If you are using Outlook 2016 (version: 16.0.6568.2025) and configured the email client to download mails using POP3, you might face some issues which will delete all the emails from server inbox after outlook downloads those and/or create duplicate items of the downloaded messages.
Microsoft has shared an workaround to resolve this issue. If you are using that specific version of Outlook 2016, continue reading to know more details of the same and fix the issue temporarily while Microsoft is working on a permanent fix.
If you are using Outlook 2016 version 16.0.6568.2025, you might experience the following issues, in case you configured your email client to download mails via the POP3 channel and have the “Leave a copy of messages on the Server” option enabled:
- After Outlook downloads your email, all the email messages on the server are deleted from the Inbox.
- Email messages are downloaded multiple times in Outlook, causing duplicate items.
If you have the option “Remove from server after <x> days” enabled, you may experience the issue of email messages being deleted from the server and if you have the option “Remove from server after <x> days” disabled, you may experience the issue of email messages being duplicated in your Outlook client.
As an workaround of this issue, Microsoft provided two different solutions at this moment to opt for, until they have a permanent fix for it. Alternatively, you can check if you have a new version above 16.0.6568.2025 is available or not, which might apply the fix. The two possible workarounds are:
- Instead of using POP3 account, switch on to IMAP (if your server allows it). Create a new profile and configure it to connect to the IMAP and then import your mails from the PST file of the POP3 account.
- If your mail server does not support IMAP, switch to an older version of Outlook 2016 and use it until a fix comes out.
Update:
Microsoft has given a fix for it in version: 16.0.6568.2036. If you are using the older version (build: 2025), upgrade to the new build. To do so, open any office application, go to File and then click Office Account. If the outlook version is not set as 16.0.6568.2036 or later, click the “Update Now” button to download the new update. Hope this will resolve your issue.
You can read more about it in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB3145116) - Email is deleted from server or duplicated in Outlook 2016 when downloaded using POP3.