Outlook 2010 and RSS Feeds...multiple copies of posts

I've been using Office 2010 Beta and now RC x64 on a Windows 7 machine for several months, but this RSS issue has stayed all throughout. I have a dozen or so RSS Feeds from multiple sources, and the posts sometimes start doubling, tripling, quadrupling up. For instance, within the Fark.com feed folder, I saw 6-7 copies of each post, causing the folder item count to go into the thousands.

When I moved to the RC version, I also purged all RSS feeds from Outlook as well as from the CFL, and added everything in manually to fix the issue. It worked fine for a few days IIRC, but it's become a pain again. It seems to occur more with certain feeds than others. For instance, feeds from Gizmodo will start tripling up, but the feed from Microsoft Online Services Team Blog will generally double up.

Is this indicative of an issue still with Outlook 2010, IE8/CFL, or the RSS provider themselves? Becoming real annoying at this point.

June 22nd, 2010 6:59pm

Hi,

 

I have tried but could not re-produce this issue in Outlook 2010 RTM.

 

Based on my research, this issue may occur when the site modifies an element of the original item and it is subsequently updated in the XML. Outlook does not do anything special in terms of the XML we get from the publisher - if they modify an old post and include it in the XML file that day, we’ll get the update (if you have the option on). You may think they are duplicate items at this point.

 

So, let’s uncheck this option in Outlook: Click File > Options > Advanced, in the RSS filed, uncheck the box before: “Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item”, and save the settings.

 

Restart Outlook and check the results again. If the problem persists, we can try to create a new profile to test the issue.

 

Here are the detailed steps on how to create a new profile to test this issue

==============

1.    Exit Outlook.

2.    Go to Start > Control Panel, click or double-click Mail.

3.    Click Show Profiles. Choose Prompt for a profile to be used.

4.    Click Add.

5.    Type a name for the profile, and then click OK.

6.    Start Outlook, and choose this new profile.

 

If this problem does not occur in the new Outlook profile, the old Outlook is corrupted. We can delete that and use a new Outlook profile.

 

Please take your time to try the suggestions and let me know the results at your earliest convenience. If anything is unclear or if there is anything I can do for you, please feel free to let me know.

 

Best Regards,

 

Sally Tang

  • Marked as answer by Sally Tang Monday, June 28, 2010 2:20 AM
  • Unmarked as answer by Sally Tang Wednesday, July 28, 2010 9:21 AM
  • Edited by Sally Tang Wednesday, July 28, 2010 9:25 AM
  • Proposed as answer by AWBauman Tuesday, November 02, 2010 12:23 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by AC_Skip Wednesday, November 24, 2010 7:45 PM
  • Proposed as answer by IMKarla Thursday, April 11, 2013 9:17 PM
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June 23rd, 2010 3:22am

Hi,

 

I am writing to see how everything is going with this issue. Is the problem resolved? If there is anything I can do for you, please feel free to let me know.

 

Sally Tang

 

  • Edited by Sally Tang Wednesday, July 28, 2010 9:26 AM
June 25th, 2010 2:57am

Hi,

 

As I have not heard from you for several days. I will go ahead and close this thread. If this issue is not resolved or you have any questions, please feel free to reply to us and this thread will be re-opened.

 

Best Regards,

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June 28th, 2010 2:20am

I am experiencing the same issue. Sally, I have followed all of your steps to resolve the problem but that did not resolve the issue. The "Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item" check box was deselected from the start and I have also created a new profile, neither the former nor the latter made a change. I am curious if this problem is caused because I access the same account from multiple computers. At work I access the account from Outlook 2010 as part of the Office Professional Plus suite, and from home I access the account from Outlook 2010 as part of the Office Professional Academic suite, with both machines running Windows 7. It seems as though every post is created in duplicate with the same exact time stamp. Someone suggested I sync my feeds with the Windows Common Feed List, which I did but that didn't seem to resolve the issue. One interesting thing I notice is that this issue does not occur for SharePoint lists I subscribe too [as an rss feed, not sync to outlook]. I hope I am not replying to a dead thread as any help you could provide would be immensely appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Steven McGrath

July 20th, 2010 1:56pm

Sally - thank you for the troubleshooting steps but creating new profiles does not resolve the issue, nor does the option to disable the setting for Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item

As Steven wrote above, I am also using Outlook 2010 on 2 separate computers both connected to the same Exchange account. They sometimes are running at the same time, but not all the time. Maybe this has something to do with it?

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July 20th, 2010 7:01pm

I have the same problem, especially with my Channel 9 Ping feed (http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/PingShow/RSS/).

"Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item" is not selected.

I only use Outlook 2010 on a single Windows 7 PC.  And my profile has been recreated.

