Edward

Q: Phantom messages in Mail

I have two similar problems in Mail within Mavericks - essential a message count (of unread messages) is showing in the side bar when there aren't any in practice. This is currently happening for the following:

 

1. the 'Flagged' folder under 'Mailboxes' in the side bar. This shows 22 flagged messages - one red and 21 green. The green count is sort of correct (it shows that they are unread when in reality they have all been read and show as read when I click on the folder). However, when I click on the red flag folder, it says 1 unread when in reality there are no messages in that folder (either read or unread).

 

I've searched in Mail - status: Message is Flagged and it only brings up the green flags.

 

Any idea how I might get rid of this rouge label of 1 unread message? If I can also get rid of the 21 'unread' green flags that'd be a bonus too.

 

2. I have a smart mailbox which has the criterion to show unread emails (as emails generally go directly into their respective folders so this way I can see unread emails all in one place). Currently, this shows 4 in the sidebar. However, I have no unread emails (either in this smart mailbox or in any other mailbox in Mail).

 

I've tried rebuilding various mailboxes, I've restarted Mail and the computer. I've removed messages from the server.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Edward

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 10:40 AM

Close

Q: Phantom messages in Mail

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next
  • by opmc78,

    opmc78 opmc78 Jun 26, 2014 2:44 AM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 26, 2014 2:44 AM in response to William Kucharski

    Thank you William Kucharski - worked a charm!

  • by funcritic,

    funcritic funcritic Aug 18, 2014 9:51 AM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 18, 2014 9:51 AM in response to William Kucharski

    Worked like a dream.  Flagged messages said I had 5 but there were only 2.  Did as William Kucharski advised, plus rebooted before going into mail, and all the phantom messages had gone and I was left with the 2 that I wanted.  Thank you William!

  • by bastings,

    bastings bastings Sep 13, 2014 2:25 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 13, 2014 2:25 AM in response to Edward

    I updated to mavericks last night and now i had 11 marked e-mails. But when going to that mailbox "marked e-mails" it was empty.

    I just did what you advice and that helps!

    Thanks!

  • by H-Dog,

    H-Dog H-Dog Oct 27, 2014 9:14 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (70 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 9:14 AM in response to Edward

    I continued to see this issue in Yosemite with a smart mailbox showing 2 unread messages even when no other mailbox showed unread items. The solution was embarassingly simple and obvious, hopefully helps others who are still seeing this:

     

    1) Create new Smart Mailbox

         - name "All Unread"

         - match "All" conditions

         - "Message is Unread" as only condition

         - check boxes to include form Trash and Sent

    2) Select all messages inside new "All Unread" mailbox

         - Note: for me, all of these were marked as unread

    3) Mark all selected messages as "Unread"

    4) Mark all selected messages as "Read"

     

    Doing this quickly and simply solved my problem. I didn't dig into it, but I assume the multiple databases tracking unread message counts got misaligned - this process brings them all into sync.

  • by John Armbruster,

    John Armbruster John Armbruster Nov 25, 2014 5:29 PM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Nov 25, 2014 5:29 PM in response to Edward

    Just wanted to add that I have this same problem in Yosemite.

  • by WarrenO,

    WarrenO WarrenO Dec 4, 2014 1:09 PM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 4, 2014 1:09 PM in response to William Kucharski

    Running 10.10 (Yosemite), same problem - William's advice worked.

     

    This doesn't destroy any mail data; it just updates the databases.

  • by philipfifibachinger,

    philipfifibachinger philipfifibachinger Dec 15, 2014 2:46 PM in response to WarrenO
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 15, 2014 2:46 PM in response to WarrenO

    Easiest way:

     

    1. In Spotlight Search

    2. Search "Spotlight"

    3. open Spotlight System Preferences Menu

    4. Privacy Tab

    5. + Add Macintosh HD

    6. - Remove Macintosh HD

    7. done

    8. just Wait till Flag Database is rebuilt

    9. actually done

     

    Flagged Mails in Smart Folders disappear for some time, rebuilding might take up to a few hours.

