Q: Unread message count is wrong in Mail and Dock

Wow, that works for me perfectly, thanks.

How sad that this bug still persists right into Yosemite. Thanks, Glenn--this is the first time I've seen this bug, but my hunch is it won't be the last. Your solution is golden!

I did deviate in one little way: rather than move all the Envelope files to the desktop, I just selected them all and made a .zip archive in the same spot. Works just the same.

Hi Mackintosh,

Can you tell me how this works on an iMac (recently bougth) with OS X Yosemite ver. 10.10.2?

When I moved the Envelope folders to another spot and restarted mail, I get a message saying that it's going to import my mail — but where is it going to import it from.  If from my IMAP gmail account, won't a lot of information be missing — like whether I replied or not, and the folder I filed the message in.  Not to mention that I have 190,000 messages in that account — how long will this take? 

Totally right. Simple. It sure helped me.The wrong count s gone baby gone. Thanxx

Didn't work....mail rebuilt the in-box but the count is still wrong.  Anybody got another fix?

Didn't work for me either. Yosemite 10.10.4

I updated an older Mac mini to Yosemite and had the same problem, so I tried the “HACKINT0SH” solution and I had success. Thanks “HACKINT0SH”!

For the faint of heart, here’s what I did:

1. Quit the Mail app.

2a. In OS X Yosemite…

  Select your Home icon/folder on the left.

  In the Finder menu “View” ⇢ “Show View Options”

  Check (tick) “Show Library Folder”

  Click on the “Library” folder that just appeared.

2b. For all other versions of OS X…

  In the Finder menu item “Go” ⇢ “Go to Folder…” ⇢ then enter “~/Library” NOote

3. Locate any file labeled “Envelope index”.

4. Drag them to the Trash but DO NOT EMPTY TRASH yet.

  Note: Whenever messing with any files created by your Mac,

  hold them in the trash so they can be retrieved later

  if your plans go awry.

5. Start/run Mail. You’ll see it “Import”. Don’t panic.

  Note: It is re-indexing your existing mail. Your email wasn’t lost.

  I had 8000 emails and it took about 1 minute.

  When the Mail app reappears, it needs to re-index your display and it will import them all (again). Once again,

  don’t panic, it’s just puting your mail back on display.

6. Test your Mail app by sending yourself an email.

  Some people wait a full day, receiving several emails,

  to insure everything is working fine, before they empty their Trash.

Finished

Update:  It's back!

I tried the "HACKINT0SH" solution, seen above, but the problem quickly returned. I'm starting to feel like an MS Windows user; spending more time fixing the computer than using it.

You can delete the Badge App Icon in Finder > System Preferences > Notifications > Mail by unchecking the Badge App Icon completely, but that removes the function completely. I suppose a bad badge count is just about as bad as none at all because you have to check it anyway.

Until this is resolved, you may want to change the notification for mail to an "Alert" so it stays there until it is dismissed.

Is it just me or is Apple getting sloppier with it's quality, more cryptic with its icons, and deleting popular features to (unsuccessfully) move people to a paying service (often with fewer features than existing competition)? There is no way I'm going to pay for something that offers less than what I had a few 2 years ago with more, easier to use, features.

But I digress.

Personally, I'm unchecking (turning off) the Mail badge and setting the Mail notifications to "Alerts".

To everyone else, it's not you, it's your Mac OS X. Good luck.

I'll post any new findings here immediately when I find them.

The king has died, the magic is gone, and Camelot has become just another crumbling ancient castle on a tourist Google (not Apple) map; a tale we can tell our grandchildren of a land with magical devices, nearly mind-reading user interfaces, with spectacular announcements and major technology advancements. They once had industry-leading beautiful stores manned by knowledgeable artists and technicians, no appointment needed.

Our children won't believe us.

I just updated to El Capitan and now i'm seeing this same issue. I've tried HACKINT0SH's solution, but it didn't work. I may start a new thread under the El Captian forum and see if I get any traction there

I, too, just upgraded. I haven't seen anything wonky with Mail other than trying to use Split Screen on it. It didn't work at first, but after a few restarting Mail it seems to work as advertised, but it still falls flat in terms of being an intuitive user interface (as do many other "improved" apps such as Maps) but I digress. I'll tinker with El Capitan as much as possible before I get the Mac support calls from friends and family. Thus far, it's looking more like a Microsoft User Interface with hidden "Easter Egg" gestures, requiring 10 minutes of hunting and pecking to find an "Edit" button, being the new SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). You know it's a terrible GUI when you can't remember it when you need it 30 minutes later.

Just upgraded to El Capitan today and right after the upgrade I had the problem. I tried Glenn Leblanc and Hackintosh's solution from 1st page of posts, and  it worked for me. Although the envelope files were in the V3 subfolder not the V2.

I had the same problem after the El Capitan upgrade: inaccurate unread message count in both the dock icon and inside the mail program. I could get it to temporarily disappear by clicking anywhere in Mail (the inaccurate unread message count of 8 would go back to 0) only to crop back up a few minutes later. Super annoying and none of the solutions upthread worked (deleting envelope files, rebuilding the mailbox, etc.).

The problem was with only 1 Gmail IMAP account. What finally worked for me was going into the Gmail account in my web browser (not the Mail program). It was showing that I had unread messages in my Inbox, but I couldn't find them. I went to Settings>Inbox and temporarily changed Inbox Type to "Unread first." The mysterious unread messages appeared up top, I marked them as read, and when I went back into the Mail program, the problem was gone and hasn't come back.

Finally! @Melinda S, your solution worked for me. I was starting to go crazy!

I have the exact same problem with exchange email on my iPad Air and now on my iPhone 6 it says on the icon that I have unread messages in my inbox even if my inbox is empty and all the other folder there is no unread mail has anyone any ideas?