August 12th, 2010 3:26pm

I get the same probelm as well - particulalry on the http://www.windows7news.com/ news feed.

Andrew

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August 13th, 2010 12:54pm

I have the same issue
September 21st, 2010 9:57pm

I, too, have the same issue and thought that it might be related to using multiple computers with the same Exchange account. But it appears that this doesn't make a difference.

Solve this, please?

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November 3rd, 2010 10:59pm

Add me to the list of people with this issue. I have unchecked that option and recreated the Outlook profile.
November 24th, 2010 2:05pm

I am now on Outlook 2010 retail version and the issue is still occuring, even on brand new installs/profiles. As CJKee mentioned, I'm pretty sure I saw the issue start as soon as I opened Outlook 2010 on both my personal and work PCs, so it does seem to be related to mutiple instances of Outlook open at the same time.
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November 24th, 2010 7:47pm

I also have the problem and I can believe that it's related to mutiple instances of Outlook open at the same time, since it's something I do all the time. 

Gee, the lack of an answer here is discouraging. I'd feel better if at least I could see "we understand this is a problem and it's on our to-do list."

January 4th, 2011 6:42pm

After some experimentation I no longer believe that this is related to multiple copies of Outlook. Over 18 hours ago, right after the post above, I shut down the computer with my other copy of Outlook. I'm currently running only a copy of Outlook 2010. 

The exact symptoms I see are that I mark feeds as read and some time later they show up again. It's only some of the feeds that behave this way. 

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January 5th, 2011 1:42pm

I think I might have figured it out:

In Outlook 2010 options, Advanced tab, I unchecked the "Any RSS feed that is updated appears as new" option:

See http://yfrog.com/f/gy4r8pp/

  • Proposed as answer by Larry Seltzer Friday, January 07, 2011 11:39 AM
January 7th, 2011 11:39am

I have same problem, and unchecking that box doesn't help. I've noticed the two feeds most guilty of this are gizmodo and lifehacker, which are both gawker media feeds. I wonder if its something in the feed itself? Its really annoying.
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February 9th, 2011 2:47pm

I've had that option unchecked for quite a while but the issue is still occurring. It definitely does seem to be related to opening Outlook on separate machines, even if it isn't at the same time. Can't believe there still isn't a fix for this
March 9th, 2011 6:04pm

I have had this same issue since using RSS feeds in 2007. Nothing has helped. Happens with all feeds.
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March 14th, 2011 6:02am

I think it is related to a exchange account and usage of that account on multiple computers.

I have same issue, but only duplicates (maybe because I use that account only on desktop/laptop (2 computers) and maybe you use that account on more than two). Rss posts are stored on exchange account. It occures when I'm using that exchange account on other computer, as I get duplicate rss posts.


May 19th, 2011 11:01am

I too have the same problem, RSS keeps downloading duplicates on one of my RSS feeds.  This just started on the particular feed last week.


Windows Server 2010, 64 bit

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June 20th, 2011 5:47pm

I think you might be on to something here - I've noticed this too, but it seems to occur after I've launched Outlook on my second computer, which is connected to the same Exchange account. It doesn't seem to duplicate everything, but I notice that a large number of my entries are doubled after using Outlook on the second computer.

Hopefully they're able to resolve this in a service pack, as it's really irritating to be constantly deleting duplicated feed items.

June 30th, 2011 4:53pm

I only use one computer, and have thie problem as well.  Using Windows 7 and Outlook 2010.
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August 1st, 2011 5:59pm

Has anyone found a solution yet? I am using Outlook 2010 on a single computer running Windows XP. It is obviously not a multiple-computer issue, nor is it OS-specific, so it has to be either Outlook or something in the RSS feed itself.
September 25th, 2011 7:11am

I've not found a solution to this problem but can add some more details:

We are running Exchange 2007, Windows 7 x64, and Outlook 2010.

This problem occurs for on multiple Exchange accounts, Multiple Computers, and Multiple RSS Feed sources.

We use multiple computers to connect to the same accounts, but some other people reported problems who only use a single computer. The frequency of the problem does seem to increase on days when I used both computers.

It would seem that the only thing common in everyone's problem is Outlook.

