is that my iMac has been at the repair shop for the last three days having a failed hard drive fan replaced and I just got it back this evening and started using it again. Everything was working fine, I got mail without problems. Then I tried to back up to Time Machine and got failure and then when I ran Disk Utility on the external drive, it took a long time, but said it repaired "Incorrect number of extended attributes
2009-10-08 21:29:50 -0400: (It should be 2989898 instead of 2989873)
2009-10-08 21:29:50 -0400: Incorrect number of Access Control Lists
2009-10-08 21:29:50 -0400: (It should be 2989781 instead of 2989756)
Volume repair complete.2009-10-08 23:11:24 -0400: Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.2009-10-08 23:11:24 -0400: Repair tool completed:"

Then I repaired permission on my internal hard drive and all it fixed was:
"2009-10-08 23:16:41 -0400: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2009-10-08 23:17:31 -0400: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2009-10-08 23:17:39 -0400:
2009-10-08 23:17:39 -0400: Permissions repair complete"

Then I ran the the Time Machine backup and it seemed to work fine, until almost the end and I got another failure notice. THEN when I ran Disk Utility on the external drive again, it found all KINDS of problems on it:
"2009-10-08 23:39:13 -0400: Checking multi-linked files.
2009-10-08 23:43:36 -0400: Incorrect number of file hard links
2009-10-08 23:43:36 -0400: Checking catalog hierarchy.
2009-10-08 23:44:03 -0400: Invalid directory item count
2009-10-08 23:44:03 -0400: (It should be 340255 instead of 340234)
2009-10-08 23:48:26 -0400: Invalid directory item count
2009-10-08 23:48:26 -0400: (It should be 3 instead of 2)
2009-10-08 23:48:26 -0400: Invalid directory item count
2009-10-08 23:48:26 -0400: (It should be 138 instead of 137)

...and so on..." and THAT is when my mail program suddenly started getting hundreds of duplicate emails from the past few weeks, over and over again!

I don't know if these things are connected or just a coincidence (and I don't know how having my external drive sitting here doing nothing for three days could now affect it so adversely) but I thought I should mention it in case there is some connection.

Well, after further investigation, it seems unlikely that my external Time Machine hard drive problems had anything to do with the multiple duplicate emails and more to do with the fact that I don't usually ever check my mail from any computer other than my own iMac, but while it was in the shop for three days, I DID check my mail from my wife's MacBook laptop and yes, she also has Snow Leopard installed on that. So it puts me in the same boat as others on here.

I also found the "MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3.corrupt" file in my mail library folder and I also trashed the current "MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3" file in there and got one more round of duplicates and no more afterwards. Hopefully, the problem will not reoccur, as I don't plan to check my mail from another computer any time soon. I hope Apple can find a fix for those that DO have to check from multiple 10.6 OS machines.

I think the "checking emails from more than one computer" is a red herring. So many people DO check from multiple machines that everyone seems to think that's part of the problem. But I don't check from multiple machines and I have been having this problem for weeks (since shortly after Snow Leopard came out.) Bre Bro, I hope I'm wrong, but I think you'll see the problem recur, whether you check your email from one computer or 10.

What is odd to me is that I installed Snow Leopard on September 12, but this problem did not occur for me until yesterday, October 8, nearly a month later. The one thing mail-related that I did differently was check my mail from another computer, one that also had been upgraded to Snow Leopard, so that's what led to consider that theory as relevant to my problem. If it happens to me again, I will post here and let you know.

bre bro wrote:


Hopefully, the problem will not reoccur, as I don't plan to check my mail from another computer any time soon. I hope Apple can find a fix for those that DO have to check from multiple 10.6 OS machines.

Unfortunately collecting your mail from multiple 10.6 Macs is NOT the cause of this. I have never collected my mail from another Mac and yet my email system has been utterly crippled by this.

Conversely it would therefore appear that collecting from only one Mac does not therefore confer protection on you from this problem.

Agree. I only check from 1 machine, and it has been happening since the SL upgrade.

Please, if anyone from Apple Support is monitoring, at least let us know that you hear us and are working on this.

I just wanted to pipe up. I installed Snow Leopard maybe a week or two ago, and have had no problems until today. Suddenly when I checked my mail this morning, I had duplicate emails.

Here's the weird thing, after reading most of the posts in this thread:

I have an IMAP Gmail account, I have NOT checked my Gmail anywhere else, not even my iPod Touch, which hasn't been turned on in a few days. I didn't change a thing, and suddenly today I have extra emails.

Luckily for me, I only seemed to get doubles of new emails. So, I had 14 instead of 7. What's interesting is when I selected "Get New Mail" from the dock list, for a second it said 7, then it switched to 14. I don't usually get that much email, so imagine my surprise.

Any ideas why Gmail/IMAP would do this, without provocation? :\

Oh, I do have Time Machine running. I can't remember exactly (my brain is mush), but I think I set up Time Machine for the first time right BEFORE I installed Snow Leopard.

Message was edited by: jupitertronic