Issue Duplicate email keeps reappearing in my IMAP inbox

[saelwell]

A single email keeps reappearing in my webmail inbox (before I download it to Outlook). This is hosted on my Plesk VPS. It stays there until I delete it, when it reappears some time later. It is not coming through the Postfix mail server (there is no log entry). I have restarted both Postfix and Dovecot services. The headers are all identical except for one entry at the end prefixed X-OlkEid that changes slightly. I do not see this X-OlkEid entry in any other emails, including those from the same sender and I do not know what it is (Outlook??).

Can anyone suggest why this might be happening and how I can stop it?

This email has most of its content missing although inspecting the source shows several hundred lines of the form

<w:LsdException Locked=3D"false" SemiHidden=3D"true" =
UnhideWhenUsed=3D"true" Name=3D"Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked=3D"false" SemiHidden=3D"true" =
UnhideWhenUsed=3D"true" Name=3D"E-mail Signature"/>

and

<w:LsdException Locked=3D"false" Priority=3D"66" Name=3D"Medium List 2 =
Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked=3D"false" Priority=3D"67" Name=3D"Medium Grid 1 =
Accent 4"/>

The full header:

Received: from 192.161.149.41 by mail.sneakemail.com with SMTP;
15 Sep 2020 16:57:17 -0000
Received: from sneak2.sneakemail.com (sneak2.sneakemail.com [64.46.159.148])
by localhost.localdomain (Postfix) with ESMTP id CBFAC802AF
for <[email protected]>; Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:57:17 +0100 (BST)
Received: from zendesk.com (unknown [10.221.28.146]) by
outbyoip11.pod23.use1.zdsys.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BrTt502YKz3hhTW
for <[email protected]>; Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:57:16 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from sneaked (ip-172-17-0-3.ec2.internal [172.17.0.3])
by 66321a2d97ce.localdomain (Postfix) with ESMTP id 59FD96000B
for <[email protected]>; Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:57:17 +0000 (UTC)
Reply-To: "WinZip Support help-at-winzip.com |Winzip/Stephen ME Allow|" <[email protected]>
From: "WinZip Support help-at-winzip.com |Winzip/Stephen ME Allow|" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>,
"Stephen Elwell-Sutton" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
In-Reply-To: <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: WinZip Registration Info
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:57:16 +0100
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0076_01D697EE.CD15D8E0"
X-Mailer: Zendesk Mailer
X-Original-To: [email protected]
Authentication-Results: localhost.localdomain;
dmarc=none (p=NONE sp=NONE) smtp.from=sneakemail.com header.from=sneakemail.com;
dkim=pass header.d=sneakemail.com;
spf=pass (sender IP is 64.46.159.148) smtp.mailfrom=[email protected] smtp.helo=sneak2.sneakemail.com
X-Sneakemail-Label: Winzip
X-Sneakemail-Address: [email protected]
X-Sneakemail-Tag: Stephen ME Allow
X-Sneakemail-From: WinZip Support <[email protected]>
X-Sneakemail-Is-Sneakemail: yes
X-Sneakemail-Folder-Path: /Desktop/Registration - Software
Thread-Index: AQI1n94kIPSD123u0c97wIOv5CtYkwHVTuzNAXpBxcUBZXXwdQGbjV3F
Content-Language: en-gb
X-Auto-Response-Suppress: All
X-Delivery-Context: event-id-1294592208693
X-Zendesk-From-Account-ID: 9921187
X-OlkEid: 00000000A16639FDA9529544AB3558B0599350390700C3B68E10F77511CEB4CD00AA00BBB6E600000000000C0000D9539C2261A6BB45B9DAB62C7081B3C101008F140000000089590AA4EB27C446903C75C1E4660D58

Thanks,

Stephen

 

[Bitpalast]

It is probably happening, because a second device that is also using the same mailbox is restoring that very mail from its cache when it finds out that the mail is missing from the mailbox on the server.

 

[saelwell]

Thanks. It's curious that it's only this one email that keeps reappearing. I do have a second device (phone) that connects to the same IMAP account but I've not seen any problem before.

 

[saelwell]

Where does X-OlkEid fit in? Has Outlook somehow added this to the header? I ask because I have both POP and IMAP on this account in my Outlook and I wonder if somehow the IMAP account in Outlook is pushing this email back up to the server?

 

[saelwell]

It is probably happening, because a second device that is also using the same mailbox is restoring that very mail from its cache when it finds out that the mail is missing from the mailbox on the server.

Thanks Peter Debik for pointing me in the right direction. The IMAP account in my Outlook was corrupted. Removing the account, deleting the .ost file and reinstating the IMAP account seems to have fixed the problem.