Incorrect badge notifications on messages

I've also tried marking all as read and scrolling through all my messages, yet my unread messages still shows 12 on my iPhone 13 Mini iOS 16.2. What fixed is for me was triggering "Hey Siri, read my messages"

Simply select few messages .. set that as unread and then then again selet messages> mark all as read

Does anyone else find it frustrating that people have to suggest labor-intensive hacks just to make the notification feature work properly?

Hi, here's a brief step-by-step of the resolutions. With an “automated” solution for those that have a high count (like I had).

Firstly, if you have a car with Siri on CarPlay, you'll probably prefer @Techloop's solution. Check it out at the end.

Otherwise, the trick is that Siri can read your past unread messages. The counter is shown because, while Siri reads the latest message in all conversations, some unread messages remain inside your conversations.

Here's the basic trick:

1. Say, "Hey Siri, read my messages."
2. Interrupt Siri after each message by saying, "Hey Siri, next."

Thanks to @tying for this!

Now for my "automated" version:

1. Get a second phone.
2. Place your iPhone out of hearing range, then record yourself saying the following with pauses: "(1-second break) Hey Siri (1-second break) Next! (2-second break)."
3. Place your iPhone and the second phone next to each other in a quiet environment.
4. Command Siri with "Hey Siri, read my messages."
5. Play your recorded audio on loop.
6. If it glitches, you might need to repeat, "Hey Siri, read my messages."
7. Your recorded audio should be about 6 seconds long, so the "automated" solution will take roughly 10 minutes for every 100 unread messages.
8. Enjoy a proper message counter ❤️

Techloop wrote:

My Approach: I've devised a more efficient strategy by employing Siri on CarPlay. Leveraging the skip button feature, I managed to handle 500 messages in less than 10 minutes. This new method significantly streamlines the process compared to the conventional approach, enhancing both speed and efficacy.

"Hey Siri, read my unread messages" works in my case however there are still 140 messages to go. There has to be a better way! OK - After Siri reads your message, the ask is always "Do you want to reply to the group?" and the answer is always "No". So as Siri starts reading a message, tap the Siri circle and say "no". Siri starts dictating the next message, tap the Siri circle and say "no". Repeat. This cycle is probably ~3-4 seconds. I'm down to 117.

Hi Fidel2002, We appreciate you reaching out to us. We’d like to gather additional details that may help us be in a better position to assist you. Do you have a different Apple device that is signed in to the same Apple ID?

If yes, are you experiencing a similar issue with your other device? These details can help us in isolating the issue.

Let's try to tag all messages as Read.

1. Launch the Messages app
2. Tap edit on the upper left-hand corner
3. Tap Select Messages
4. Tap Read All on the lower left-hand corner

Take care!

Non of these solutions worked for me. What did is turning iMessage off then holding power and home to force a restart (will be different on non home button devices) When my iPad restarted, the message count was cleared and iMessage was turned back on. This is on an iPad mini 2 running iOS 12.

This fixed the issue on my iPhone 13 where 22 messages were unread. The issue is likely due to conversation threads where the most recent message is read and the ones before have been left unread. Apple needs to find a fix. If Siri can detect these unread messages, they are known to the iOS and must show up in unread messages. This is a long standing issue continuing over several generations of iOS

I had three incorrect notification on iMessages.

I said “hey siri, read texts”

She read me three messages from over a year ago.

Notifications disappeared.

it took two minute to fix.

@tying his a genius.

THANK YOU!!! Asking Siri to read my messages actually worked.

Funny thing is, all the ghost messages she “read” were spam messages from politicians trying to get me to vote. 🤦🏽‍♂️😩

I imported the message from an Android phone.

And more than 2000 messages unread.

I tried a process that works for me:

1. Scroll all the way down in the message list, and the unread messages appeared.
2. Tap ... on the top right corner
3. Choose select messages
4. Tap read all

To the Home Screen, I saw the number decreased rapidly then disappeared.

Problem: The iPhone messages counter indicates unread messages, but a search for these messages yields no results.

Cause: It seems iOS has a phenomenon resembling ghost messages, inaccessible unless each sender is individually opened to view all messages.

Typical Solution: The only viable resolution is utilizing Siri and instructing it to read messages, a time-consuming process that took approximately 20 minutes for 100 messages.

My Approach: I've devised a more efficient strategy by employing Siri on CarPlay. Leveraging the skip button feature, I managed to handle 500 messages in less than 10 minutes. This new method significantly streamlines the process compared to the conventional approach, enhancing both speed and efficacy.

"Hey Siri, read my unread messages" works in my case however there are still 140 messages to go. There has to be a better way! OK - After Siri reads your message, the ask is always "Do you want to reply?" or "Do you want to reply to the group?" and the answer is always "No". So as Siri starts reading a message, tap the Siri circle and say "no". Siri starts dictating the next message, tap the Siri circle and say "no". Repeat. This cycle is probably ~3-4 seconds. I'm down to 117.

The similar issue happened to me on my Mac. There was 1 red notification badge on Messages app on Mac (macOS Ventura 13.5.2), even though there was no unread messages at all. As @ryingg suggested, I told Siri on Mac like "Read my message". Siri started reading a message that I didn't recognize (maybe a junk message?). The red badge disappeared after Siri reading the message. Thank you @ryingg for leaving the answer here!