 

Things that do not fix the problem:

Unchecking  "Any RSS Feed item that is updated appears as new"

Creating a new outlook profile

Creating a new exchange account

Fresh windows/office installation

Changing physical computers

 

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September 26th, 2011 12:54pm

Just wanted to share that I'm having the same issue...it's been a constant in outlook since 2003... I have tried all the fixes previously suggested but nothing seems to make the duplicates stop.... a really annoying "feature"
February 3rd, 2012 10:42pm

Is this issue ever going to be fixed? I've been having the issue since Outlook 2007 but looks like Dusty has been having it since Outlook 2003. 1.5 years into the start of this conversation...and no answers
  • Edited by AC_Skip Friday, February 03, 2012 10:46 PM
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February 3rd, 2012 10:46pm

sweet responsiveness microsoft, a year an a half later with no fix. I'd like you better if you never released the feature at all. Now I'm just angry.
February 18th, 2012 12:05am

...and people wonder why Microsoft has a bad reputation for customer support... Support aside, the lack of simple acknowledgement here is plain rude!
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February 20th, 2012 12:59am

Bump.  I'm having the same issue, and it's now over 18 months since the beginning of this thread...

Running Exchange (not sure what version, Office365.com) on Outlook 2010, Windows 7 x64.

March 12th, 2012 7:16pm

I am having the same issue.

Microsoft support team: Please let me know if you are able to reproduce this bug?

Thank you,

M.R.

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March 19th, 2012 8:28pm

I am having the same issue.

Microsoft support team: Please let me know if you are able to reproduce this bug?

Thank you,

M.R.

March 19th, 2012 8:29pm

I'd just like to tell you that I'm having the same problem now for a while. This is definitely not related to how many computers do you use with the same account. I use only one computer with one Outlook instance and never had more, but the problem is up. I experienced it in Outlook 2007, then I migrated to 2010 but nothing changed.

Particulary it does not happens with all feeds that I read nor all entries but only some are doubling (tripling, quadrupling.

A specific feed with that I experienced the problem: http://www.elte.hu/file/rss.xml (sorry for the Hungarian feed, I do not read English ones ;)

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March 30th, 2012 3:40pm

Hi Sally,

Can you please load a Gizmodo feed into your Outlook RSS and give this a try?  The feed can be found here:

http://gizmodo.com/308830/gizmodo-rss-feeds

and the feed I have used on 9 machines using all versions of Outlook (with your suggestions) is here:

http://gizmodo.com/index.xml 

After a few hours all the articles I have deleted (whether they are emptied from the trash or not) show up again.  I imagine that they are updating the XML during this time period and that Outlook is not properly able to identify that the articles are updated and it displays them as if they were new.

I would happily complain to Gizmodo if they are to blame for improper syndication, but I doubt that is the case...

April 30th, 2012 10:23pm

Can sameone please poke Sally so she wakes up and responds?

(Have the same issue.)

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May 10th, 2012 12:59pm

I have one RSS feed where one article keeps getting duplicate "new" entries.  All other articles in that same feed do not get duplicate entries.

I captured a network trace.  I see Outlook asking the RSS server if there have been any updates.  The RSS server replies that there are no updates.  Outlook then closes the TCP connection.  But then Outlook goes ahead and adds a new entry for the same article.

No. Time Source Destination Protocol Length Info

2669 12:03:46.530204000 wwwin.cisco.com dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com TCP 66 http > 30622 [SYN, ACK] Seq=0 Ack=1 Win=32850 Len=0 WS=8 SACK_PERM=1 MSS=1460

2670 12:03:46.530275000 dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com wwwin.cisco.com TCP 54 30622 > http [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=65700 Len=0

2671 12:03:46.530400000 dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com wwwin.cisco.com HTTP 1178 GET /data-shared/cec/rendered_news/xml/channels/104567/index.xml HTTP/1.0

2672 12:03:46.530955000 wwwin.cisco.com dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com TCP 60 http > 30622 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1125 Win=262800 Len=0

2673 12:03:46.535973000 wwwin.cisco.com dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com HTTP 228 HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified

2674 12:03:46.734261000 dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com wwwin.cisco.com TCP 54 30622 > http [ACK] Seq=1125 Ack=175 Win=65524 Len=0

2675 12:03:48.540834000 wwwin.cisco.com dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com TCP 60 http > 30622 [FIN, ACK] Seq=175 Ack=1125 Win=262800 Len=0

2676 12:03:48.540952000 dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com wwwin.cisco.com TCP 54 30622 > http [ACK] Seq=1125 Ack=176 Win=65524 Len=0

2677 12:03:49.941136000 dhcp-171-71-137-42.cisco.com wwwin.cisco.com TCP 54 30622 > http [FIN, ACK] Seq=1125 Ack=176 Win=65524 Len=0

June 18th, 2012 8:17pm

+1

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June 28th, 2012 6:33pm

Same Problem here on Outlook 2010. Unchecking "Any RSS feed that is... " doesn't help (it has been unchecked from the beginning). Im syncing the RSS Feeds on two Win7/OL2010 machines via MS Exchange.

