Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

I have some duplicate emails in my Inbox and Folders: can I just delete the duplicate emails in my Inbox? (IMAP)

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by Matt

more options

I think this is a simple one -- just wanted to be sure.

Am resuming cleaning/deleting old email I no longer want. Some years back when cleaning and moving msgs out of In/Out boxes into folders, I found some msgs that remained in In/Out boxs (but still "copied" into the new folders.) (Maybe I accidentally "copied" a few times instead of "moved.") Account is IMAP via dslextreme.com.

Do I assume correctly it's perfectly safe just to delete the "extra" copies in the In / Out boxes?

Thanks much for your help //// my email archives are important to me, and I just wanted to make sure there were no unforeseen hazards.

I think this is a simple one -- just wanted to be sure. Am resuming cleaning/deleting old email I no longer want. Some years back when cleaning and moving msgs out of In/Out boxes into folders, I found some msgs that remained in In/Out boxs (but still "copied" into the new folders.) (Maybe I accidentally "copied" a few times instead of "moved.") Account is IMAP via dslextreme.com. Do I assume correctly it's perfectly safe just to delete the "extra" copies in the In / Out boxes? Thanks much for your help //// my email archives are important to me, and I just wanted to make sure there were no unforeseen hazards.

All Replies (1)

more options

I would suggest you delete one and see what happens. Unfortunately the Google implementation of mail has one email and folder names associated. Does your provider use Google under the hood? I don't know. so it is almost impossible to say with any certainty. In a normal IMAP implementation them each copy in each folder will be distinct and therefore deleting one will not delete other copies of the same thing.