2

When using Outlook to retrieve gmail over IMAP, flagged or unread items appear multiple times (2 or 3) in my inbox. Why is this?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

I found the answer after trawling through a number of Microsoft support posts. Reposting here, as SU is a more user-friendly retrieval system.

This is due to the way that gmail treats labels. When items are flagged in Outlook, they are marked as "starred" and "important" on gmail. Gmail exports this subset of email as a separate IMAP folder, which Outlook consumes. The message then appears multiple times.

The solution is to browse to gmail.com, go to settings --> Labels, and untick "show in IMAP" for the "starred" and "important" labels. It may also be possible to simply unsubscribe from those folders in Outlook (I haven't tried).

Linked question (tasks not email): Gmail & Outlook 2007 (Flagging Gmail in Outlook creating 4 tasks)

Improve this answer
1
  • I also had to go under Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP and select Enable IMAP to get the Show in IMAP checkboxes to appear. Not sure how Outlook was reading Gmail without that enabled.
    – Paul
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 19:57

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .