Messages showing phantom unread message (Messages in iCloud enabled)

This is an easy fix.

1. Start by quitting the messages app.

2. Start terminal and run the command killall Dock

You are now done and may quit the terminal. What you have done is to force a restart of the Dock and thus cleared phantom, unread, messages.

Hi,

Quit Messages.

ON System Preferences > Notifications.

Turn all the options Off for the Messages listing.

Restart Messages

Restart the Notifications for Messages.

If this does not work.

Restart the computer after turning the Notifications Off and before Restarting Messages.

9:37 pm Tuesday; June 5, 2018

Hi,

Try this before turning Notifications Off

Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support

This will restore all the Permissions and Ownership details to your Mac User Account so that "you" as the users can Write to the Preference Files in the First place and "Read" them when an App needs them.

8:40 pm Wednesday; June 6, 2018

Hi,

It does not clear the info held in the Preferences for the Dock.
Force Quitting the Dock in the Activity Monitor of via Terminal forces the Preferences to also be re-written.

This method is more suited to Yosemite and Earlier when the Notifications had less control of the Dock.

In Sierra and higher using Notifications itself is easier.

8:14 pm Tuesday; June 12, 2018

HI,

There are several fixes.

The method of using Notifications itself to make the item go away is technically less stressful on the System.

You can also open Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities folder) and find the Dock item in the list and use the Quit icon top left (Like a grey US Stop Sign) and the press the Force Quit button.

You do the same thing by opening Terminal and using the kill command to Stop the process from running.

The first only affects Messages icon and it's number badge on the Dock.

The next two affects the whole Dock as it is reset, with the Terminal App method being the bigger of the two sticks as it were.

If the Notifications method does not work it may also point to the fact your system my have lost the ability to Write to the preferences file involved.

It might pay to run this Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support

I prefer to use the various parts of the Mac OS and it's regular interfaces where possible.

I would want that sort of reply to any question I asked.

That's not to say that sometimes a bigger stick is needed and I would follow instructions like the last link I posted.

If you are confident with the other methods then use them.

It's about you finding a solution.

7:38 pm Thursday; June 14, 2018

Hi,

So did you reset the Permissions of the Home Folder ?

And which of the methods discussed earlier did you use ?

8:15 pm Friday; July 6, 2018

Is it absolutely stuck on "1" or does it increment when new messages come in?

worked great. thanks