Removing duplicate messages from account

[ManxCatQ]

Hi there,

I wonder if there is some utility or feature that would allow me to
remove duplicate messages from my account? If I download them to an
IMAP supported e-mail program (such as Mac Mail or Thunderbird) then
would I have more options in this regard? I prefer to keep my
messages in the webmail if possible.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you in hopeful anticipation.

L.

[Nick Chirchirillo]

What do you mean by "duplicate messages"?  Are you referring to the same message appearing in more than one view i.e. two labels or the Inbox and another label?  If that is what you are referring to, then there are no actual duplicate messages in your account.  There is only ever one copy of any message and various labels or tags get applied to the same message.

--
-Nick

[Andy]

If someone sends you duplicates of the same message, sometimes Gmail seems
to recognize that and deletes all but one of them. In other cases it
doesn't. I'm not sure why there seems to be a difference, but there is.

Yes, I believe you can probably do this if you use IMAP, if you have an
easier way to eliminate the duplicates on your PC. When you login and sync
up again, it should delete the ones on the server to match. Just because
you're using IMAP doesn't mean you won't be keeping all your messages "in
the webmail" (on their servers) too.

Andy

[ManxCatQ]

Hello again,

Sorry to say I didn't give enough explanation. There are many
duplicates of the same message in my GMail account as they were copied
over into GMail from two different computers where they were stored on
hard drives. Therefore, they are true duplicates. So, the question
is whether there is an easy way to remove the duplicate messages which
have the same source, same time, same everything on them. I'm talking
about several hundred situations where there is more than one copy of
the same message. This shouldn't be happening any more due to the
fact that I now have all the e-mails that I might need already in
GMail. I just need to get rid of these extras.

I know I can retrieve IMAP e-mails through (Microsoft) Entourage
2008. I primarily use Macs, Leopard 10.5.7. I have a script that can
run that Removes Duplicate Messages; however, that can only be run on
messages that are stored on my computer. The script will not run on
messages that are stored on a server.

Any guidance much appreciated. Thanks again!

Lynn

[Andy]

> I know I can retrieve IMAP e-mails through (Microsoft) Entourage
> 2008. I primarily use Macs, Leopard 10.5.7. I have a script that can
> run that Removes Duplicate Messages; however, that can only be run on
> messages that are stored on my computer. The script will not run on
> messages that are stored on a server.

But that's why I suggested IMAP.

If you delete them on your computer, and sync up with IMAP, it's my
understanding that the copies on Google's servers will also delete. That's
the nice thing about using IMAP.

But I'm not speaking from personal experience on this.

Andy