I pay for a POP3 EMAIL account and use Outlook 2003 to access it. Outlook is configured to leave a copy of the messages on the server until they are deleted.

I have backed up my .pst file on this machine and need to migrate to a new computer. When I use my current .pst file on the new machine many duplicate mail messages are received from the server.

Any emails that I have currently in my .pst file are not detected as being there, and are simply downloaded again from the server. This creates one big mess.

How can I get around this happening please? There must be something that I am not backing up, as Outlook on this machine clearly knows which messages its needs to download, and which ones it does not.

"Outlook is configured to leave a copy of the messages on the server until they are deleted." Change the configuration to not leave any copies until you get this straightened out. Also, check out this possible solution. You don't say what OS you're using so take it for what it's worth.


PC configuration:
•OS: WinXP
•Office Suite: Microsoft Office XP (pre-service packs)
The solution is a Hotfix from Microsoft support identified as "OFF2002 QFE 5607".
(This was before any service packs were available for OfficeXP.)
If either OFF2002 Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 do not fix the PROBLEM, you must contact MS support. (The Hotfix is not available as a download.)
This fix consists of 2-replacement dll's. (The problem may be fixed in the recent service packs mentioned above.)

Alan <><
Thanks for the response, but maybe I have not explained the situation that well.

When the .pst file is migrated to the new machine it downloads all the emails on the server regardless if there is a local copy present or not. After it has done this, we have no duplicate email issues. It is just for some REASON it does not recognise the emails in the migrated .pst file.

If we untick the option to leave the emails on the server, the next time I test migrating, all the emails will be downloaded to the new machine and then deleted from the server We need the emails to be left on the server for web based mobile access (I never said this I know)

OS is Win XP Pro SP2
Office 2003 with all updates and no issues before migration attempts.But, Alan, he's using Office 2003, not Office XP. These Hotfix's and service packs are usually designed for specific versions, right? I believe so.

Maybe he should install SP2 for Office 2003 if he does not already have it, although I don't know that that would make any difference here.

Luminous, how did you set up the POP3 email account on the new computer? By exporting it and importing, or from scratch?Migration procedure was as follows:

1) Install office, then updates for office
2) OPEN outlook, let it create the account but do not setup an email account
3) Navigate to the blank .pst file outlook created and replace it with the backup .pst file
4) Reopen outlook, and setup the email account from scratch (using identical settings to the one on the original machine)
5) Hit send and receive, then sigh in disbelief as it downloads over 1000 duplicate emails. It simply ignores the local copy of the messages I just copied your question into an Outlook newsgroup. Think of newsgroups as specialized forums; there's a lot of expertise out there. If someone replies, I'll post it here.Woohoo

I have tried a few places and just not managed to find someone with the same issue as me, apart from EXPERTS Exchange...which you have to pay for. I don't get that site, you pay for membership, but anyone can answer your question, not necessarily an expert I received a reply in the newsgroup: microsoft.public.outlook.installation. Here it is:

The reason why mesages are downloaded again is because the information on
which messages have been downloaded already is not kept in the PST, but in
the mail profile in the registry. Moving the PST from one machine to the
other cannot synchronize that informaiton. There are several approaches.

One (and the best, in my opinion) is to disable the option of leaving
messages on the server. If you must leave them there, for whatever reason,
then the next best solution is to use a web interface to the server mailbox
and move them to a folder other than the Inbox on the server, if your server
allows you to create alternate folders on the server that way (most do). If
the messages aren't in the Inbox, Outlook won't see them.

Another approach is to create a new PST, make it the delivery location,
allow all the messages to download into that PST, then switch the delivery
location back to the original PST, closing the added one and, thereby,
removing the duplicates all in one go. From that point on, Outlook will
know what is has downloaded already.

A third alternative is to just let all the messages download again and
acquire a duplicate remover. See
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail_duplicates.asp . At least one of the
duplicate removers there is free.
--
Brian Tillman