Phantom unread emails: Mail shows 5 unread messages, but there are none...

Thanks so much. When I read your suggestion it seemed too easy. I was up to 38 unread phantom emails and the second I did as you said and opened the test email from my account to myself - they were all gone! Brilliant. Thanks so much

My problem is while the fix works, it happens literally every day on all my iOS devices, three iPads and an iPhone 6. It's getting so tiresome to have to turn off the mail account, kill the app, and turn it back on. Granted, it happens all the time to a Verizon email account, and less often to my exchange active sync account, but exchange isn't immune. So frustrating, and definitely has gotten much worse the last few updates... Don't understand why it can't be fixed.

This worked for me the third time I tried it. I think the key was to pull down on the screen so email refreshes after marking all unread, and doing the same when you've marked them all read again.

This worked my iPad too, thank you very much!

Did require full shutdown & restart, not just turnoff/sleep.

I have 5 email accounts and turning them all off and then on again worked for me. Thank you!

I have had this problem (and others) ever since upgrading to iOS5. Neither syncing or resetting the phone seems to have any effect. Sometimes random actions seem to "clear" the badge. For example, scrolling down to the "accounts" pane and opening and closing all of the boxes associated with MobileMe. Sometimes not.

I just gave in and deleted by hotmail account. Then I added it via Exchange (whatever that means) .. it worked immediately and the unread issue is gone ... but it only shows the last FOUR emails and gives no option how I can access previous emails .....😮

If you open your mail go to your Inbox...Select Edit at the top and then at the bottom select Mark All as Unread. Then swicth it to Mark All as Read your count will go reset properly! It was posted on another thread.

Only thing that worked for me!

Hello!!

This was THE ONLY thing that actually worked!!!

Ever since I upgraded to iOS 7 I've had this recurring issue, a single (1) phantom email pops up from time to time on my mail badge (iPhone 5) even though I've read all emails and won't go away. The first time it happened I just turned off and back on my account (Settings/ Mail/ Account) and it worked just fine, cleared the badge, as did the second time. But this last time NOTHING seemed to work, not the "turn off/on" trick, neither the "mark as unread/read" thing, nor the "turn off the primary server under settings". Nothing.

BUT doing it exactly as expressed by steve64_64, from "All inboxes" ACTUALLY WORKED. Thanks!!!

I must of tried every trick aforementioned and nothing worked until I did the following:

1. Back up to Cloud

2.Go to settings

3.Tap General

4. Scroll down to Reset

5. Tap Erase all content and settings

Then Back up and the Unread numbers will be gone.

Hi, I have an iphone 5S and been noticing that the last week or so with Yahoo. Just posted my own question because along with this I also have strangers emails and their Facebook pics or shadows beside their email suddenly in my contacts. I am not even on Facebook. I found for the phantom emails, turning off my phone helped and resigning into Yahoo. Its just Yahoo doing it now Icloud.

Well since the public release of iOS 10 is now available, I decided to put this to the test myself and report back for the benefit of all of us.

Sadly I can report the problem persists.

Steps taken: 1) switch mail slider to off 2) re-open and close mail app to make sure mail account was cleared out 3) hard reset 4) update to iOS 10 5) re-enable mail account 6) verify all phantom unread messages were gone (they were) 7) resume normal use

The very first time I cleared the junk mail folder went ok and the unread count remained zero while it showed No Mail. However, a little later once I had collected a decent number of junk messages (say more than a dozen), I went to delete them all. In iOS 10 I no longer see any option to Trash All. I had to click edit and manually select all messages and press delete. Upon doing this it left 2 unread messages in the mailbox even though it showed No Mail. At the time of writing I am back up to 6 after another couple of rounds of purging junk mail.

I find it deplorable that Apple would have such a terrible mail client. It has definitely stolen the thunder from the enjoyment of a shiny new mobile OS.

Perhaps it is just my device and the only way to permanently fix would be to set it up again as a new device. I suppose I will find out soon enough when I receive my iPhone 7 Plus in a few weeks.

I do regret not completely deleting my Exchange account before the upgrade to iOS 10 and adding the account back after. However, it is worth noting that upgrade aside, I have take that step several times to no avail besides a temporary relief of the phenomenon.

I will be hoping to hear something encouraging from one of you in the meantime.

Already have, they were mostly from my Deleted Items folder. I purged those and refreshed. There was one quirky one remaining that I know was an email I sent and since deleted. I manually deleted that one as well leaving NONE. Junk Email still shows 1. Ugh.

Thank you very much for conversing on the matter. Any conversation is a help for sure!

Same here marking them as "All Unread" then "All Read" clears them until it happens again about every other day. iOS 7 needs a fix here.