Mac Mail inbox counter error - among other bugs

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AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Mac Mail inbox counter error - among other bugs

Howdy!

Mail was not well in High Sierra, definitely has the bug in Big Sur...

Mailbox counter not working.

Inbox is more or less correct some of the time.

Subfolder - folders "On My Mac" count that mail is directed to throws off this count. A message sent to "Promotional Emails" is counted as 2. So when I get 3 or 4 of these, I see 6 or 8 as the total count.

Worse, I had a draft message this morning that showed up as an inbox count. So the inbox was showing a "1" when there was no current message, just the draft. Why is this counted in the inbox?

Lastly... the counters are virtually invisible - medium grey on a light grey background - awful design.

Is there any way to fix and/or control the counts?

I believe I did a mailbox rebuild and a mailbox pref file removal a few months ago under HS but right now Mail is even worse in Big Sur.

Sure would love some answers. And a non-beta version of Mac Mail for Big Sur. Needs to be tested before being rolled out, unless I am missing a hidden setting of some sort - any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 9, 2020 10:14 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,925 points

Dec 9, 2020 10:37 AM in response to AndrewC1264

Holding down the Shift key click on the top mailbox in the side bar and then on the very bottom mail box to select all of them. Then use the Mailbox ➙ Rebuild menu option to rebuild the mailboxes.

Close Mail and then reopen. See if that will reset the count correctly.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,925 points

Dec 12, 2020 10:25 AM in response to AndrewC1264

The reason I asked is there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community. Actually they usually are more detrimental to system performance than beneficial.

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Answer 3

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 10, 2020 8:26 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks, but have done this in the past with some success, now under Big Sur - nothing works as it should.

Didn't work - subfolder is still showing "2" for every "1" message that is redirected to that folder.

And the mailbox count flags - is there **ANY** fix for this? They are unbelievably ridiculously hard to see. Why did it get switched from red to dull grey? Dull grey on a dull grey background?? Awful.

Eagerly anticipating the non-beta version of Big Sur.

Mail has lots of issues...

very slow opening Rules dialogue box
ridiculously narrow Prefs window - cannot see full name of email addresses - this has been for decades
now new fault I discovered when adding attachments, if you change the name of the recipient, deletes the attachments [is this a feature or a bug? I would figure a bug, no idea why it would remove files]
saving files - why is it when you save a message [I save emails to work dockets] it doesn't automatically save the attachments too?

So, still holding out hope for a much-improved Mac Mail. Some day.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

210,925 points

Dec 16, 2020 1:38 PM in response to AndrewC1264

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

➡︎ IMPORTANT: ⬇︎ ⬇︎ ⬇︎

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the Etrecheck's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click and read the About info to further permit full disk access.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine what might be causing the problem.

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Answer 5

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 12, 2020 8:43 AM in response to Old Toad

Have not done so for years after a nasty spell with one monitoring app that turned out to be more of a virus than what it was meant for - far too intrusive.

What I would hope for is that Apple would have sufficiently developed their Mail app and OS to handle what appears to be a relatively basic process.

What do you recommend? Hopefully not some gawd-awful app that pops up every five minutes giving me some shocking notification about an unnecessary action that must be taken.

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 6

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 16, 2020 12:33 PM in response to Old Toad

OK, thanks... but back to MacMail - especially under BS - i.e. "Big Sur" it is awful, unreliable [erroneous counter] and difficult to view [inability to discern count dots from background].

Am I stuck with this mess?

BS was just updated last night. Now the dialogue boxes in all apps are collapsed and even more of nightmare.

Not good.

Still searching for answers to Mac Mail's current dismal state.

Thanks!

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

210,925 points

Dec 16, 2020 1:28 PM in response to AndrewC1264

I found Mail under Catalina to have been more of a problem than it is under Big Sure. I have a smart mailbox for "unread" emails. It was always showing 1 or two unread emails after I have finished reading them all and deleting what I didn't want. Would have to rebuild every mailbox that I had (quite a few) to get rid of it. With Big Sur it's only happened 2-3 times since I installed it. Every Mac and installation is different due to different 3rd party apps, etc

I also have the dialog box issue. I'll be fixed in the next update as it's been discussed in the Appleseed Beta site.

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Answer 8

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 16, 2020 1:35 PM in response to Old Toad

For me MacMail under Catalina worked fine. Count was correct and I could see the notification dots.

Under BS - have stated the issues are: count is always wrong, now it adds a number for each draft to the inbox [this is an anomaly that is only just now showing up] and the medium grey counters are nearly impossible to see against the grey background.

No third party software involved. This is MacMail all by itself. Gotten worse.

And just today the dialogue box issue - lighting up other threads on this board.

But here we are trying to "help" each other when Apple is the one that should be helping.

Apple - please help. Please fix this.

We cannot fix this ourselves because we didn't create the problem.

Thanks.

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Answer 9

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 16, 2020 1:38 PM in response to AndrewC1264

The further question would be - why is the dialogue box issue being discussed at all on Appleseed?

Why wasn't it an issue with those were supposedly supposed to test the beta release?

That is mind-blowing.

Still seeking a response to assist with the inability for MacMail to add up correctly and for the notification dots to be more visible. Anyone?

Thanks.

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Answer 10

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 17, 2020 12:07 PM in response to Old Toad

Still getting updates and feedback on an OS they have already released?

Not sure that makes sense.

if they are looking for a list of fixes for MacMai I have a list a mile long... who do I send that to?

The current state of the app is just a new batch of horrors.

Thanks!

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Answer 11

AndrewC1264 Author

Level 1

15 points

Dec 17, 2020 12:16 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks, but have been doing so for YEARS and nothing has been done about things like the Prefs dialogue box being too narrow, the Rules list taking ages to open, saving attachments not working automatically... really don't have time to keep posting to Apple on issues that should have been fixed mid-2000s and persist to this day. Gotta get back to work. Thanks.

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