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Every item in my 'To Do List' suddenly has a duplicate--why?

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Wednesday, May 13, 2020 3:13 AM

TL;DR I just added a new Exchange account to Outlook, and as an immediate result, all of the existing items in my 'To-Do list' were duplicated (screenshot).  Any ideas why this happened, or how to resolve it?

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For the past several years, I have used Outlook 2013 (Windows 10) to manage my email, calendar, and tasks.  I've had several IMAP email accounts for my email.  My calendar/tasks were stored in a single PST file on my computer.   If I open Tasks-->'Tasks' view, it would show all my tasks, both completed and in-progress.  If I open Tasks-->'To-Do list' view, it would show all my in-progress tasks.  To Outlook, I just added a new Exchange account (Office365), which I thought would be for email only.  I can now manage that email account in Outlook, as expected/desired.  But when I now open Tasks-->'To-Do list' view, it shows a duplicate of every entry in the list (screenshot).  Any ideas why, or how to remove the duplicates?

  • If I delete entry in the To-Do list, its duplicate entry is also deleted.  
  • If I create a new entry in the To-Do list, a duplicate is automatically created. 
  • If I open Tasks-->'Tasks' view, there are no duplicates (screenshot).
  • In my Reminders window, there are no duplicates (screenshot).
  • If I open Calendar, there is still only one calendar displayed--there are no duplicate entries of any kind there.
  • I tried to reset my Outlook Task view, but that didn't do anything.

Thanks in advance.

All replies (10)

Friday, May 22, 2020 6:57 AM ✅Answered

Hi cagross99,

Thanks for your reply.

>> I tried this.  When I opened the new profile in Outlook, and loaded the PST file, the duplicate issue was not present.

According to your tests, it seems that your issue is indeed related to your Outlook profile. There might be something wrong with your profile which cause your duplicate issue. Outlook profile contains not only the view settings we have already troubleshoted, but also some other settings like registry settings and others. There is indeed no simpler way to solve this issue so far. 

To resolve your issue, it is suggested for you to create a new profile, add the Exchange account and import your PST file to see if there is any difference. If they can all work fine, you could continue to add other email accounts.

Hope this can be helpful.

Regards,

Jeff Yang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Wednesday, May 13, 2020 9:35 AM

Hi ,

>> I just added a new Exchange account to Outlook, and as an immediate result, all of the existing items in my 'To-Do list' were duplicated.
I tested a lot in my environment but can not reproduced your issue. 

According to your description, your issue came after you added the Exchange account. To confirm if the issue is related to this Exchange account, it is suggested to remove your Exchange account from your Outlook and see if the issue has any difference. You could also try to log in to the webmail of the Exchange account and check if you can see those duplicates items.

To conduct further researches on your issue, please try the following suggestions and see if it works:

  1. I noticed that you are using the cag-tasks view in your To-Do list. Please try the other views and see if the issue has any difference.(such as Detailed View via View > Current View > Change View)
  2. As I know, To-do list view and task view are independent of each other. It is suggested to click your To-do list and choose "Reset View" to see if there is any difference. Or you can try the /cleanviews command  (Press Win + R, type “Outlook.exe /cleanviews”, press Enter) and see if it works.
  3. There could be some add-ins in your Outlook client that cause this issue, so it is suggested to start your Outlook in safe mode (Press Win + R, type “outlook /safe”, press Enter.) and see if the issue continues.

Hope this can be helpful.

Regards,

Jeff Yang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Thursday, May 14, 2020 3:54 AM

>> To confirm if the issue is related to this Exchange account, it is suggested to remove your Exchange account from your Outlook and see if the issue has any difference.

I haven't done that yet.  That is a bit involved, so I want to do that as a last resort step.

>> You could also try to log in to the webmail of the Exchange account and check if you can see those duplicates items.

I have done that.  When I login to the Office365 account online, and open Outlook-->To Do List, it is empty.

>> so it is suggested to start your Outlook in safe mode (Press Win + R, type “outlook /safe”, press Enter.) and see if the issue continues.

I tried that, but there was no change.

>> It is suggested to click your To-do list and choose "Reset View" to see if there is any difference.

The 'Reset View' button is disabled--I cannot click it.

>> Or you can try the /cleanviews command  (Press Win + R, type “Outlook.exe /cleanviews”, press Enter) and see if it works.