  • by jnew84,

    jnew84 jnew84 Dec 29, 2014 8:15 AM in response to philipfifibachinger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 29, 2014 8:15 AM in response to philipfifibachinger

    philipfifibachinger's suggestion is BY FAR the easiest way to fix the problem of flags not going away. I've had this problem several times now and have found that to be the easiest fix every time.

     

    A couple notes about his post though:

     

    1. Your spotlight system preferences may not appear in your spotlight search. If not, just click on the apple in the upper left corner of your screen, click system preferences, and click on spotlight.

     

    2. Your computer might not be named Macintosh HD. In fact, most people have probably renamed it "John Doe's Macbook Air" or something like that. In any event, add that drive to the privacy list as explained by philip and then remove it a few seconds later.

     

    3. It will take some time for the indexing to be done and for the flagged folders to rebuild. When you start a spotlight search, you'll see a status bar showing how long the indexing has left.

  • by 3GShelp,

    3GShelp 3GShelp Jan 2, 2015 2:19 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2015 2:19 AM in response to Edward

    Using philipfifibachinger's Spotlight derived solution to rebuild didn't work for me unfortunately; I still had the Flagged unread count, despite having no messages showing in the Flagged folder.  After some concern about deleting files from the system along the lines of William Kucharski's  instructions given the various subsequent posts about machines left hanging, I decided to do a full back up and then try William's method.

     

    It worked perfectly for me on Yosemite 10.10.1.  Note for my Mail with c50k messages, the Flagged folder disappeared completely to start with, returning 5 or 10 minutes later.  My heart sank, but as suggested the folder now actually contained the Flagged messages which I could then deal with.  Many thanks William Kucharski.

  • by dfoi,

    dfoi dfoi Jan 21, 2015 10:33 AM in response to Wolf.NBM
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 21, 2015 10:33 AM in response to Wolf.NBM

    Add my name to the list....the suggested fix by William Kucharski worked like a charm.

    My thanks for your assistance. Reimporting the mail took a few minutes ....not a problem.

  • by ianmchenry,

    ianmchenry ianmchenry Mar 18, 2015 4:11 PM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2015 4:11 PM in response to William Kucharski

    But it deleted all but 1 of my Flags....

     

    apologies, that database was just rebuilding - all back now

  • by frayjoal,

    frayjoal frayjoal Mar 24, 2015 9:09 PM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 24, 2015 9:09 PM in response to William Kucharski

    This fix also worked for me (Macbook Air running OS X Yosemite).  Had 98 phantom flagged mails.  Now clean as a whistle.

    Steps taken:

    1.  Removed Gmail account.

    2.  Applied fix.

    3.  Added gmail account after.

     

    Thanks man!

  • by Van-D,

    Van-D Van-D Apr 16, 2015 7:20 PM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2015 7:20 PM in response to William Kucharski

    Many thanks for helping with this vexatious problem.

  • by Jim Geldermann,Helpful

    Jim Geldermann Jim Geldermann May 10, 2015 6:00 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 10, 2015 6:00 AM in response to Edward

    From other posts I've surmised that Mail's indexing uses Spotlight. Bouncing Spotlight solve my problem of 3 mysterious unread messages indicated on the Unread smart mailbox.  My problem popped up with a recent 10.10 update.

     

    From Terminal

     

    Go to root directory cd ./

     

    Turn off Spotlight sudo mdutil -i off /

     

    Turn on Spotlight sudo mdutil -i on /

  • by CallmeDougP,

    CallmeDougP CallmeDougP Sep 20, 2015 5:46 PM in response to Jim Geldermann
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 20, 2015 5:46 PM in response to Jim Geldermann

    Thanks Jim,

     

    This worked for me, and was the simplest of all the solutions I had seen so far.

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next