Sync "Mark as Read" between iPhone and Mac

Note: I'm not sure if I'm in the right category because this is both a OS X and iOS question pertaining to the Mail app on both.


This is something that has really been annoying me with the mail app. I have both a MacBook Pro and iPhone 5s, both running the latest OS, and I check my email on both devices, not just one. However, when I, for example, open an email on my iPhone, it is marked as read on that device, but when I go on my Mac, it is still marked as unread. The same is true vice-versa. Is there some way so that the emails being marked as read/unread is synced between devices? I remember hearing sometime before that only some email providers support this, so if it's important, my email address is @verizon.net. Thanks for any help

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jul 5, 2016 9:55 PM

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10 replies

Jul 5, 2016 10:19 PM in response to liam923

The fundamental answer is you need to consider POP versus IMAP email. POP stores email on your client, so the mail on your Mac will be different from the mail on other machines. IMAP stores the email on the email provider's server, so it will appear the same way on all your devices.


Regarding verizon.net, there is an additional complication. Much (actually, I believe all) of the U.S. had Verizon email transferred to AOL several months ago. So you would have to follow AOL's rules to determine if you use POP or IMAP. I looked for those rules (at AOL.com) and could not find them.


Anyway, this post may be useful:

AOL VERIZON.NET EMAIL unable to set up as IMAP account in OSX (yosemite or el capitan)

Jul 6, 2016 1:47 PM in response to liam923

I am not currently a Verizon customer.


But I think this website from Verizon will help you configure email. Since I am not a customer, I could not try this site.


Again, remember to configure as an IMAP setup to gain the feature you are looking for.


https://www.verizon.com/foryourhome/VZRepair/vziha/Servicecad.aspx?ihaweb=FIX_AC TS


In the Mac's Mail app, you can use the menu to go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > [your Verizon account] and look through everything there (under all tabs) to determine if you see something like POP or IMAP. You should not see any POP settings for your server.

Jul 6, 2016 5:42 PM in response to sberman

Thanks for the help, but I was not able to configure it to be IMAP or change to AOL. I wish Apple (and I'm surprised they don't already) had some way of syncing the clients so that the read/unread and other things were synced. I guess I'll just wait in frustration until Verizon finally gets it together and offers IMAP instead of POP.

Jul 6, 2016 5:54 PM in response to liam923

That sounds like a good idea.


By the way, you can take the forwarding idea a step further if you wish.


Instead of informing all your contacts that you have a new email address, they don't even need to know.


You can forward your incoming messages. And gmail, for one, allows you to do Settings > Accounts and Import > Send Mail As ... and use an email address you already own (your verizon.net address) as the "From" address!

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Sync "Mark as Read" between iPhone and Mac

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