I tried this.  It did indeed reset the view of the 'To Do' list.  But there was no change in the issue. 

>> I noticed that you are using the cag-tasks view in your To-Do list. Please try the other views and see if the issue has any difference.(such as Detailed View via View > Current View > Change View)

I tried a few.  They all changed the view, but the issue remained.

Thoughts?

Also, at this point, how can I revert back to the 'cag-views' view?

Saturday, May 16, 2020 5:30 AM

Also, as a test, I did this.  I made a copy of the PST file in-question (the PST file containing calendar and tasks), and moved it to another computer.  That new computer also has Outlook 2013 installed--but this installation has zero mail accounts added.  I opened the PST file in that Outlook, and the issue is not present--there are no duplicates in the To-Do list.

Tuesday, May 19, 2020 9:36 AM

Hi ,

Thanks for your reply.

I am still researching on your issue.

Any updates, I will post back as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Jeff Yang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Tuesday, May 19, 2020 10:14 AM

OK thanks, keep me posted.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020 9:07 AM

Hi cagross99,

>> I opened the PST file in that Outlook, and the issue is not present--there are no duplicates in the To-Do list.
To further confirm if your issue is related to the new Exchange account you added, please try the same operations you did on the new computer, adding the same Exchange account to that Outlook and checking if your issue could be reproduced.

If they can all work fine on the new computer, I'm afraid that there might be something wrong with your Outlook client. According to your tests, it seems that your datafile is normal. Please try the suggestions below to troubleshot your Outlook client:

  1. Navigation Pane may also cause display issues. Please try running the /resetnavpane command and see if there is any difference. (Press Win + R, type “Outlook.exe /resetnavpane”, press Enter).
  2. Corrupted profile can lead this issue, so please try creating and using a new Outlook profile via Control Panel > Mail > Show profile and open the PST file you copied to see if it works.
  3. If the issue continues, please try repairing your Office.

Besides, the /cleanviews command will remove all the custom views and change Outlook view to default. To revert back to the 'cag-views' view, we need to re-customize the view. These steps below may be helpful to you:

  1. Click view > change view > Manage All Views.
  2. Copy the Prooritized view and modify its name as you wish.
  3. Click OK > Columns, modify the columns you need.
  4. Select your custom view via view > change view.

Sorry for the inconvenience to you.

Hope this can be helpful.

Regards,

Jeff Yang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Wednesday, May 20, 2020 3:41 PM

>> To further confirm if your issue is related to the new Exchange account you added, please try the same operations you did on the new computer, adding the same Exchange account to that Outlook and checking if your issue could be reproduced.

I don't want to do this yet, for fear of corrupting the Outlook on that new computer.  If anything, I'll try to remove the Exchange account from my original computer.

>> Navigation Pane may also cause display issues. Please try running the /resetnavpane command and see if there is any difference. (Press Win + R, type “Outlook.exe /resetnavpane”, press Enter).

I tried this, but there was no change.

>> Corrupted profile can lead this issue, so please try creating and using a new Outlook profile via Control Panel > Mail > Show profile and open the PST file you copied to see if it works.

I tried this.  When I opened the new profile in Outlook, and loaded the PST file, the duplicate issue was not present.

>>If the issue continues, please try repairing your Office.

I tried this, but there was no change.

>>Besides, the /cleanviews command will remove all the custom views and change Outlook view to default. To revert back to the 'cag-views' view, we need to re-customize the view.

Wish I had known that before running it :-/

Is there anything else I can try to fix my problem?  Creating a new profile is very tedious, considering I have 10 different email accounts I have to re-add.  

Tuesday, May 26, 2020 9:02 AM

Hi ,

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back.

Regards,

Jeff Yang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Sunday, May 31, 2020 5:22 AM

Your post was informational--thank you.  But I wouldn't really call it helpful.  Creating a new profile seems to be the only 'solution' with many Outlook 2013 issues, but it's essentially the same as saying, "Re-install and hope the issue goes away."  I've already created a new profile several times, because of previous Outlook issues.  But since I have ~10 IMAP email accounts to re-add to my Outlook, and a separate PST file, creating a new Outlook profile is quite time consuming, and comes with its own set of potential issues.  It's so undesirable that in this case, I'll simply continue to use the existing Outlook account, and remove the Office365 account.

We can consider this resolved.