Duplicate emails from Gmail

Duplicate emails from Gmail

I'm getting duplicate emails when downloading from my Gmail account (IMAP). I'm getting exactly 2 of everything and they're visible side by side in my "Received" folder/filter. What's very strange is this: it's not duplicated in my "Mail for..." folder, but it is in my received folder. How come???

Here is a picture of this as an example. Note the identical times & sizes. I can delete one and leave the other so it's not a case of lust seeing the same email twice. (deleting ne also doesn't affect its appearance in the "Mail for" folder)

Picture 1.png

I've read something about fixing this through Gmail's settings??? It really didn't make any sense to me, at all, so I have no idea whether it was a solution or not.

I assume it has something to do with downloading ready filtered emails in Gmail. If it's in the Inbox and in a filtered folder, it seems to download both, even though it's the same email just appearing twice.

I really hope there's a simple preference setting somewhere that will stop this double download by fetching emails from the inbox only.

(this doesn't happen with my POP account)

please use the forum's search function.

GMail doesn't follow the standard, and so you have to make slight modifications to the standard configuration. See http://operawiki.info/GmailIMAP - in particular the section "Make the Gmail IMAP Server Act like a Normal IMAP Server"

For gmail/imap you should not use opera's upper section as you do. You are supposed to ignore that entire section. I only use it to check what is in my outbox (because I queue rather than send immediately).

Best use of gmail, use the "all mail" folder under "mail for ...." (the account name that you have filled out when setting up your account).

Opera uses 'filters' so you see 'duplicates' because there are multiple filters on a message.
This view above, the 'all mail' view is the basic place from where to handle all your gmail.

I have a couple of links in my ID below on Gmail with opera to check out.

WildEnte... thanks, but that is the article I was referring to that I didn't understand. I followed the instructions (I think) and suddenly I couldn't send any emails, so I undid my changes.

lopera... Good advice. Pity Gmail works this way. The upper section has most of Opera's power features. I've turned off subscriptions to all my Gmail folders so I now only have the "All mail", "Sent" and "Spam" folders to keep it simple. It would be nice if I could now hide the "All messages", "Searches", "Attachments" and "Mailing lists" folders/filters to simplify it even more.

Thanks all. I can live with this work around.

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

WildEnte... thanks, but that is the article I was referring to that I didn't understand.

I wrote the article, so if you have a specific question about it, feel free to ask.

Cool... direct to the source. Here are a few issues. They might be in the writing or they might be me, hard to tell. Feel free to ignore anything you deem dyslexia or simple BS.

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In Opera, when you have a filter set to "mark messages as filtered", the messages in the filter won't show in other views unless those views have "View -> Show -> Show filtered" checked. "Mark messages as filtered" is 'Hide from other=1' in index.ini in the mail folder (see Help -> About Opera for the location).

It was a bit of a jump. One minute I'm pulling down a menu like any chump, next I'm editing an .ini file like a hacker.
I also don't know enough about filtering so I don't know if I want my messages to show filtered or not. I'm still getting my head around filtering versus foldering so this feels like a foreign language.

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I wasn't quite getting whether the problem with duplicates lay with Opera or with Gmail as changes needed to be done at both ends and neither of them seemed to relate to each other.

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I'm an average Joe, not a programmer so I get very nervous hacking text files when I'm expecting something like a "Hide duplicates" checkbox in the preferences pane. I think I might also resist info that makes me do back-end stuff. It's possible that this issue is just too complex for a non-tech to fix. The advice of "ignore everything and just use the "All Mail" folder" is pretty much all I need to read.

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Maybe the step-by-step instructions need to be in bullet form rather than paragraph. I read your writing out aloud as if I was giving someone else the instructions and it sounded much better, but reading it in my head, I need bullet points to break it down into bite-sized steps so I don't get lost.

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I also need a picture every now again to help me along, but that's just me.

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I've written this as constructive criticism. I take my hat off to you for your contributions and for all the help we mere mortals get from your time and writings. This is my contribution to you because when I ask for criticism, I genuinely want honest feedback, not "it's fine, don't worry".

Thanks.

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

It was a bit of a jump. One minute I'm pulling down a menu like any chump, next I'm editing an .ini file like a hacker.

I can fix the wording. Basically, all views in Opera are filters and their settings are stored in index.ini. Normally, you can just right-click on a view and go into its properties. But, some views in Opera like the IMAP folder views under the "mail for" access point for the IMAP account don't have their filter settings exposed through the user interface because it doesn't make sense for the user to edit them.

However, because Gmail IMAP works differently than other IMAP servers, it does make sense to be able to edit the "mark as filtered" setting for the IMAP folder views. To do this though, you have to edit index.ini because there's no way to edit it in the user interface.

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

I also don't know enough about filtering so I don't know if I want my messages to show filtered or not. I'm still getting my head around filtering versus foldering so this feels like a foreign language.

For now, don't worry about creating your own filters in Opera.

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

I wasn't quite getting whether the problem with duplicates lay with Opera or with Gmail as changes needed to be done at both ends and neither of them seemed to relate to each other.

The problem lies with Gmail, not Opera. Also, "duplicates" is actually not as descriptive as it could be. "Multiple copies" is a better description. For example, instead of just 2, you could have 500 copies of the same message if a message was shown in the inbox and 498 other Gmail labels.