This problem is obviously known for years. So why it is not fixed? :-/

http://imageshack.us/a/img831/4373/rssoutlookfail.png

October 20th, 2012 12:03pm

I have this problem as well; it started a few weeks ago (maybe a couple of months). Only certain RSS Feeds generate duplicate entries; but, I may get 6 or more duplicates every day for those Feeds.

I suspect it has something to do with how the software providing the RSS Feed handles updates to the Feed(s) it handles. One of the Feeds I have this problem with is for forum entries; I could understand the problem if, for instance, that server treats each post to the thread as an update to the Feed (which it should not do).

The other Feed I have this problem with is a single blog thread, for which I have not received a new item in months, but the old items keep getting duplicated (may times showing up in Outlook as HTML code in the body instead of what should be visible).

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November 20th, 2012 11:16am

Has anyone tried deleting the feed and recreating it?  Maybe something gets munged up somewhere in Outlook under rare circumstances (e.g. improper shutdown resulting in data corruption).
December 13th, 2012 5:59pm

Of course. This happens with new feeds and old ones, I actually watched it happen the other day. It seems to happen when outlook syncs on multiple devices. Something about the order of send receive and the syncing of the RSS folder on the Exchange Server causes it to download the new feeds, then eventually download the copies already on the server.

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December 13th, 2012 11:43pm

I have upgraded all my systems that access my Exchange mailbox to Outlook 2013 but the issue is STILL happening. Wonderful
January 14th, 2013 3:21pm

One thing I found "interesting" today was how Outlook is storing the "account information" regarding RSS feeds.  In my situation, I run Outlook 2010 at work and Outlook 2013 at home both pointing to the same Exchange server.  I kind of assumed that adding an RSS feed would add this information to the the Exchange server and would be used by all Outlook clients I used.

However, when I looked in Account Settings -> RSS Feeds on each of my Outlook clients, I only saw the RSS feeds I must have added using that client (although all of the RSS downloads are stored in an OST related to my work account).  In once case, I had the same RSS feed defined on each Outlook client which if running at the same time (which I do) might be causing the duplicates.

I deleted one of the RSS feeds from one of the clients and will monitor the duplication issue.  Obviously this doesn't explain anything for people only running one copy of Outlook and may not even explain my situation completely.

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January 15th, 2013 3:13pm

Same issue with Outlook 2013: some RSS Feeds receive multiple postings, when new ones are pulled, others not. I have to admit that I checked the box Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item from the beginning, and unchecked it now. I will inform here in this forum if this helps, but due to the postings below I am not very confident...
January 27th, 2013 8:43pm

I don't use exchange and have the same problem in Outlook 2013.
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June 4th, 2013 12:58pm

I switched from a 3rd-party RSS reader to Outlook 2013 about five months ago.  Stand-alone, no Exchange.  Win7 Professional.  The checkbox mentioned repeatedly is unchecked.  But it duplicates posts constantly.

Since the behavior has apparently been consistent with Outlook's RSS reader for at least two versions, I have to conclude that Microsoft has something wrong in its implementation and doesn't care. 

I do like to get my RSS posts in Outlook.  I guess it's time to go back to a 3rd-party add-on to download them. 

September 5th, 2013 10:23pm

Same issue.  3-years in and still no solution...  Someone should probably let someone know....

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October 7th, 2013 5:11am

Same Problem with Win7-Prof and OUTLOOK 2013. Any solution found?
January 24th, 2014 7:07pm

+1  Same problem - Microsoft Security Bulletins RSS feed, I get multiple copies of old entries, e.g. so far in the past couple of days:

MS13-002
MS13-004 x3
MS13-006
MS13-039 x3
MS13-050 x2
MS13-054 x2
MS13-062 x2

:(

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July 7th, 2014 10:36pm

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has found an answer to this issue yet?  It's hard to believe this has been outstanding for almost 4.5 years now.

Are you there Microsoft?

October 20th, 2014 4:38pm

Things that do not fix the problem:

Unchecking  "Any RSS Feed item that is updated appears as new"

Creating a new outlook profile

Creating a new exchange account

Fresh windows/office installation

Changing physical computers

Yeah, you seem to have forgotten one:

Asking MS for help.

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March 5th, 2015 11:00am

Still observe this problem with 20% of my 60 RSS Feeds in Outlook 2013, all MS updates installed. Seems that MS does not look into that issue at all.
April 26th, 2015 9:11am

Since I started using Outlook 2013 and added RSS feeds I have had the same problem of duplicate feeds but to be honest I had the same issue using Opera Mail which included RSS feeds as well.

I have removed and recreated the 19 feeds I have but still duplicates persist.

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September 5th, 2015 2:41am

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