Read mail continues to show as Unread

After reading an email, some of my emails will continue to display as Unread.


El Capitan

MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 6, 2015 6:20 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 7, 2015 6:33 AM

Hi RAmeeti0,


Thank you for being a member of the Apple Support Communities! We’re glad that you took the time to post this question!


There could be a couple of different reasons you have an read email showing as unread. If this email is part of a thread, a series of multiple emails going back and forth, make sure that you have looked at each email in the thread so that it will acknowledge as being read.


Another helpful step you may try if an email remains marked as a new message with the blue dot is to select a different message from your inbox and then select the message showing as unread again.


Another resource you can use to mark your mail as read is located in the following article.


Mail (El Capitan): Mark messages as read or not read


Please reply and let us know if this information helped you in resolving this situation or to provide any further information you may have. We are glad that you are a part of the Apple Support Communities and look forward to your continued participation! :)


Best!

23 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 7, 2015 6:33 AM in response to RAmeeti0

Hi RAmeeti0,


Thank you for being a member of the Apple Support Communities! We’re glad that you took the time to post this question!


There could be a couple of different reasons you have an read email showing as unread. If this email is part of a thread, a series of multiple emails going back and forth, make sure that you have looked at each email in the thread so that it will acknowledge as being read.


Another helpful step you may try if an email remains marked as a new message with the blue dot is to select a different message from your inbox and then select the message showing as unread again.


Another resource you can use to mark your mail as read is located in the following article.


Mail (El Capitan): Mark messages as read or not read


Please reply and let us know if this information helped you in resolving this situation or to provide any further information you may have. We are glad that you are a part of the Apple Support Communities and look forward to your continued participation! :)


Best!

Oct 7, 2015 8:55 AM in response to RAmeeti0

A further continuation of the situation...


This is happening on stand alone messages that are not in a thread (thus not an indication that possibly one of multiple messages in the thread might still be remaining to be unread.)


I have moved on to read other messages, then returned days later to the unread message to attempt to again 'read it' and alter the Read indicator but no luck, the message continues to display as unread.


This is happening on several messages in my Inbox. I do get a lot of email and at this time I have at least a dozen in the last few days that are having this problem. It is happening about 15% of the time.


I am able to manually Mark the stuck emails as Read by using the menu item.

Oct 7, 2015 1:35 PM in response to RAmeeti0

Thanks for replying with this extra information!


To continue troubleshooting, it may be necessary to contact Apple Support directly. Doing so will allow us to really dig in and see if we can help you figure out why incoming Mail messages are behaving this way. To contact AppleCare, start by clicking the link below.


Apple - Support - Topic Selection


We look forward to hearing more from you in the Apple Support Communities!


Cheers!

Dec 17, 2015 4:51 PM in response to metelvis

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.


Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.


Feedback


Or you can use your Apple ID to register with this site and go the Apple BugReporter. Supposedly you will get an answer if you submit feedback.


Feedback via Apple Developer

Nov 16, 2015 5:56 PM in response to RAmeeti0

I am having this same problem

some messages still have the blue dot indicating they are "new" even if they are not.

i try to swipe right (new move in El Cap) to "mark" and it thinks it is already read (ie- I have the option to "mark as unread"). I do this, and then try again to "mark as read" and still no improvement


if I close MacMail and re-open, it updates, appropriately and they are no longer blue-dotted.

Dec 17, 2015 7:34 AM in response to chuck_3rd

I've been using Apple's Mail program for decades. I read my email almost exclusively on a MacBookPro. Two days ago, I upgraded to El Capitan. Since then, I've been having two problems with mail. (1) The first is the one under discussion: random incidents where mail that has been read pops right back to having a blue dot, as though I had not read the mail. These emails are not part of a thread. (Note: If people accidentally hit the archive button, because they are used to the far left button being the delete button, the message will not be deleted.) (2) The second is that I cannot erase a message if it is open. When I go back to the email list, the message is still in the inbox (and marked as unread). After I've read such a message, I can only trash that message if I do so directly from the inbox list. I believe this problem is also random, but I'm not certain it is not consistent; I will take not of consistency or non-consistency as today goes on.


Could this issue be related to the Cloud?


Janet

MacBookPro purchased in early 2010

iPad Air purchased in May 2015

Dec 17, 2015 4:03 PM in response to RAmeeti0

Come on Apple, this is an unexcusable issue. I have the same problem with read emails being marked as unread. I also have the added trouble of loosing connection with one of my most important email accounts. I've read all the blogs about El Capitan email issues, I've tried many things including deleting accounts and re-adding them, nothing seems to make a difference. Too be honest I've always been weary of my Godaddy email server, but I was not having this problem until upgrading to El Capitan. Please advise.

Feb 3, 2016 11:58 AM in response to RAmeeti0

I had the same problem of emails not being marked "as read." After installing an update, it got better. However, the same problem is occurring. If I restart my computer, the problem disappears for a while, but it's a nuisance to have to restart so often. Another problem is with Safari. It will show that it is not connected to the internet. If I close and reopen, it works. What a nuisance both of these problems are.

Feb 12, 2016 3:35 PM in response to wjohnson925

There is no fix yet. The workarounds are to either use the Read button in the toolbar to manually set it to be read, or to open the Preview section at the bottom of the window. If the Preview section is displayed, the message will get marked as read.


I have worked several hours and it is on the list of things to be fixed as Engineering is aware of it.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Read mail continues to show as Unread

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