[Fix] Duplicate IMAP Folders (Sent, Junk and Deleted Items) Created in Windows Live Mail

Today in this topic we are going to address a weird and annoying issue present in Windows Live Mail which is a popular Desktop email client program developed by Microsoft and a part of Windows Essentials suite.

The problem occurs if you add and setup an email account using IMAP server settings in Windows Live Mail program, it automatically creates following duplicate folders:

  • Sent Items
  • Drafts
  • Deleted Items
  • Junk E-mail

Following screenshots clearly shows this issue in details:

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Duplicate_IMAP_Folders_Windows_Live_Mail.png

As you can see there are duplicate folders present for Sent, Deleted and Junk emails. The “Deleted“, “Junk” and “Sent” are original folders downloaded from the email server. On the other hand, “Sent items“, “Deleted items” and “Junk E-mail” are their duplicates created by Windows Live Mail program.

If you are also facing this problem and want to get rid of the duplicate folders, this tutorial will definitely help you.

Actually there is a built-in feature in Windows Live Mail program which creates some special folders to store emails at mail server which causes the creation of these duplicate folders.

If you want to remove the duplicate folders, check out following simple steps:

1. Open Windows Live Mail program, right-click on the email account header and select Properties option.

2. Now go to “IMAP” tab and disable/uncheck “Store special folders on IMAP server” option present under “Special Folders” section.

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Disable_Store_Special_Folders_IMAP_Server_WLM.png

3. Click on OK button and it’ll ask for confirmation to refresh the folders list. Click on Yes button to accept the confirmation.

It’ll take a few moments in downloading and refreshing folders list.

4. Now you’ll need to manually delete those duplicate folders. Right-click on each duplicate folder one by one and select Delete option.

Delete_Email_Account_Folders_Windows_Live_Mail.png

That’s it. After deleting the duplicate folders, Windows Live Mail will never create them again.

Also Check:

[Fix] Windows Live Mail Stopped Syncing Hotmail, Outlook Email Accounts

Published in: Mobiles and Internet, Troubleshooting Guides

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

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  1. hi. sometimes i get emails in BOTH ‘junk’ folders that are NOT junk.
    if i delete one of these folders…
    1) which should i delete, and
    2) what will happen to the emails that are NOT junk that typically went into the junk folders?

    thanks so much.

  2. Hi, thanks for the info on how to get my e-mail back on in the live mail program. Now I have duplicates. I have the mail box that was stopped way back in September 2016 and the new outlook imap account which is current and has all of the mail that is stored in the other account. Should I just delete the old account? Can I do this without losing the mail previous to the September lock out?

  3. I’m having this same issue in Windows 10 Mail app, it’s so annoying because the feature disable/uncheck “Store special folders on IMAP server” option present under “Special Folders” section is missing in Mail.

    Any ideas Vish??

  4. ^^ Try to right-click on folders and you should get option to remove them. Or check Mail settings.

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