Email Issues Between Outlook 2016 and POP3 Accounts

If you are using a combination of Outlook 2016 and a POP3 email account you may be seeing emails removed from the server side before you expect them to be. This could result in some emails not being downloaded to other devices.

Richard Hay, Senior Content Producer

March 3, 2016

2 Min Read
Email Issues Between Outlook 2016 and POP3 Accounts

Having any issues with deleted or duplicated emails lately?

Well we have come across a Microsoft Support Knowledge Base article that will be of interest to anyone out there using Outlook 2016 and POP3 accounts.

The article, KB3145116, describes the following as the symptoms that are indicative of this issue:

  • 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.

The issues described above occur if you are using Outlook 2016 version 16.0.6568.2025 and have setup any email accounts that are accessed using the POP3 protocol.

There are three settings that may cause the inadvertent and unexpected removal or duplication of emails if you have the Leave a copy of messages on the Server enabled along with these options:

  • If Remove from server after X days is enabled it may cause emails to be deleted from your account on the server.

  • If Remove from server after X days is disabled it may cause emails to be duplicated in your local account.

Microsoft is currently looking into this problem and will update the knowledge base article once they have more information. I am sure an appropriate update will also be shipped once they know what needs to be updated/modified.

In the interim they have published two workaround options for this which include using IMAP instead of POP3, if your service provider supports it of course, while the second method is to revert back to a previous version of Outlook/Office 2016.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to use either of those options so hopefully this gets resolved sooner rather than later.

If you can take advantage of either workaround you can get the full step by step process on the KB3145116 page at Microsoft's Support site.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

About the Author

Richard Hay

Senior Content Producer, IT Pro Today (Informa Tech)

I served for 29 plus years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer in November 2011. My work background in the Navy was telecommunications related so my hobby of computers fit well with what I did for the Navy. I consider myself a tech geek and enjoy most things in that arena.

My first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then I used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and WindowsObserver.com is the result of the work I have done on that site since 1995.

In January 2010 my community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when I received my first Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the Windows Operating System. Since then I have been renewed as a Microsoft MVP each subsequent year since that initial award. I am also a member of the inaugural group of Windows Insider MVPs which began in 2016.

I previously hosted the Observed Tech PODCAST for 10 years and 317 episodes and now host a new podcast called Faith, Tech, and Space. 

I began contributing to Penton Technology websites in January 2015 and in April 2017 I was hired as the Senior Content Producer for Penton Technology which is now Informa Tech. In that role, I contribute to ITPro Today and cover operating systems, enterprise technology, and productivity.

https://twitter.com/winobs

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