Unable to clear flags in Mail using Exchange 2010

I'm haveing the same issue with Mail 5.0. I can un-flag email's but with in a few minutes they are back to 'flagged'. If I check in outlook they are not flagged.

Anyone have any idea's?

I just tried removing my exchange account from Mail and readding it. Did not solve the issue.

Ya I've been playing/fighting the issue for a while now. I have a smart folder for unread & flagged emails. If I flag a email it will show up in the folder. If I unflag the email it will disapear but after a minute it will reapear as flagged. Seems to only happen to my exchange 2011 emails. Does not happen to any of my gmail(IMAP) or hotmail(POP) emails.

Correction: Thats Exchange 2010 on a SBS 2011 server not exchange 2011.

I have found a workaround. However not ideal.

Smart Folder to Display all Flagged Items will display Flagged emails as they arrive. Instead of clearing the Flag, I have been changing them to a different color.

Then I create a Smart Folder to display Red Flagged Items.

Should work until someone comes up with a smarter/permanent solution.

Workaround works in Mail.app however Flags (regarding color) are sync'd as Flags to iPhone. Therefore iPhone shows dozens of flagged items. not really a 100% solution to the problem.

I've found a solution that works for me, although it's a little technical.

I found that the Envelope Index file in Home/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/ is actually a sqlite3 database.

the steps I followed were:

1. Quit Mail (don't know if this is necessary)
2. Open Terminal, and cd to ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/
3. open the sqlite db using the sqlite3 command line client:
   $> sqlite3 Envelope\ Index
4. Now, in the sqlite3 command shell I queried the messages table to see which messages were flagged:
   sqlite> select * from messages where flagged = '1';
5. I verified that the one message I couldn't clear was in the result set and then I updated the database and cleared the flag:
   sqlite> update messages set flagged = '0' where flagged = '1';
6. Re-start Mail, and voila - flagged messages gone.

Note: to selectively clear the flags from only certain messages would probably require a more advanced update statement that included some join in the where clause.

Very Interesting.

Question though, "flagged = 1" refers to the flag regardless of color, or a specific type of flag. Maybe we could select messages that have a green flag (following my workaround) and then clear all of them.

If I were to clear all Flags, I would be actually ready to leave work now LOL.

just a thought.

Yes, there is another column in that field called 'flags', which I presume corresponds to more specific information about what kind of flags are set. The value is an integer, possibly a bitmask, with hundreds of different permutations in my email folders, and I only had one flagged email. I presume that column is being used for more than just 'flagged', and given some time and trial and error someone may be able to figure out how to selectively clear just green flags.

Also encounter same issue (under Leopard, now with Lion). I can resolve by exporting mails and reimporting afterwards (as explained in other related post... sorry I cannot find the link anymore). Deleting Envelope index does not resolve the issue in my case. Colouring flags was useful to me for going through the process of re-selecting flags that should disappear from those flags I should keep.

Now, I realize the problem always happen with mails that were flagged using my android smartphone... not via Mail or directly on exchange server (via outlook web acesss)

Do not know if this helps much though...

Not sure how I did this, but I got this problem not to happen (at least for now):

My school tells me to set up my .outlook.com email as IMAP, NOT Exchange, but I used the same prefs for Exchange and it works with mail, contacts, and calendars, as expected. Started noticing this problem and that it didn't occur for Gmail and iCloud accounts, so I deleted and re-added the account. No luck.

Then, I left the Exchange, but also added an IMAP version of the same account with support only for mail. To my surprise, the emails that were (not supposed to be) flagged had a flag in BOTH mailboxes, but under Flagged (canned search) only those from the Exchange version of the account showed up, not from BOTH accounts. So I disabled the IMAP account, and piddled about a little more, and now, to my surprise, flags are cleared.

I did quit Mail once after clearing the flags, so I'm not sure if that's what's making it work now, and it will go back to screwing up after I reply, but for now, that's what has solved my problem.

I've fixed this problem with these simple steps:

1. create a new local mailbox ("on my mac" location) for all folders that contains flagged msgs.

2. move all messages from INBOX (or any other folder that conains flagged msgs) to the newly created mailbox folders.

3. when mail app finish msgs moving, check if your inbox/folders on exchange server are realy empty (of not erase them)

4. move msgs from local ("on my mac" location) mailboxes back to its original mailbox/folders on exchange server.

5. verify and enjoy.

I fixed the problem by removing Exchange account and re-creating it as IMAP (not IMAP Exchange).