Mika Inkinen

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

I've got four email accounts set up with my iPhone 4 (updated to latest software). Yesterday, however, one of those inboxes started showing that there was one unread email on the account (an imap account), but when I go to view the message list there are no unread emails there. And this morning, it started showing five unread messages, but again no unread messages were there.

The 'unread messages' don't show up in Mail on my iMac either (and the Mail icon in the doc does not show any phantom 'unread' messages).


Has anyone else encountered this problem, and if so, how was it solved?

20" iMac 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo, original iPhone, iPhone 4, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 4GB RAM, 250GB HD, 128MB VRAM

Posted on Oct 20, 2010 2:25 AM

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

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  • by steve64_64,

    steve64_64 steve64_64 Sep 24, 2013 7:54 AM in response to Mika Inkinen
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 7:54 AM in response to Mika Inkinen

    What seems to work for some that cannot clear this any other way:

    1. Go to All Inboxes at the top of the mailbox listing (This only works from ALL)
    2. Edit, Select All
    3. FLAG ALL
    4. Edit, Select All
    5. UNFLAG ALL

     

    Don't know why, but this seems to work for those like myself have tried everything else to no avail.

     

    Good luck!

  • by gumdoc2,

    gumdoc2 gumdoc2 Sep 24, 2013 8:13 AM in response to Mika Inkinen
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 8:13 AM in response to Mika Inkinen

    The flag and unflag thing only worked temporarily for me, as I have done it several times over the past few days since the update on both my phone and iPad.  I found something else that seemed to work (so far permanently).  I went to the badges section under mail and turned off the badges for the offending account.  Then powered down the phone for a few min.  Then turned it back on, and then turned the badges back on.  It showed the phantom emails again but then in 5-10 min they were gone!  We'll see if this one lasts so far has been good for 2 hours.

  • by MotionMan,

    MotionMan MotionMan Sep 24, 2013 4:36 PM in response to steve64_64
    Level 1 (60 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 4:36 PM in response to steve64_64

    This problem only started for me today.

     

    Turning the account off and on did not work.

    Turning the account off, turning the phone off, turning the phone on and the account on, did not work.

     

    Flagging and unflagging the All Inboxes worked (at least for now).

     

    Thanks.

     

    MotionMan

  • by Stepher2b,

    Stepher2b Stepher2b Sep 24, 2013 5:09 PM in response to gumdoc2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 5:09 PM in response to gumdoc2

    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!

  • by Dr_Wombat,

    Dr_Wombat Dr_Wombat Sep 24, 2013 5:13 PM in response to Stepher2b
    Level 1 (17 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 24, 2013 5:13 PM in response to Stepher2b

    Didn't work for me. The "unread" emails weren't in my In Box. I also tried Closing Mail and Resetting the iPhone and removing emails from the server. The only thing that got rid of the phantoms was to remove the offending POP account and set it up again.

  • by Syadah,

    Syadah Syadah Sep 24, 2013 7:11 PM in response to Dr_Wombat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 7:11 PM in response to Dr_Wombat

    I try everything you guys told me, but that didn't work for me, the phantom mail just like phantom..on the web & iphone  The "unread" emails weren't in my Inbox only the "number" of unread email were appear.. why apple team do not know it...this problem caused by up grading ios 7 .... ????  we need help apple team

  • by Callanfromnsw,

    Callanfromnsw Callanfromnsw Sep 25, 2013 2:47 AM in response to Mika Inkinen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 25, 2013 2:47 AM in response to Mika Inkinen

    I have a business account and a gmail account... Tried all the above options to try and solve the problem. I updated to io7 today and the problem started. I have had the same problem in previous versions of the iOS normally this problem rectified itself on its own. This time however the gmail fixed itself but the other account didn't and showed over 12000 messages.

     

    I have fixed the problem by continually scrolling down and downloading all the messages I have on the server. Then I mark all as read as described in other options to fix the problem. I now have no messages unread!!!--- thank goodness. However this way of solving took quite a long time as only 250 messages are downloaded at a time (a long way to 12000). But it worked.

     

    As much as I love my IPhone it's crappy quirks like this which will probably lead me to trying Android when my current contract runs out! And I am an Apple fan, just a bit sick of  having to re-install all my apps when I upgrade to another OS... Which I had to do every time I upgrade!

  • by Amhvillage,

    Amhvillage Amhvillage Sep 25, 2013 4:43 AM in response to Syadah
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 25, 2013 4:43 AM in response to Syadah

    Have you tried this....

    1. Remove the email program from your open applications

    2. Go into advanced setting for the email account you are having problems with and set deleted messages to "never".

    3. Next go into your email account and use the edit - mark all as read function

     

    Simple to try and worked for me after trying everything else!

  • by bensrose,

    bensrose bensrose Sep 25, 2013 11:13 AM in response to gumdoc2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 25, 2013 11:13 AM in response to gumdoc2

    Thank you - that worked. I had emptied the mailbox so I had to send myself a test message in order to have something in the box. Once I did that, I was able to edit and mark all as read. After that the 3000+ phantom messages disappeared. You cannot edit if there are no messages in the mailbox.

  • by Tuffy422,

    Tuffy422 Tuffy422 Sep 26, 2013 2:50 PM in response to gumdoc2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 26, 2013 2:50 PM in response to gumdoc2

    I have done this since the upgrade and that clears them until they happen again just about evey day or two.

  • by Tuffy422,

    Tuffy422 Tuffy422 Sep 26, 2013 2:53 PM in response to Mika Inkinen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 26, 2013 2:53 PM in response to Mika Inkinen

    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.

  • by Stepher2b,

    Stepher2b Stepher2b Sep 26, 2013 2:58 PM in response to Tuffy422
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 26, 2013 2:58 PM in response to Tuffy422

    I've noticed when I delete messages off my phone it happens again...I think it's a reconcile issue.

    I have the option to delete off handheld only so I'm doing that to avoid it happening again.

  • by gumdoc2,

    gumdoc2 gumdoc2 Sep 27, 2013 4:02 AM in response to Mika Inkinen
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 27, 2013 4:02 AM in response to Mika Inkinen

    Ok know what the problem is but no idea if I can fix it or if it's the mail server.  Have tried all of the above and it a only a temporary fix.  I have seen this before and it seemed to eventually work itself out, but before I was able to see the phantom emails on my iPad and iMac, however I still could not access or delete them. This time they are hidden but I managed to get them too show up if I type in no sender into the mail box search "no sender". They flash only briefly on the left side and then disappear.  You can clearly see the blue dot showing unread status and the date of 12/31/69 and they read:

     

    12/31/69

    No sender

    No subject

    This message has no content

     

    I was going to post the picture I managed to snap with my iPad (flashes up so briefly it took awhile to catch it flashing by) but it won't let me paste here, maybe it will later on my iMac

     

    Advice about the emails from 1969?

  • by Tuffy422,

    Tuffy422 Tuffy422 Sep 27, 2013 5:07 AM in response to gumdoc2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2013 5:07 AM in response to gumdoc2

    It must be obvious by now it's an iOS 7 thing as this was not an issue before the upgrade.  Patience my friend there will be a fix in a soon to come update.  Seeing the little red numbers of notification (and not being able to erase them...) does however continue bug me.

  • by homerjsimpson8,

    homerjsimpson8 homerjsimpson8 Sep 27, 2013 11:44 PM in response to Mika Inkinen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 27, 2013 11:44 PM in response to Mika Inkinen

    I've got similare issue with IMAP inbox folder using an FTGate email server. Have tried all suggested fixes but none have worked yet. Looking forward to getting this resolved one day.

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