Text Message Badge Won't Go Away on Mac

I have Messages syncing over the iCloud. When a message arrives, it is shown correctly both on my iPhone, iPad and Mac. The corresponding icon on all devices also shows a badge with the correct number of messages. When I read the messages on the iPhone, the message icon badge disappears on the iOS devices but stubbornly stays on the Mac.

After wasting a lot of time searching for a solution and trying a lot of remedies suggested in a lot of discussions also on this forum, the badge still refused to go away.

Then I stumbled upon this article from May 2018. Basically, the solution is this: I sent another message to myself from my Mac, and then read it on my iPhone. The badge now disappeared in both iOS and macOS.

Seriously, Apple? Not able to eliminate this bug in the last 5 years?

Mac mini

Posted on Apr 6, 2023 3:30 AM

Similar questions

23 replies

Apr 25, 2024 10:53 AM in response to PQuincy

@PQuincy, I agree that it's kinda sad that we live in such a complicated world that some desired functions are really hard to implement, but OTOH we have wonderful tools that work really well overall. Here's the best I can do to make the situation a little better for you:

In macOS Sonoma 14.2.1, and I believe these options have not changed in later versions, this is what I see:

Apple menu >> System Settings … >> Siri & Spotlight >> Listen for "Siri" or “Hey Siri" or Off.

Even if I choose “Off”, the Siri keyboard shortcut that I have chosen still works.

Doesn't this make it really easy to use the workaround I described, while also satisfying all of your requirements and/or meeting all of your goals?

Apr 30, 2023 9:55 AM in response to Jerry_D

This solution worked for me as well. Thank you for posting as the badge icon was really annoying and wouldn't go away.

Rob32

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2024 10:24 AM in response to Jerry_D

This worked! Thanks!!

inwoomom

Level 1

14 points

Aug 8, 2024 9:15 PM in response to AirForceDelta46

YES! It worked on my macbook. I finally got rid of the message icon badge! Thank you for the solution!

3591

Level 1

15 points

Sep 6, 2024 9:40 AM in response to Jerry_D

I would think that with all of the many upgrades we need to install that this bug would be addressed. The temporary fix only lasts a few weeks, then it pops up again.

Sep 27, 2024 10:18 AM in response to AirForceDelta46

This worked for me. Thank you!

Oct 13, 2024 8:01 AM in response to AirForceDelta46

Thank you. It worked.

Sep 24, 2024 8:16 AM in response to Jerry_D

I had the same issue (using iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia). I had deleted a spam text on my phone and my Mac showed a notification badge for which there was no message left to read. Tried the Siri solution and it just said "you have no unread messages."

I then tried selecting all the messages on the left panel of my Messages app on my Mac, all of which had been read, right-clicking and selecting "Mark as Unread," then right-clicking again and selecting "Mark as Read," at which point the notification badge disappeared.

If the Siri solution doesn't work for you, give this a try.

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Text Message Badge Won't Go Away on Mac