Multiple Copies of Emails

Ernie!! - Come back, we need you ...

Don't know about others on here; but 10.6.1 hasn't fixed any of my SL issues (including this one).

I have been "lurking" and reading along, but having trouble with new thoughts because it should work more reliably. How often do you have Mail set to check for new messages?

If you control-click on the Inbox of this account, and choose Get Account Info, are any messages you know to have been already downloaded marked with a Blue Dot? Are any messages on the server duplicates?

Ernie

Ernie!! Thanks heavens it's you 🙂 I feel safer even if you don't know the answer ... 😉

Everything's as before - i.e. ...

my preferred mail check frequency is 15 mins. Since the onset of this issue I've settled for every hour (the lowest frequency Mail provides).

And yes, I regularly get already-downloaded messages hanging around on the server with blue dots beside them. But also as before - it's not consistent. Happens sometimes and not others, with some messages and not others, only on 2 of my 4 accounts, stops happening for a while after I manually delete from server - but then starts again either the next day or later the same day.

Lance,

Sorry to not have sorted out what each person has tried and not tried.

Did your email folder first get created and setup in a version of OSX prior to Leopard? If created in Tiger or earlier, then in the Finder open Home/Library/Mail/one of these POP account folders, and tell me whether there is any file with MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded in its name?

Ernie

tell me whether there is any file with MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded in its name?

Well there was until recently, Ernie. But that was before I read one of your earlier posts in this thread 😀

Message was edited by: Lance Lawton

Ernie,

I did as you suggested about a week ago and it worked for a while but the same problem is happening again! It appears to my novice eyes that this and a few other problems I am having (my printer will not print since installing Snow Leopard) are directly related to Snow Leopard. Bad kitty! Would you suggest I call tech support? They are usually not very helpful.

Ernie,

I found this forum because I am experiencing the same problem. I read your and Peter's remark that this is a POP-problem, but I have the same problem with duplicate mails on an Exchange 2007 account in Mail in Snow Leopard. I looked at the MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3- file, and mine has not been modified since June 2008.

I did notice that double messages arrive overnight, or at other times when I am not at my laptop. If Mail is open when the message arrives, I receive a proper single copy.

I also ran the 10.6.1. update, by the way, but this didn't solve the problem.

Should I try the same solution of deleting this file, or does that only work for POP-accounts, as one of your earlier messages here seems to suggest?

Thanks for your help! Kristine

Message was edited by: Kristine

Kristine,

That file is only applicable for POP accounts.

In Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced please tell me what options, if any, there are for keeping copies of messages for Offline viewing?

Ernie

Lance,

In the POP account folder where you found another MessageUids . . . file, what are the other files present, and then in the INBOX.mbox folder, what files are present other than one Info.plist file and one Messages folder with it contents of xxxx.emlx files?

What is really bothering me about this is the reports of messages on the server being marked as not yet downloaded. In Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced, what is your selection regarding when to remove messages from the server? Do you have the box selected to remove after downloading, but then a further selection regarding when to later remove? Or is removing after download not selected at all?

Is there any entry in the box beside prompt to skip messages over a certain size?

Ernie

Hi Ernie,

I'll answer those in the reverse order ...

All my accounts are set to delete from server immediately, and always have been. (I've only ever used one computer at a time to download e-mails.)

We may possibly be onto something with the "other files present in folders" question, at least in relation to one of the accounts with this problem (though not with the other one).

One account folder has only the expected mailboxes - i.e.
Deleted Messages.mbox
Drafts.mbox
INBOX.mbox
Junk.mbox
Sent Messages.mbox

The other has the same, plus Outbox.mbox.

As for the contents of the INBOX.mbox folder, one has only the expected items you mentioned. But the other has quite a list of extras:
Attachments (folder)
content_index
content_index-Lance-Lawtons-Computer.local-375
mbox
table ofcontents

Any clues there?

Ernie,

Thanks for your help!

I looked in Preferences/Accounts/Advanced, and the option for "keep messages for offline viewing" is set to "all messages and their attachments."

I'd prefer to keep copies for offline viewing, but to see if this is what causes the problem, should I set it to "don't keep copies of any messages", then close Mail for a while, and see if I still receive duplicate mails when I reopen Mail?

Thanks!

Kristine

Lance,

You have caused me to find a structural change in Mail 4.x vs 3.x -- in Mail 3.x, a INBOX.imapmbox folder added a folder within named Attachments, which has some redundancy with respect to attachments. Now it seems that Mail 4.x has added such a folder for POP's INBOX.mbox folder. It does not contain any files from messages received prior to SL and Mail 4.x. I will be testing to learn more about that, but it should not be any factor in this issue.

Where was this Outbox.mbox folder -- is there one also in the Mailboxes folder within the Mail folder, where it properly should be?

The extra files in the one INBOX.mbox are leftover and not needed, and are explained:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA23076

These leftover files have been known to be problematic in other situations, and might be in this case.

When the new form of mailboxes came into use, conversions of older mailboxes was often incomplete. There is a whole list of comparisons, and things to do to have a more complete conversion, but since you have been using the new versions of Mail 10.4 and/ 10.5 for quite some time, I assume you are not needing to try to find any messages that failed to be converted from when you used 10.3 or earlier, so I have not gone into that.

More later -- I am distracted by a phone call currently.

Ernie

I've been reading the discussion boards on Comcast and Rogers and it appears that this a widespread problem across multiple platforms and mail clients for these POP providers. The problem is not limited to Snow Leopard.

I opened a thread on Comcast, it seems they are glossing over the issue with many subscribers, attributing it to incorrect incoming mail server settings or forwarding problems which is not the case for me.

I don't think they are seeing the big picture.

Peter

Peter,

Thanks for this observation. If you remember, I said Comcast was once somewhat famously responsible for mucking up the mechanisms that prevent multiple downloading, to the point of preventing all downloads. This often happened in those days with PayPal notices, which then had to be purged via web mail access.

Ernie

Ernie Stamper wrote:

Where was this Outbox.mbox folder -- is there one also in the Mailboxes folder within the Mail folder, where it properly should be?

In one (only one) of my POP account folders along with the other .mbox folders. And yes there is also one in the "Mailboxes" folder.