Looking for a way to remove recurring tasks from Outlook? If so, read this article. In this article, you will find an easy way to remove duplicate tasks in Outlook. So keep reading this blog till the end to know more.
Tasks are data items that you create in Outlook to track tasks until completion. With Tasks, you can create a single list of tasks in Outlook, with the addition of reminders and follow-ups. But sometimes, when a user tries to create a task, it will show twice in the task pane, and when they try to delete a duplicate task in Outlook, the other task will be deleted automatically as well.
So, in all these situations, users look for other solutions to fix or delete duplicate tasks in Outlook. Therefore, this article describes several methods to delete multiple tasks in Outlook.
Main Reasons for Duplicate Tasks in Outlook
- Duplicate emails can be confusing. The user cannot confirm if the email has been answered. If you keep replying to the same email multiple times, it will create more confusion between team members and customers.
- Duplicate emails can unnecessarily increase the Outlook data file size. Outlook application slows down. This has had a negative impact on the manufacturing industry. It takes longer to log in and respond to new emails.
- Outlook backups will take up more space, and if you store your backups on any external cloud storage, you will have to pay more for the extra space.
Manual Method to Remove Duplicate Tasks in Outlook Account
Method 1: Change the View Setup for the Tasks folder
There may be multiple entries in the MS Outlook task folder. One of the main reasons for this problem is the display settings. Users can change display settings to remove duplicate assignments. For example, if you have assigned a task to two categories, say red and blue. And if you sort your activities based on one of these categories, the individual activities will be listed in red and blue categories. So you can easily solve the duplication problem by changing the display settings.
Here are the steps to remove duplicate tasks from Outlook by manually changing the view settings in Outlook:
- First, go to the Activities folder and remove the duplicate activities from the Activities view. This will display all tasks in the list view
- On the View button, Press Change View and then select Detailed
- To change the display settings, click the Display tab >> Display Settings. Display settings
- The Simple List Advanced View Settings dialog opens. Now select the Sort button. Advanced settings
- The Sort dialog box appears. Select Object in the Sort items by box. Then click the OK button. Sort the items
- A warning dialog is displayed. Pick the Yes option to confirm the view change. click Yes Note: If you have selected a task folder other than the task folder, you can skip steps 3 to 6. Click Object directly in the column header. Sort the activities by topic. See the image below for how to delete duplicate tasks by manually selecting the tasks you want to delete
- Finally, select the duplicate activities one by one by comparing similar activities.
Note: Use the Ctrl key to select multiple tasks one by one. This will speed up the process.
Method 2: Remove Duplicate Items in Outlook
Sometimes there may be a problem with the “taskbar”. This can cause multiple tasks to be created in Outlook. This is a fatal issue that has caused problems for many Outlook 2010 users. This issue can be resolved by resetting the Outlook Tasks folder to its default configuration. Here are the steps to reset MS Outlook 2010 taskbar to remove duplicate tasks:
- Click Start or press the Windows key
- Search for the word “Run” and press Enter
- A small “Run” box will appear on the screen
- Then type outlook.exe / resettodobar in the output window
- Then press Enter.outlook.exe / reset todo bar
- Afterwards, Outlook can be started with the Work Folders reconfigured. To check this, you can close Outlook and reopen it for normal use. This will automatically remove all types of redundancy.
Shortcomings of Free Solution
The free solutions above are not suitable for non-technical users. All methods require knowledge of how to use it. Also, it is a time-consuming process and sometimes users may lose their important data during the printing process.
Automatic Software to Remove Duplicate Tasks in Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010
To overcome the limitations of the manual method when trying to remove duplicate recipients, there is a third-party tool, Outlook Duplicate Remover Software. Users can easily remove duplicate task from Outlook profiles in minutes. This app has no file size limit. This software provides advanced options to delete duplicate email addresses in Outlook in or in a folder.
This software is associated with many features and an intuitive interface. To remove duplicate entries task in Outlook using this utility, users need to follow below steps:
Complete Guide to Remove Multiple Duplicate tasks from Outlook
- Launch automatic Software
- Click the Add File or Add Folder option to add the PST / OST / BAK file
- Next, select the first radio button to remove duplicates in a Within folder from other PST files or the second radio button to remove duplicates in the Across folder. And then click the Next button
- Once the PST file is added, you can see all the folders inside it. The module here allows you to easily select and deselect folders
- Now click on the Destination option to Choose the desired destination location to save the resulting file
- Check the box in the Select item type section to remove duplicate data from emails, contacts, calendar, diary, tasks and notes
- You can now select the Apply Filter option, which gives you the freedom to add multiple date filters of your choice
- After selecting the date filter, the next step is to select the action you want to apply to the duplicate items, such as permanently delete, move to deleted folder, move to folder, mark and mark as expired
- Select the Next button to start the deduplication process
- Once the duplication process is complete, click the OK button.
Conclusion
The above writing has covered all the ways to remove duplicate tasks from Outlook. However, it can be a time-consuming process. So it can’t be a permanent solution. To remove duplicate tasks in Outlook, users can consider manual approach or automated solutions as described.
