How to Delete Duplicate Items from Outlook OST Files?
Searchin for the solution to delete duplicate items from Outlook OST files? If yes, then you are now on the right page. Here we are going to discuss the most effective and quick way to remove duplicate items from OST file in Outlook.
Microsoft Outlook gives two protocols POP3 or IMAP to configure our email account. If your account is configured through the POP3 protocol the Outlook creates PST files in your Outlook. And if there are any duplicate items like email, appointments, contacts, tasks, notes, journals, appear in your Outlook PST file you can easily remove it.
Read If you want to know: How to Remove Duplicate Emails in Outlook?
But if your account is configured with IMAP or exchange server, then Outlook creates an OST file which is an offline storage table. And If you find any duplicate items in your Outlook mailbox then it is very hard to remove duplicate items from OST file in Outlook.
Therefore, in the upcoming section, we are going to talk about the reasons, consequences of duplicate items, and also process to delete duplicate items from Outlook OST files.
But before starting the blog let’s see the real-life problem faced by the user
What Are the Reasons for Duplicate Items in Outlook OST Files?
In the above image, you can see that a user-facing the issue of duplicate items in its Outlook OST file.
So in this section, we are going to discuss what are the reasons for duplicate items in Outlook OST file.
- The IMAP interval is set too frequent that is less than 15 minutes and if an IMAP session takes too long to synchronize their inbox a new IMAP session will be triggered by their email client As a result duplicate or possibly even triplicates emails in Outlook mailbox.
- Some of the IMAP clients are not sending confirmation after having a successful RETR message resulting in the same message being saved by the server upon the next connection. This happens when there is network latency or if your connection is dropped.
- Surprisingly the client-side anti-virus is also the reason to create duplicate items in the Outlook OST file.
What Happen When Duplicate Items are present in your Outlook OST Files?
Duplicate items in your Outlook mailbox cause serious issues such as low performance and productivity of the software and much more. Therefore, it is essential to delete duplicate items from Outlook OST files. But before getting towards removing steps lets understand what are the consequences of duplicate items.
- Duplicate items in Outlook affect the productivity of mailbox and cause an error sometimes
- Every time the application starts the message stored on the server gets reloaded. Which create performance issue.
- More number of duplicate items in your Outlook mailbox. Makes the OST fine oversized and that leads to OST file corruption.
How to Delete Duplicate Items from Outlook OST Files?
In order to remove duplicate items from OST file in Outlook, Microsoft does not provide any inbuilt utility. So, in that troublesome scenario, to try an automated solution to draw out duplicate items from Outlook OST file.
PCVITA Outlook Duplicate Remover Tool is a well known automated solution that is used by most of the professionals. Because most of the Outlook duplicate remover tool available on the internet only remove duplicate items from Outlook PST file. But this duplicate remover tool removes duplicate items not only from the PST file but also from OST and BAK file.
Steps to remove duplicate items from Outlook OST file
Step 1: First download and install the software.
Step 2: Now launch the software and click on Add files or Add folder option to add the OST file
Step 3: At this stage you will find two options
- Find duplicates in all folders– By using this option the software will find duplicates in all mailbox folders.
- Find duplicate in selected folders– This feature gives you the facility to select the specific folder where you want to delete duplicates.
Step 4: Now select the destination location to save the resultant.
Step 5: After that, select categories from the Select filter and duplicate criteria option.
Step 6: Select one or more field to customize the duplicate removal process from Specific duplicate criteria option
Step 7: Click on the Choose action dropdown-menu and select the action that you want to apply on duplicate items.
Step 8: After all the settings, clicks on the Next button to start the process of delete duplicate items from Outlook OST files.
Others Benefits of the Software
- Option to remove duplicates from password protected Outlook PST/OST/BAK files.
- Facility to Split the size of Outlook Mailbox according to your preferred size.
- Support all Windows versions as well as all the Outlook versions including Outlook 2019.
- Capable to preserve the folder hierarchy and mate properties during the process.
Conclusion
A small problem in Outlook can badly affect the workflow of Microsoft Outlook. Thus, when a user is receiving duplicate emails in Outlook OST file, it becomes a serious problem. So, to maintain the continuity of your daily mail work, it is important to deal with duplicate emails issue in a proper way. Therefore, in this blog, we have discussed the best and most secure way to delete duplicate items from Outlook OST files.
