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 arisfromchicago,

    arisfromchicago arisfromchicago Oct 6, 2016 9:23 AM in response to AtomicVariable
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 6, 2016 9:23 AM in response to AtomicVariable

    Please go through my solution.. It's not hard to do this every time it happens:

     

    Go to your inbox and try to search for emails by pulling the email inbox screen down

     

    On the search field instead of giving an real word to look up for, simply start typing "unread" and it will auto suggest to show all unread emails. Click on that and you'll get those phantom unread emails on your screen. Mark them as read and that's it!

  • by AtomicVariable,

    AtomicVariable AtomicVariable Oct 6, 2016 9:50 AM in response to arisfromchicago
    Level 1 (13 points)
    iOS Apps
    Oct 6, 2016 9:50 AM in response to arisfromchicago

    So you are confirming that the problem returns for you then as I have been asking?

     

    It may not be "hard to do every time it happens," but when it happens basically every day right after clearing it out, it is VERY obnoxious in my opinion and makes correcting it worthless in the first place. This is using the method of turning the Mail off in the account settings, power cycling, and turning it back on.

     

    If the fix you are referring to is your search for "unread" and mark all as read, I do that and it comes up with no messages every time. Wish that worked for me as it would be quite easier.

     

    Thanks for sharing.

  • by arisfromchicago,

    arisfromchicago arisfromchicago Oct 6, 2016 12:11 PM in response to AtomicVariable
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 6, 2016 12:11 PM in response to AtomicVariable

    Dear Atomic,

    I don't think that you truly went through my solution.

    There is no need of clearing anything, removing accounts, etc. A simple email search will reveal those phantom unread messages and you can open them. It's like a 20 secs process, just like when you are reading a new unread email. No needs to go through the possible full list, just the top 5 emails will do the job.

     

    And I would say for me it doesn't happen all the time, but it happens from time time, like every once in a month.

    Hope this helps

  • by AtomicVariable,

    AtomicVariable AtomicVariable Oct 6, 2016 12:17 PM in response to arisfromchicago
    Level 1 (13 points)
    iOS Apps
    Oct 6, 2016 12:17 PM in response to arisfromchicago

    Yes I am familiar with your process Aris, and I directly addressed it in its own paragraph. When I search for "unread" it returns No Unread Messages. For me, your process does not work. The only way for me to clear them is the other process I mentioned which has a very short lifespan before it emerges once again.

     

    It would be much easier on me if I just did not care!

  • by arisfromchicago,

    arisfromchicago arisfromchicago Oct 6, 2016 12:30 PM in response to AtomicVariable
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 6, 2016 12:30 PM in response to AtomicVariable

    Sorry to hear that than! I know it's hard not to care when you are seeing the unread email number.. It drives me nuts!

    So just to make sure, you are using this other option "unread" and still not getting anything?? http://screencast.com/t/QbjEm0uizYi  have you also enable the results for all email accounts?

     

    Well, I am always getting a big list of unread emails, although usually the ones on the top create the problem. Pretty strange behavior though 

  • by AtomicVariable,

    AtomicVariable AtomicVariable Oct 6, 2016 12:34 PM in response to arisfromchicago
    Level 1 (13 points)
    iOS Apps
    Oct 6, 2016 12:34 PM in response to arisfromchicago

    Yes, and it does return unread messages under "All Mailboxes" however under "Current Mailbox" (which is the one showing the phantom message(s), it states "No Results Found."

  • by arisfromchicago,

    arisfromchicago arisfromchicago Oct 6, 2016 12:38 PM in response to AtomicVariable
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 6, 2016 12:38 PM in response to AtomicVariable

    If I were you I would try to read those,  even if they were from another account to see how it goes..  Sorry i couldn't help any further

  • by AtomicVariable,

    AtomicVariable AtomicVariable Oct 6, 2016 12:41 PM in response to arisfromchicago
    Level 1 (13 points)
    iOS Apps
    Oct 6, 2016 12:41 PM in response to arisfromchicago

    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!

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