Odd email behaviour?

[#1]

Hi all

I use the MS Outlook as my email client, using POP3 not IMAP and I have my email-boxes set to 'delete from server when deleted from Outlook'.

However, even though email I surmised should have been deleted, every once in a while (did it again about 20 minutes ago,when I 'send/receive' I get 1000's of duplicate emails of the ones I deleted

It is not isolated to one email address/mailbox (edit ~ just checked and one mailbox does not appear to have the issue) that I use but one particular box seems to get multiples of some emails???

I surmise this may something to do with PN transitioning the email service to Greenby................but every time this happens I am having to trawl through my emails and delete them again!

I would welcome & appreciate any insights as to what is actually happening when I can expect this odd behaviour to finally stop.

TIA

PS AFAIK I have not received any notice about my account being migrated to Greenby.

PPS of note, I also see duplicated emails where I have not deleted them !

[#2]

@Routefinder Are on a Plusnet email address or one of the 'legacy' brands? My understanding is they are transferring email accounts in blocks, starting with hose legacy brands with the smallest number of users. You will be informed before you are moved.

The strange behaviour has nothing to do with the transition, my suspicion is that the email server has got your account in a muddle, but that is only my thoughts.

Hopefully someone else ( @Townman  / @MisterW  ? ) may have further thoughts.

[#3]

Hi @jab1 

Thanks for the reply.

I have PN mailboxes and FWIW have been a customer since 2003......so I am almost legacy

As mentioned, I mostly see the oddity in one particular mailbox but do also see to a lesser degree in at least one other (I have not drilled down into all of them too much.

For example this evening the one where I see it most downloaded 2554 emails and it seems one heck of a lot were the aforementioned duplicates   You can imagine how much of chore it is trawl and delete them yet again!

I look forward to any more insight as it comes

[#4]

@Routefinder 

Which mail brand?

I very much doubt that this has anything to do with migration.

If you log into the mailbox using webmail, do you see duplicate emails?  I very much suspect that this is an issue with your email client, not the Plusnet mail server.

When you say "MS Outlook" is that proper Outlook of the (free) excuse for Outlook?

There is the possibility that the client is prematurely timing out the server: on IMAP there is a server timeout setting, is there the same on your POP3 configuration options?  If yes, set it to two minutes.

[#5]

Hi @Townman 

Thanks for the reply

I have not checked the webmail for quite a while.

I have MS SBE 2007 which includes (proper Outlook ) and it has been robust and reliable for many years.  FWIW the problem I think may have started around February 2025.  And beforehand all was as expected i.e. just got on with its job and just worked OK 100% of the time.

I have looked in the Advanced Settings and found the 'server timeout' that you mention and it was set(default) to 1 minute.....I have now increased it to 2 minutes.~ fingers crossed it improves matters but time will tell.

This evenings event showed for some emails I had 6 duplicates and I surmise that
(a)I had missed some along the way i.e. I had not deleted that/them and it was just adding another one each time?

or (b) even if deleted it is somehow managing to duplicate the download

The latter might explain that sometimes instead of say 150 emails I nigh on >2000

Now with 'server timeout' set to 2mins on the particular email box I will have see what happens next?

Thanks once again for the insights.

[#6]

It appears that MS SBE 2007 has been retired.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/previous-versions/download-office-2007

"Microsoft 365 plans are available as a monthly or annual subscription."

[#7]

Clicking though on on the links is interesting.

I ended up with...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/end-of-support-office-2007

"Action needed: Microsoft has identified that you're using counterfeit software. Stay safer with genuine Office today."

Um. I de-installed MS365 some time ago.

"Your Office 2007 is vulnerable to security risks"

I never had that installed on this hardware.

[#8]

Hi @grumble 

Yes, I know it was retired sometime back

It's last security updates were 4th May 2023  NB I installed it on this box in May 2023 when I built it and it activated AOK, and please rest assured it is "Genuine" as it came, at the time I got it before 2023, from a very trustworthy source in the industry.

I run regular scans for anything 'nasty' on the system and my Internet security is running in the background ~ FWIW in these days of threats.

As for MS 365....not interested as I abhor the subscription model for software

Unless I can get a viable MS product that is perpetual license I will look at the likes of IIRC called 'Office Libre' ?

[#9]

I’d be pretty surprised if it was anything to do directly with your Outlook 2007. I’m still running the 2007 Enterprise suite (legal copy including Outlook though with IMAP) and it’s been troublefree all these years and no incentive to upgrade.

[#10]

Might this have a bearing…

• Insecure Protocols:

  Outlook 2007 uses outdated encryption protocols, like TLS 1.0 and SSLv3, which are no longer considered secure by email providers and have been disabled on their servers. 

[#11]

@Townman 

TLS 1.0 was deprecated how long ago?

My vague recollection is a timeframe measured by starting at a decade ago.

I'm not aware of what e-mail providers may implement.

Oh, well. Life used to be simpler.

[#12]

@grumble
Key Dates for TLS 1.0 Deprecation:

Organization / Vendor Deprecation Announcement Effective Date of Deprecation

IETF (RFC 8996) March 2021 March 2021
Apple (Safari) 2018 announcement March 2020
Google (Chrome) October 2018 January 2020 (Chrome 81)
Mozilla (Firefox) October 2018 March 2020 (Firefox 74)
Microsoft (Edge/IE) October 2018 Second half of 2020


IETF Official Deprecation:

RFC 8996, published in March 2021, formally deprecated TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1.

Title: "Deprecating TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1"

[#13]

Sorry for the delay in catching up with this discussion.....

I am still seeing the originally reported multiple emails

I am buying the more up to date Office Home & Business 2024, this being the last true suite before Office 365.

It has a projected life until 2029 before it goes EoL

That suite includes Outlook that will allow me to import the .pst file from Office 2007, so that I can maintain the important emails (records, receipts etc) form that older version.

NB I will have to uninstall Office 2007 before installing the 2024 version and setup the accounts then import the .pst file.

However, should anything go awry I still have the Office 2007 installer and SP3 installer too should the need arise.

Re: my .doc & docx files I have read that Word 2024 will open them but likely in 'compatibility mode' the same too for my Excel .xls files.

Lastly, if I still see the multiples appearing and after deleting them one more time they re-appear then I wonder where the issue lays???  Not, surely based on the various replies above, due to Outlook 2024 ?

I will update this thread is due course as appropriate

[#14]

@Townman @Protech @grumble @quelquod @jab1 

By way of an update.....

I am now using Outlook 2024 (part of my Office Home & Business 2024) and though the duplicates seem to have a been a thing of the past just the this evening after not using my PC for about 3 days I have seen the duplicates reappear i.e. on the particular mailbox it downloaded 893 emails ~ a heads up for me that something was a miss

Looking quickly at the list many of the duplicates start from 3/11/2025 and further back into October.  They include previously deleted emails which should have cleared from the email server.

So, still very odd and tad annoying.

Any further insights would be much appreciated

[#15]

PS to the above

AS previously mentioned the multiples of the duplications is from just one to up to 6 or more.