Edward

Q: Phantom messages in Mail

I have two similar problems in Mail within Mavericks - essential a message count (of unread messages) is showing in the side bar when there aren't any in practice. This is currently happening for the following:

 

1. the 'Flagged' folder under 'Mailboxes' in the side bar. This shows 22 flagged messages - one red and 21 green. The green count is sort of correct (it shows that they are unread when in reality they have all been read and show as read when I click on the folder). However, when I click on the red flag folder, it says 1 unread when in reality there are no messages in that folder (either read or unread).

 

I've searched in Mail - status: Message is Flagged and it only brings up the green flags.

 

Any idea how I might get rid of this rouge label of 1 unread message? If I can also get rid of the 21 'unread' green flags that'd be a bonus too.

 

2. I have a smart mailbox which has the criterion to show unread emails (as emails generally go directly into their respective folders so this way I can see unread emails all in one place). Currently, this shows 4 in the sidebar. However, I have no unread emails (either in this smart mailbox or in any other mailbox in Mail).

 

I've tried rebuilding various mailboxes, I've restarted Mail and the computer. I've removed messages from the server.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Edward

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 10:40 AM

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Q: Phantom messages in Mail

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  • by William Hamilton,

    William Hamilton William Hamilton Nov 8, 2013 9:43 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Nov 8, 2013 9:43 AM in response to Edward

    Well, not so fast.  They appeared to be gone, but then one phantom started showing up in the counter of the Unread Mail Smart Mailbox.  So I tried the whole process again.  Again, 43,000+ emails reindexed.  And still have one showing as unread in the counter, with nothing in the Smart Mailbox.  One thing I did note this time.  As I watched the window during the reindexing process, it counted up to the total number of messages, but stopped one short of total count shown.  Would seem there is still a gremlin in there that this process, or the Apple Update, doesn't handle.  Man this is frustrating!

     

    I also went into Time Machine and it shows correctly, with no counter for the phantom message.  Not sure what that means.

  • by Epic Peaks Coaching,

    Epic Peaks Coaching Epic Peaks Coaching Nov 17, 2013 9:08 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 9:08 AM in response to Edward

    I too was having the phantom flag issues even with the updates, still there.  I followed your instructions and deleted all the files... And my flag count went even higher and was still incorrect.

     

    Just deleted all the files a second time ...... And now mail keeps hanging up & won't run the reindexing process, just get the beach ball of death

  • by sleepingworker,

    sleepingworker sleepingworker Dec 13, 2013 3:40 PM in response to Epic Peaks Coaching
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2013 3:40 PM in response to Epic Peaks Coaching

    I just tried William Kucharski's solution as well and now have the spinning ball of death as well.  Have forced quit and restarted my computer a few times and am now on the phone with applecare.  I wish I had read this page instead of just the page with Kuckarski's suggestion.  I think I have to reinstall the OS ... on hold now for a senior advisor.  So, although I do not know the fix yet I would advise not to follow the steps that Kucharski advised as a solution ... or prepare for your mail program to freeze when starting up.

  • by sleepingworker,

    sleepingworker sleepingworker Dec 14, 2013 10:58 AM in response to sleepingworker
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 14, 2013 10:58 AM in response to sleepingworker

    Update: I have been on the phone with applecare, sent "upstairs" to two top tech people, and have sent a mail systems report given to a programmer specifically for the mail program.  They will analyze the data and get back to me earliest on Monday (today is Saturday).

     

    So ... I would strongly advise that you do not delete those files that Mr. Kucharski suggested and call applecare from the start if you have this problem.

     

    I am fortunate in that I have everything backed up to Time Machine, a second mac, and on numerous drives. However, the mail program - at least for now - is DOA on my main computer and I have spent hours on the phone with tech at apple.

  • by akirish,

    akirish akirish Dec 16, 2013 7:10 PM in response to Epic Peaks Coaching
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2013 7:10 PM in response to Epic Peaks Coaching

    This was an email account problem for me -- not an iPhone problem.

     

    I had a phantom email message problem -- all originating in a Yahoo email account.  Went to the Yahoo account online.  With advanced search, looked for all messages sent to my account address.  Search found the exact number of emails that were incorrectly flagged on my iPhone.  These were all junk emails received over a two year period, but not appearing in either the junk or trash folders -- for some reason invisible in the account.  I marked all for deletion -- would not and could not be deleted normally.  So went to the 'empty trash folder' command and they were removed.  iPhone is now free of the 'unread' notifications.

     

    Reminds me of occasional failure of Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail accounts to delete sent/received messages despite settings calling for deletion after a set time period.

     

    I hope this helps.

  • by Edward,

    Edward Edward Dec 17, 2013 1:35 AM in response to akirish
    Level 1 (21 points)
    Dec 17, 2013 1:35 AM in response to akirish

    Thanks for the reply Akirish. However this problem has nothing to do with an iPhone - it's all about phantom un-read messages in the Mail programme in Mavericks..

     

    And, by the way, the messages are, infuriatingly, still there.

     

    Hey ho.

  • by Edward,

    Edward Edward Dec 17, 2013 4:48 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (21 points)
    Dec 17, 2013 4:48 AM in response to Edward

    Just updated to 10.9.1... and absolutely no change. *sigh*

  • by Michael A Q,

    Michael A Q Michael A Q Dec 19, 2013 8:19 AM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 19, 2013 8:19 AM in response to Edward

    Same.

    Just updated to 10.9.1 and the unread count in smart mailboxes continues being wrong. After re-indexing, the problem re-appears slowly. Quite frustrating. Are we really changing for good?

  • by William Hamilton,

    William Hamilton William Hamilton Feb 25, 2014 3:34 PM in response to Michael A Q
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Feb 25, 2014 3:34 PM in response to Michael A Q

    Continued to have a false count in my "In" smart mailbox.  Had given up.  Then all of a sudden a couple of days ago, it just disappeared and now shows correctly.  Go figure.

  • by JRibbit,

    JRibbit JRibbit Feb 25, 2014 3:38 PM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 25, 2014 3:38 PM in response to Edward

    10.9.2 was released today, and lists as one of the fixes "Improves the accuracy of unread counts in Mail". (See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6114 for the full list). My own Mail was showing correct unread counts when I updated, so I don't know if updating would have fixed the problems I was having earlier.

  • by William Hamilton,

    William Hamilton William Hamilton Feb 25, 2014 3:41 PM in response to JRibbit
    Level 1 (90 points)
    Feb 25, 2014 3:41 PM in response to JRibbit

    But I'm still running 10.9.1.  No update is currently showing as available.

  • by JRibbit,

    JRibbit JRibbit Feb 25, 2014 3:43 PM in response to William Hamilton
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 25, 2014 3:43 PM in response to William Hamilton

    It's probably rolling out in a somewhat staggered way. I checked for it an hour or so and it didn't show up then. Half an hour later I noticed a red badge on my App Store icon, and at that point the update was listed.

  • by William Kucharski,

    William Kucharski William Kucharski Feb 25, 2014 5:58 PM in response to William Hamilton
    Level 6 (15,152 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 25, 2014 5:58 PM in response to William Hamilton

    The servers were a bit overloaded; try again now.

  • by EMPUJADA,

    EMPUJADA EMPUJADA Apr 7, 2014 2:57 PM in response to Edward
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 7, 2014 2:57 PM in response to Edward

    I've just used William Kuckarski's advice and it seems to have worked fine. Thanks William.

  • by gharkun,

    gharkun gharkun Apr 8, 2014 4:24 AM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 8, 2014 4:24 AM in response to William Kucharski

    Thanks William, this fixed my problem!

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