iPhone 13 Pro Max showing unread messages, when there are none

Hi there awallen44,

You'll want to start by making sure your iPhone is updated to the latest software version, which is iOS 16.4.1. You can see the currently installed version by going to Settings > General > About > Software Version. Learn more about updating your iPhone here if needed: Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

If your iPhone is updated and you're still seeing an incorrect number of badge notifications for Messages on your iPhone, go to Settings > Notifications > Messages, and turn off Badges. Afterwards, restart your iPhone using the steps you posted, and then turn on Badges again.

If the issue persists, let us know if you have any unread messages at all in the Messages app and make sure you've tapped on Filters in blue in the top left corner of the Messages app to ensure 'All Messages' are selected so that you can check for those unread messages.

Take care.

I looked forever before I found something that actually worked. The only fix I found is to ask Siri "Read me my unread messages" she'll read out all of the lost/hidden messages that are still showing as unread. When she's done it will finally show zero unread messages.

I was just on the phone with an Apple Support Rep and he gave me an answer that finally worked!

Say "Hey Siri, read my messages"

The badge count will be fixed once she dictates those mysterious messages.

Good luck!

Go to message app

tap all message

scroll down until last message (wait for some time as it’s reload sone old message)

Tap on 3dot on top right corner(…)

and choose select message

Choose read all from bottom left

here you go badge count will zero

I’ve cracked it 🤘

Simply deep scroll your messages till the eternal end of messages. Then click “select messages” from “…” on top.

press read all and wait patiently. My 4076 msgs took approx 70secs to clear all.

This error usually happens when you import msgs from old device. Hit like if you find this useful

Quickest method;

Open message settings, turn on “filter unknown messages”

return to messages, open unknown senders, mark all & delete. Or keep those you’d like to keep.

That filter option makes things easier.

I finally found the only thing that worked for me. My security system sends me texts and those are the only ones that usually keep showing they are there unread, even though I've deleted them either on my phone, or on my Mac. So using either your phone or your Mac - wherever the problem is showing, go to your deleted messages area, select the messages that are unread (you can find that out easily), recover those messages, and then delete them again. According to how many messages you have from that number or numbers, it may be a bunch, but doesn't matter. It works every time when everything else I've tried has failed. I don't know why it's doing this - never used to. Should I, we, have to do this? Nope. But it takes just a minute.

I finally found the only thing that worked for me. My security system sends me texts and those are the only ones that usually keep showing they are there unread, even though I've deleted them either on my phone, or on my Mac. So using either your phone or your Mac - wherever the problem is showing, go to your deleted messages area, select the messages that are unread (you can find that out easily), recover those messages, and then delete them again. According to how many messages you have from that number or numbers, it may be a bunch, but doesn't matter. It works every time when everything else I've tried has failed. I don't know why it's doing this - never used to. Should I, we, have to do this? Nope. But it takes just a minute.

WOW- Thank you to Alpha15 ---

To eliminate the bothersome red badge indicating unread messages on iMessage, follow these streamlined steps:

1. Open imessage App and Scroll all the way through your messages until you reach the very end.

2. Tap on the “…” OR "Edit" at the top left and select “Select Messages.”

3. Choose "Read All" and patiently wait.

Voilà! The badge should disappear.

Alright, i have a solution which seems simpler than most mentioned.

Go to Settings on your iPhone.

go to Messages

In the “Message filtering” section, click on “Unknown & Spam >” then select “Filter Unknown Senders” and select “None” right below where it may say “SMS Filtering”

Then go to the messages app on your iPhone. You will now see all your messages by the followings filters: 1. All Messages, 2. Known Senders, 3. Unknown Senders, 4. Unread Messages, 5. Recently Deleted.

Visit each filter and select the “…” option on the upper right corner and select the “Select Messages” option from the displayed menu. Then click on “Read All” blue text on the lower left corner.

Once you do this for all 5 filters, it will reset your unread badge on your messages app icon to zero which means the notification badge will disappear.

Hope this helps

What worked for me:

• Go to settings - Messages
• Turn on filter unknown senders
• Go to Messages - Filters - Unknowns Senders
• Click on … on the top right corner (this option only appears when the filter for unknown senders is on) and click on Select Messages
• I believe there is an option for select all on the top left corner
• i clicked on delete messages (i didnt care about messags from unknown senders). It may also worked with read all
• now all unread messages are gone

What worked for me was to:

scroll down to the last message.

select a couple of messages and mark as unread.

then select all and read all.

badge cleared.

Hey,

For all the folks who are using Siri to read all the hidden messages(tons of them). and don't want to say no every single time. then please follow the below steps

go to Setting>notifications>Message>customize Notification>Repeat alerts and set it to never.

After doing this go to your message(make sure you go to the filter and select all messages) click on the 3 dots on the top right then click on Select Messages, then click on Read all.

This should remove all the unread messages or hidden message badges.

PS Apple is sh*t for not fixing this for a while now

It is hard to ask siri to read all of them and bit annoying to listen. I had almost 3k +

Better workaround :

Filters -> all messages -> keep scrolling till all messages are loaded -> three dots -> select messages -> read all

Problem solved!

I also had success with asking Siri to “read my unread messages” to clear hidden, deleted messages that were still indicated as unread.