mail.app messages disappearing when using "read" filter.

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Level 1

15 points

mail.app messages disappearing when using "read" filter.

When I'm reading my mail, using the "sort by unread" filter, like this:

I find that about half the time, once I click on an unread message, the message is marked as read, and messages disappear and the whole list re-sorts itself before I can reply-to, forward, or do anything else with it.

The pane at right immediately goes to saying "No Message Selected".

Other times, the app functions as expected and I can actually interact with the message I just clicked on.

Is anyone else hitting this annoying behavior?

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Oct 3, 2022 11:06 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

65,522 points

Oct 3, 2022 11:35 AM in response to GushiPerson

I take it that you have the preview pane open (either to the right or the bottom of the message list).

The moment a message is selected, it id displayed in the preview pane and considered “read”.

This is how the application works.

I prefer to simply NOT have the preview pane open. This eliminates your problem too. Only when you actually open a message is it marked “read”.

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Answer 2

GushiPerson Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 3, 2022 11:47 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

You are correct -- I am using the "three column view". I do not want to have to double-click every message to open it in its own pane to act on it.

My current view options are as follows:

You say the moment it is selected it's considered read, but then why do some messages stick around in the preview pane even when read? What I'm looking for is consistent behavior.

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Answer 3

Oct 3, 2022 11:53 PM in response to GushiPerson

Whatever message is selected will show in the preview pane - that is what it is there for.

In your case, you are also filtering only unread messages.

You can easily see what I mean: turn off filtering for a moment. Unread messages show a blue dot on the left - like this one I received with your last post:

What happens when you select one that message? It displays in the preview pane, and loses the blue dot (meaning it is "read").

What would constitute "read" in this case? The way the software works is that once the message is opened, it is marked read. In this case this happens when it is shown in the preview pane.

There is no way for your computer to known if you actually read it or not.

How would one even determine that?

That is why I suggested closing the preview pane. Then the act of (more deliberately, if you will) opening a message marks it read.

You can't have it both ways, I am afraid.

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Answer 4

GushiPerson Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 4, 2022 10:43 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis,

I feel like you don't get the problem here.

You show me a screenshot above where you have enough time to highlight a message in the list pane, the blue dot has disappeared, and yet, it is still somehow visible in the preview pane. It has not instantly disappeared because the app has refreshed. You had enough time to go take a screenshot.

If this feature worked the way you described it, there would be no reason to ever display the preview pane, other than to see how fast your mail server can update that "read" flag and mail.app can reread the mail box.

I can sometimes leave mail.app with a message sitting in the preview pane for hours -- and it's still there when I come back, and at other times, it disappears in seconds. The app is inconsistent, that's the problem.

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2022 10:59 AM in response to GushiPerson

I TOTALLY understand.

Of course, in my screenshots, I did NOT have filtering by unread - that is why I could still see the messages - I showed that the blue dot had disappeared, proving that the status of the message had changed to “read”.

Obviously, if I had been filtered by unread messages, it would by then had disappeared.

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mail.app messages disappearing when using "read" filter.

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