How do I clear an unread message indicator even though I have no unread text messages.

If you're sure you haven't any messages unread, a forced restart of your device could be helpful.

• On an iPhone X, iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
• On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.
• On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

Regards

Giulio

I spoke to Apple Support by phone today, and this is the solution that worked. You have to do a backup and restore. I you do this via iTunes for Mac or Windows it will be less painful. I used iTunes with encrypted backup set up which saves all personal settings and passwords. See how to do this at: About encrypted backups in iTunes. Start by turning off Find my iPhone/iPad in Settings/iCloud. Then do a manual 'backup now' followed by restore backup. This is not the same as restoring your device to factory settings which wipes everything. It is, however, time-consuming and you may have to re-enter a few passwords. In my case, very few apps required any attention, and finger-print ID still worked. However, my Messages app icon no longer shows any phantom messages. If you are using iCloud backup only (not via iTunes) I don't know how much work the outcome will involve reconfiguring apps that require passwords.

Open message and show edit option in left hand side top and then botton read all show and click then all message notifications clear

Call Apple Support they helped me

I'm having this issue as well. I have force restarted and tried the Read All suggestion to no avail. I also deleted all messages from unknown senders. What's more, the unread messages counter only shows on my iPad, not my iPhone, even though they sync messages. This just started about a week ago.

I have tried this 3 times, which did nothing to correct the issue. I have also sent myself a text message in hopes of clearing it. Instead what I got was another notification which does not go away in spite of having viewed my own message. This one is annoying as **** because I keep all notifications cleaned up to ensure when I receive one I know it is related to new notifications. Fix this please. I've read enough blogs to realize this is not an isolated issue, many people are voicing their frustrations with this all over the net.

I cannot get rid of the 2 new messages appearing on my iPad ... I have deleted all messages, I have selected notifications and turned off and on the badge app icon, then turned off the iPad and nothing is working. What is going on?

Same issue here. Only on my iPad and not on iPhone. Very, very annoying.

I did tried force restart , read all , deleted all , sing off ICloud and sign back No thing ☹😔

The forced restart does not clear the text message indicator. This is a bug!

Same here. Frustrating! 🙄☹

Same issue here, only on my iPad not on my iPhone. And it has only started since the last iOS update.

The quick release of the two volume buttons and holding the right button didn't work, but the above directions did. Thank you!!!!!

HELP, this is happening to my iPad and it all started wh3n I upgraded the new IOS , ITS FRUSTRATING and I don’t know what else to do

Same problem with iPad only. None of the suggested fixes work.

very frustrating!