This has been driving me crazy forever. As soon as IMAP became available for Gmail some time back, I immediately went about hooking it up to Outlook so that I could access Gmail along with my other five plus other email accounts from one central interface.
And there was much rejoicing.
Except for the fact that all of my outgoing messages seemed to get saved twice into my Sent folder. This is pretty annoying, but not a show stopper. Like any good geek, I ignored the problem. For well over a year.
Finally today it dawned on me that both Outlook and Gmail could be saving copies into my Sent folder. Turning this off in Outlook (Tools -> Options -> E-mail Options… -> un-check “Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder”) reveals that, indeed, my lightning quick powers of deduction are sharper than ever. Problem solved.
Now perhaps in six months I will deduce a way to remove ten gigabytes of duplicate messages.
It looks like there are several cheap/free Outlook add-ins you could try. One is http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/duplicate_remover/?ga – haven’t used them myself, but they look reasonable. Or you could wait a week and Bing for additional suggestions. Oh… I kill myself I’m so clever!
Thanks for the tip. You’re right…except what do you suggest for someone (me) who has a Pop Account (work) and an IMAP (Gmail) all through Outlook? If I take your suggestion, then my sent work emails are not saved. Is there any way to specify the sent items settings per Outlook account?
Tom
I ran in to the same problem.. I was connecting to one of my work Exchange accounts over IMAP, which also doesn’t save outgoing emails on the server side.
It’s not elegant, but I’m saving all of my outgoing Outlook emails to my local Sent Items folder. So this folder is now a “backup”of everything I’ve sent for all email accounts, except the Exchange account. I’ve actually found it useful when trying to determine when I sent certain emails via the different accounts.
BTW, see http://blog.arithm.com/2009/07/07/a-good-free-outlook-duplicate-email-remover/ for a de-duper recommendation.
I have the same problem. I need a solution. I have an exchange account and i have a gmail imap account. When i send an email from my exchange account it goes into my outlok sent folder only. However, when i send an email from my gmail imap account it puts the email in its sent folder and outlooks sent folder. How do i stop my gmail imap account from putting a copy of the sent email into the outlook sent folder of my exchange account.
I tried Turning this off in Outlook (Tools -> Options -> E-mail Options… -> un-check “Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder”) and it stopped saving all sent emails. So what do i do?
You can change the Sent folder for any given IMAP account. Tools -> Account Settings… -> Change… -> More Settings… -> Folders Tab -> Choose an existing folder or create a new folder to save your sent items for this account in.
Whew. Use this to create a completely different folder to save your messages. Maybe a new folder in your IMAP account, or even something in an archive account on your local computer.
Your tip was great! I’ve been wondering why this happens for sooo long! Thank you!
I know this thread is old but I am hoping someone can help. My work uses an exchange server and users have problems with Outlook sent emails randomly duplicating. This is with using both an iPhone and a Samsung Jack. Obviously I can’t have users uncheck the save sent emails options. Thanks.
Apologies for the late follow up. I recall having a similar problem in Outlook/Exchange 2003; I think it was something to do with rules.
Try the Tech Recipe here:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/413/outlook_rules_create_multiple_duplicate_message/
Thanks a lot for sharing this useful info. Problem of duplicate saving of sent mails is solved for me.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!! It solved the misery and mystery!!
Thanks for sharing – I have 6 months of duplicate mails as well. Has anyone solved this problem? – mgk
This is a lifesaver! Thanks for the help – driving me crazy, and your guidance solved my problem.
Thank you so much! Problem solved.