How to Remove Duplicate Entries from Outlook
If you sync Outlook with your smartphone, Google, and other devices and services, it's not uncommon to end up with duplicate items -- contacts, appointment listings, and so on. Unfortunately, finding and removing all those dupes can be a major hassle.
Old favorite Outlook Duplicate Items Remover (ODIR for short) quickly eliminates duplicate contacts, calendar entries, tasks, notes, and even e-mails. It's free, and it works.
Dave and I have both written about ODIR before, but not for a while -- and it's too good a utility not to revisit on occasion. What's more, the latest version (1.4.4) includes support for Outlook 2010, and I was able to make good use of it just today.
After closing Outlook and installing the add-in, restart Outlook and look for the newly added ODIR menu. (In Outlook 2010, you'll find it under the Add-Ins tab.) Click it, then click Remove Duplicate Items.
Next, choose the folder you want ODIR to scan. It'll find duplicates and relocate them to a sub-folder (without actually deleting anything, thankfully). Repeat the process for other folders if desired. And if you find something in the ODIR sub-folder that shouldn't have been deleted, it's an easy matter to restore it.
In my new Outlook 2010 installation, ODIR found and removed 127 calendar duplicates that had somehow been produced by syncing with Google Calendar. Doesn't get any easier than that.
Indeed, ODIR is one of the world's freeware champs. If you're plagued by duplicate data, it will almost certainly solve the problem. It's compatible with all versions of Outlook as far back as 2000.
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