Mail Dock icon "new mail" count wrong

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Level 1

5 points

Mail Dock icon "new mail" count wrong

The Mail icon in my dock shows 11 new mails. I open Mail and there is no new mail. The icon then shows none, then a bit later it shows 11 again. If I get a real new mail it will show 12 new mails. The actual number of new mail adds to the phantom 11.
What is going on here?

Dual 2 GHz Power PC G5, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 14, 2010 12:50 PM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Dec 14, 2010 1:05 PM in response to ravnhaus

Create a Smart Mailbox to show unread messages, check that then to see what they are & either delete them or read them to correct the count.

Does that work?

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Answer 2

ravnhaus Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 15, 2010 5:55 AM in response to BDAqua

Nope.
As soon as I open Mail the Dock notification goes away. A few minutes later the "11" notice comes back.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Dec 15, 2010 2:17 PM in response to ravnhaus

So, the smart box didn't find any unread ones?

Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.

Move this Folder to the Desktop...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/

Move this file to the Desktop...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index

Reboot.

If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup

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Answer 4

ravnhaus Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 16, 2010 8:10 AM in response to BDAqua

Tried all your suggestions, but the dreaded "11" remains.
Thanks for trying.

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Answer 5

ravnhaus Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 14, 2011 6:20 AM in response to BDAqua

The problem continues, although the number keeps getting bigger. It currently shows 87 unread messages.

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jan 14, 2011 9:58 AM in response to ravnhaus

I'd get EasyFind...

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11076

Here's a direct download link to EasyFind 4.0 which runs in 10.3.9 & up...

http://www.devon-technologies.com/files/legacy/macosx1039/EasyFind.dmg.zip

From this page,

http://www.devon-technologies.com/support/faqs.php?p=default&cat=19

Freeware applications:

* EasyFind 4.0
* PhotoStickies 5.6
* ThumbsUp 4.3
* XMenu 1.8

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/8707

Use it to search your whole drive for case insensitive & show invisibles...

.emlx

(dot ee em el ex)

Sort by Date & see if we can find these emails next time the count goes up.

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Answer 7

Mar 14, 2011 7:39 AM in response to BDAqua

I was plagued for months and months with having "1" unread message that I couldn't find anywhere! Your suggestion to create a Smart Mailbox worked perfectly!

Thanks a million!

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Mar 14, 2011 10:03 AM in response to Michael Hanrahan

Great to hear, thanks for the report! 🙂

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Answer 9

Apr 19, 2011 12:17 PM in response to ravnhaus

For anyone still having this problem, I just fixed mine by rebuilding *all* the folders (not just the inbox). In that process, Mail somehow found 33 unread Junk messages that weren't showing up in my "Unread" smart mailbox.

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Answer 10

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Apr 19, 2011 12:58 PM in response to oblivion_inc

Great tip, thanks for the post! 🙂

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Answer 11

Jun 21, 2012 4:33 AM in response to BDAqua

I've had this 'new mail' anomaly with Mail this week but your Smart Mailbox solution fixed it.

Thanks!

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Answer 12

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jun 21, 2012 9:40 AM in response to jimimac 60

Great to hear,thanks! 🙂

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Answer 13

j2zex

Level 1

9 points

Jul 14, 2014 8:22 AM in response to BDAqua

I just tried "Create a Smart Mailbox to show unread messages, check that then to see what they are & either delete them or read them to correct the count." It worked for me.

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Answer 14

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Jul 14, 2014 10:17 AM in response to j2zex

Great to hear, thanks! 🙂

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