JM writes, "Hi, I've been receiving your newsletters for at least 5 years, and enjoy. Strange, but every month or so, old columns back as far as '02 reappear as emails and in trash. These have been deleted for years, even on an old computer which is gone. Sometimes as many as 25 reappear and have to be deleted again?? Last time was today, 15 I believe. Is there any explanation and cure?" 

I had a similar situation last year.  When my old newsletter emails appeared in another subscriber's inbox, she thought that I was spamming her, and I definitely was not. Although it may seem to JM there are ghosts in her computer, there is an explanation.

If you are using an email program like Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora and are using the most common type of email (called POP3), your ISP (Internet Service Provider) keeps your email on their mail server until your computer tells them to delete the old email. This is done through the settings in your email program.

There is a place in every email program where the user stipulates how long to leave the old email on the server.  If you leave your email on the server and never delete it, that mail will eventually fill up your server space causing a notice from your ISP. Also, there may be an occasional glitch during which old mail is redeposited in the inbox, which is probably what is happening to JW.

The amount of time that your email is kept on the mail server is important. If it is never deleted, it can cause problems like JW's. If your mail is deleted from the server after a few days and you go on vacation for two weeks, your email will be deleted before you download it to your computer and you may miss important email. 

So the best bet is to configure your email program to keep the mail on the server for a certain period of time. For most people, 30 days is a good choice. That way if you go on vacation for a few weeks, your mail will still be on the server and will be downloaded to your computer when you return and start your email program. If there are times when you are away from your computer for more than 30 days, you can choose more time, like 60 days.

Also if you get your email on more than one computer, you can configure one to leave it on the server and configure the other to delete it after a certain number of days.

Unfortunately, in most email programs, it takes quite a few clicks to see how your email account is configured and to change the amount of time that your email is being kept on the server.

If you are using Outlook Express you can configure the program to keep the mail on the server for a certain number of day by following these instructions" click Accounts on the Tools menu, and then click the Mail tab. Double-click the mail account you want to configure, and then click the Advanced tab. Click the Leave a copy of messages on server  check box to select it. Then click the Remove from server after __ days check box to select it. Enter the number of days you want the mail to remain on the server. Click OK, and then click Close. Be sure to quit and then restart Outlook Express to make the change take effect.

If you are using a different email program you will find the process similar. You can get detailed instructions from the help menu by typing in "account settings".  Or you can call your ISP. Most of the time, they will be happy to walk you through the directions for changing the settings in your email program. They will be especially happy to have you delete old mail from their servers, since it frees up space on their hard drives.