Q: Mail app shows 3 unread emails when there isn't.

MADevlin, you are my new hero. The first ten times I tried this, it would not work. Then I followed your directions for my iCloud account first, then did my regular email account. IT WORKED! Thank you!

Well, you are still my hero, but the ghost unread messages are baaaaack.

I went in a deleted my email account and then added it again  and the unread mail was gone.  It was telling me I had

5026 unread emails.  Good Luck

This worked for me, marked the top 10 emails as read then deleted them to trash

I hadn't noticed the recommended fix, but following the 11/7/13 update to Mail, the annoying 24 (fantom) unread messages I've had for ages in my Exchange inbox disappeared. Ironic that it was solved in a Mavericks update most renowned to deal with "the Gmail issue", but not in the original Mavericks release. Better late than never though. Thank goodness!

I had never had that problem with Gmail, iCloud/.mac or other accounts, just Exchange. Glad to be rid of it.

Glenn Leblanc

First, check Mail's preferences just to be sure that you have unread message count shown in the Inbox (under the general tab).

Select the mailbox and choose the rebuild function under Mailboxes in the menu.

If that doesn't work, be sure to have a backup and follow this:

Quit Mail

In the Finder, select Go, then Go to Folder. Paste this in the box:

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/

This is in your Home Library. Look for the Envelope Index files and move them to the Trash. Restart Mail and hit continue. This will reindex your messages. See if that helps.

I've had iPhones with Aol Mail since 2008. Never had a problem until iOS7. Doesn't recognize that you've read an email for 10-15 seconds. The delay in blue dot clearing and badge number changing is annoying and distracting when trying to go through unread emails quickly without having to backtrack and double check all the time. I hate ******* iOS7. It *****.

<Edited by Host>

Possible solution that worked for me.  Good Luck!

On your iPad or iPhone: Click Mailboxes in the upper left hand corner.  Look to see where the unread mail is marked, select that account.  Select Edit in the upper right hand corner, then select Mark All in the lower left.  First select Mark as unread and then go back and Mark All as read.

This worked for me:  went to my gmail account through regular website (mail.google.com). 

Typed in   is:inbox and is:unread

This pulled out the 10 emails that were outstanding for me.  Marked them as read.  Problem solved.

Thank YOU! This fixed the issue for me too. It was driving me crazy on my laptop.

Yes - this worked for me - My iPhone showed unread emails in my iCloud account though my Mac showed all as being read, The fix resilved the issue

I've had this same problem pop up every few months.  If you want to resolve on your iphone, go to the mailbox that's showing unread mail, and in the search bar just type "unread."  The mystery unread messages should load with the blue "unread" dot next to them.  You can delete/read them from there.  Hope this helps someone!

I just went into mail. Inbox. Edit in corner. Mark all in bottom corner. Mark all unread. Then mark all read. Worked for me.

This worked for me. Problem solved.

That works for me too.