Mail 15.0 Smart mailbox problems

[Smudger]

Off & on for several versions of MacOS going back over the years, I've had a very annoying problem with Mail in that when all messages in a smart mailbox have been read or deleted, the smart mailbox name in the side panel still shows a number of unread mails. Sometimes selecting another mailbox and then returning to the relevant mailbox will clear this anomaly but this hasn't worked since I upgraded to Monterey (12.0.1).

Question: does anyone know a simple method of bringing the apparent unread mail count down to zero?

I remember reading some time ago someone else having this problem but the solution was very longwinded and didn't always work for me so I abandoned it.

At this time I have 2 messages apparently unread in 'Today', 5 in 'Yesterday' and 9 in 'This Week' so not only is the counting wrong but the summation is also wrong (5 + 2 != 9).

TIA.

Smudger

 

[IWT]

Question: does anyone know a simple method of bringing the apparent unread mail count down to zero?

What works for me may not work for you - I quit Mail (NB quit, not close). Then reopen Mail and all is restored to normal. I suspect your problem is more deep-rooted than my occasional one; but worth a try?

Ian

 

[Smudger]

What works for me may not work for you - I quit Mail (NB quit, not close). Then reopen Mail and all is restored to normal. I suspect your problem is more deep-rooted than my occasional one; but worth a try?

Ian

Hi Ian

Thanks for responding.

I tried your suggestion of quitting but that didn't work. I then tried quitting and restarting the iMac before relaunching Mail but that didn't work either.

The previous solution which I abandoned had me rebuilding the database which took a while and didn't always work.

Thanks again.

Smudger

 

[IWT]

I suspected that; sorry.

Another, possibly worthless approach, but at least quick & easy:

Click on the offending Mailbox. Then Click on "Mailbox" in the top Menu Bar and from the dropdown, choose "Rebuild" (Last one at the bottom of the dropdown choices).

Ian

 

[Smudger]

Click on the offending Mailbox. Then Click on "Mailbox" in the top Menu Bar and from the dropdown, choose "Rebuild" (Last one at the bottom of the dropdown choices).

Thanks Ian, Ive tried that several times without success.

I'm getting rather worried about this problem as it seems to have a sinister side effect. A work colleague sent me an email which did not appear in the mailbox pane and as I hadn't responded phoned me to ask why. When I told him I hadn't received his email he resent it. Within seconds the smart mailbox 'Today' in the side panel showed a new email had arrived but wasn't visible in the preview pane. I checked the junk folder and all the bins but no email though it was obvious that one had arrived. We repeated this exercise several times and the number of unread emails against 'Today' rose each time but no email appeared anywhere! Very worrying. To the extent that I'm considering abandoning Mail for a third-party mail client.

Cheers

Smudger

 

[pine man]

I had this issue a couple of years ago, not with Smart folders but the basic ones. I tried a number of things and none worked. My solution, at the time, was to change to Microsoft Outlook and that never exhibited the problem.

Just recently I changed my Mac to an M1 Silicon iMac running Monterey and thought I would give Mail another bash. I still do not use Smart folders BUT occasionally I get an Unread Mail count for the Inbox when it is empty!

I've tried various other email clients but will be staying with Microsft Outlook.

 

[Sewell26]

following same happening to me

 

[Smudger]

@pine man

Many thanks for your input. I'm reluctant to 'sully' my Mac with a Microsoft product but I am getting exasperated with Mail. My daughter, a long-term Mac user - longer than me, used to use Thunderbird and never had any problems with that. I don't know if it is still available but I may give that a go but I'm slightly concerned about migrating my mail to another client.

Thanks again.

Smudger

 

[pine man]

used to use Thunderbird and never had any problems with that. I don't know if it is still available but I may give that a go

It is still available, I used it for a while but it seemed a bit 'clunky' to me.

I'm slightly concerned about migrating my mail to another client.

Your email is IMAP and is accessible direct via the iCloud web page if you want to avoid clients altogether.

Another good, free, client is Spark, which I also ran for a while but what ever I try I always end up going back to Microsoft Outlook. I have an annual subscription to Microsoft Office which I believe provides me with superior office programs to the Apple ones and provides for Outlook as well as 1TB of Onedrive storage.

One of the problems that does occur with 'foreign' email clients is that they frequently require App Specific Passwords and these can occasionally fail.

 

[Smudger]

It is still available, I used it for a while but it seemed a bit 'clunky' to me.


Your email is IMAP and is accessible direct via the iCloud web page if you want to avoid clients altogether.

Another good, free, client is Spark, which I also ran for a while but what ever I try I always end up going back to Microsoft Outlook. I have an annual subscription to Microsoft Office which I believe provides me with superior office programs to the Apple ones and provides for Outlook as well as 1TB of Onedrive storage.

One of the problems that does occur with 'foreign' email clients is that they frequently require App Specific Passwords and these can occasionally fail.

@pine man

I've taken to keeping a browser on my 2nd screen with my mail server's webmail page open so I can see any and all emails as they arrive on the server. Those emails which don't appear in my mail client (Mail) are counted correctly but do not appear. I then remove all the emails which have been correctly downloaded from the server and just keep the emails which don't get downloaded on the server. I shouldn't have to do this but in this way I can ensure that I don't ignore emails which don't get downloaded. I'm wondering just how long this has been going on and how may emails I have not known about.

A colleague found the following article:

Fix Apple Mail Emails Disappear from Inbox Issue Effectively

Know how to fix 'Apple Mail emails disappear from Inbox' issue. Different approaches provided to solve this 'Mac Mail missing emails in Inbox' problem.

www.datarecovery.institute

but I followed this as far as I was able, some of the suggestions simply didn't correspond to Mail 15.0, but to no avail though the article was interesting.

I shall soldier on but am leaning further towards Thunderbird as time goes by...