The "Just Show Me the Action Table" section is what you should do if you want to use Opera in a way that works better with Gmail IMAP's funkiness. This involves ignoring most of Opera's mail features. Consider this "Opera workaround part 1".

The "Hide Duplicates" section shows you workarounds you can do to make it so you can use more of Opera's mail features. Consider this "Optional Opera workaround part 2".

Now the "Make the Gmail IMAP Server Act like a Normal IMAP Server" section is an alternative to the above 2. This is the one you should follow if you want to make Gmail IMAP itself work like a normal IMAP server so you don't have to do any workarounds in Opera. Consider this "Gmail IMAP workaround".

Maybe it'd help if I put the "Make the Gmail IMAP Server Act like a Normal IMAP Server" section first. But, I purposely didn't do that as there are downsides to doing that *if* you also use mail.google.com to do stuff with your mail.

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

Maybe the step-by-step instructions need to be in bullet form rather than paragraph. I read your writing out aloud as if I was giving someone else the instructions and it sounded much better, but reading it in my head, I need bullet points to break it down into bite-sized steps so I don't get lost.

I also need a picture every now again to help me along, but that's just me.

The wiki software is pretty buggy, which makes getting things right visually a pain. However, I could just make a real web page and link to it in the wiki. This will take some time, but I'll do it.

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

I wasn't quite getting whether the problem with duplicates lay with Opera or with Gmail

If you goto mail.google.com in your browser, when you receive a new message, it'll be in your Inbox label view. And, it'll be in the [Gmail]/All Mail view.

As you can see, the message is in 2 different views.

Then, if you archive the message, the Inbox label will be removed and you will only see the message in the [Gmail]/All Mail view.

As you can see, the message is only in one view now.

Now, say that you have a message shown in the "Inbox" label view and then you apply the "Test1", "Test2" and "Test3" labels to the message. You'll then be able to see the message in the "Inbox", "Test1", "Test2", "Test3" and [Gmail]/All Mail" views..

As you can see, the message is in 5 different views.

Now, with Gmail IMAP, a view is an IMAP folder. So, in the last case above, a copy of the message is in the "Inbox", "Test1", "Test2", "Test3" and "[Gmail]/All Mail" IMAP folders.

So as far as the Gmail IMAP server reports to Opera, there are 5 separate copies of the message on the server.

Now, in Opera, the Unread and All Messages/Received views for example are NOT IMAP folders. They are views that show pre-defined search results. In the case of the Unread view, it shows *all* messages on the server (from all IMAP folders) that are unread. For All Messages/Received, it shows *all* messages that were received (from all IMAP folders).

So, as you can imagine, if your message that's in "Inbox", "Test1", "Test2", "Test3" and "[Gmail]/All Mail" is unread, you'll see *all* 5 copies of the message in the Unread view.

Again, this isn't Opera's fault. It's Gmail's as it really does put 5 separate copies of the message on the server in the case above.

Because of this, you can't use any of Opera's views in Opera besides the IMAP folder views or you'll see multiple copies of your messages. The wiki page is there to describe workarounds as it's all about workarounds with Gmail IMAP.

If you use a normal IMAP server, you won't have this issue at all in Opera.

Also note though that no matter which email client you use, the Gmail IMAP server will still show multiple copies on the server. So, you'll see this problem in any email client. It's just more pronounce as Opera has more useful views that other clients.

As I understand out of the discussion...
When I open the Imap account in Opera I can see all the maps in my G-mail account. There I can remove or enter marks for each map I would like to receive in Opera.
I don't understand this part of possibility at all, but hope that some understand if all marks removes except the Imap map "Gmail/All email".
I believe it then will be only one copy in Opera mailbox.

I also believe that you can make similar maps as on Gmail, locally in Opera and if you delete a received mail in Opera it also will be deleted from all maps at your Gmail account.

Could some of this be a way around the problem?

Welcome to the My Opera community Lawinth!

With the terminology you're using (maps and marks), I cannot understand your post. But, I don't think I could explain any better than here and here anyway.

I believe your "Inbox", "Test1", "Test2", "Test3" and "[Gmail]/All Mail" example is the same I tried to say. when I said marks I mention to put a mark (v ) in the box in front of the different folders in the Imap-map account.

I have tried to remove all marks except in front of the map "[Gmail]/All Mail"
After I did so, I only receive one copy of itch mail.
I believe i then can make filters or maps in opera to sort mail to different maps under the main folder or Imap folder for the actual e-Mail -account.

Sorry for my terrible English!

Hm. For me it works just fine.
I just unchecked "Gmail/All Mail" and no more duplicates. No additional modifications whatsoever were required. I use Opera 11 beta now, but this was working for me since the Opera 10.00's (i did not use Opera before that).

Whew, awesome reply, Burnout. Thank you for your time & effort.

I think you should add a link in the wiki to this thread. It's kind of the same, just written differently which sometimes makes all the difference (ever experience understanding one person, but not another even though they were explaining the same thing? This is a bit like that)

I agree with one f your comments... maybe make it clear that you don't need to do all the modifications (in Gmail AND in Opera) to remedy duplicate emails. I was seeing the whole wiki as the work-around rather than multiple work-arounds.

Thanks again.

Matter of interest, does Yahoo mail work the way as Gmail... a separate copy of each mail in each folder on their server for downloading?

Originally posted by AppleMacNut:

I think you should add a link in the wiki to this thread.

I made some edits to the wiki page to clarify things and added a link to this thread.