Mac OSX Mail - Read emails showing as Unread when launched

[pine man]

I use Mac Mail set up for for IMAP iCloud emails and over the last week or so I have noticed some strange behaviour.

My Mac is shut down overnight and when I switch it on in the morning and launch Mail I notice that most of the Mail folders indicate that some, but not all, of the contents are Unread. After about 10 seconds the indication disappears.

All of the folders contents are Read, there are no Unread emails kept in any of the folders and the only folder which should show genuine Unread emails is the Inbox.

In summary some folders indicate some Unread emails BUT all are actually Read.

Anybody else noted this?

 

[IWT]

Hi Peter

I may or may not have the correct explanation; but what I think is happening is this:

You have an IMAP account (iCloud in this case).
You shut down, rather than sleep, you're Mac.
On Powering up, iCloud initially checks all the emails on all those devices that use the Mail app - if you have any. It checks to see if you have added any new ones, modified or deleted same on another device.
Then it downloads the new ones which have been stored whilst your Mac was shut down.

A moment or two of sorting this out could account for what you temporarily see.

I never shut down my Mac, only sleep it (My wife does the same with hers) and what you are experiencing doesn't occur.

How about a one-off trial? Don't shut down your Mac for one night and see if the problem goes away.

Ian

 

[pine man]

Hi Ian

Thanks for replying.

You are probably right in your assumption but it's strange that it only started a short while ago.

I also have an iPhone and an iPad, both in sync with iCloud but dictated to by the Mac as I rarely add or remove items from folders on those other devices.

Funny but I have no idea why I don't leave my Mac on at night, it probably goes back to my early days of Sinclair ZX81, Commodore Amiga or Windows 3 when you daren't leave them alone for a minute!

I'll certainly give it a bash and let you know what happens.

Thanks

Peter

 

[chscag]

Funny but I have no idea why I don't leave my Mac on at night, it probably goes back to my early days of Sinclair ZX81, Commodore Amiga or Windows 3 when you daren't leave them alone for a minute!

LOL, you're really dating yourself. I always wondered why the Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81 never became mainstream. I suppose it might have been the original price.

 

[pine man]

How about a one-off trial? Don't shut down your Mac for one night and see if the problem goes away.


I have done some testing and I am now of the opinion that it is a Mac Mail issue.

I can replicate the issue by just turning off Mail for a few hours and when it is launched again all of the Unread Mail indicators appear, as described in my original post. So, rather than leave the Mac switched on overnight, I turned it off and this morning I didn't launch Mac Mail but launched Microsoft 365 Outlook instead. It worked perfectly with no Unread Mail indicators apart from the new ones in the Inbox.

Since the update to Catalina I have always had to run Mac Mail with a double click - one click to launch it and the second click to display it. No other program operates in that way. I did post about this some time ago and tried all the 'fixes' without any joy.

I guess I'll just have to accept that I have a 'Rogue' version of Mac Mail that may get better with the next update or new OSX.

 

[chscag]

Since the update to Catalina I have always had to run Mac Mail with a double click - one click to launch it and the second click to display it. No other program operates in that way. I did post about this some time ago and tried all the 'fixes' without any joy.

You're not alone with Mail's new behavior. I noticed that during the Catalina beta testing and it has continued through the released versions. It's apparently the way Mail now launches; requiring a double click.

 

[ferrarr]

That's strange? I don't have that behavior with Apple Mail? When I click on the Mail icon in the Dock, Mail opens into its' own Space (desktop).

How many emails are in your Apple Mail?
How many emails accounts do you use?

 

[chscag]

Are you running Catalina? It's not just my Mac Mail that behaves that way but also many other folks have posted about the same thing.

As I stated above, I noticed that behavior during the Catalina beta and it has continued with the released version.

I don't believe the number of accounts make a difference as I have the same accounts as I had with Mojave. And Mail in Mojave did not act that way.

 

[ferrarr]

Yes, I'm running Catalina Version 10.15.3 (19D76). Maybe it's because I did a clean install of it?

 

[MacInWin]

Bob, my experience matches Charlie's. One click on the icon, it hops up and down and the badge for unread updates but the window isn't opened. The second click opens the window to see the mail.

 

[ferrarr]

Bob, my experience matches Charlie's. One click on the icon, it hops up and down and the badge for unread updates but the window isn't opened. The second click opens the window to see the mail.

That is very strange.

 

[MacInWin]

It is. But you get used to it.

 

[chscag]

@Bob:

I seem to remember you're using Outlook from Mac Mail, is that still true? If so, it could be the reason you're not experiencing what many of us are.

 

[ferrarr]

I have my iCloud, gmail, and Hotmail, all being used in Apple Mail. But I don't really get a lot of email, and 80% of what I get I delete within a week.

 

[pine man]

I have iCloud and Yahoo email accounts being used with Apple Mail and probably get about 5-10 iCloud emails daily with none from Yahoo. Apple Mail has 15 'custom' folders plus the defaults with the contents ranging from 2 to 9 emails.

I don't have any other problems with Apple Mail and after trying other email apps I've always returned to Apple Mail due to its simplicity and speed.

 

[pine man]

Just found that sometimes Folders that indicate that they contains Unread mail are actually empty!

Definitely an Apple Mail issue.

 

[MacInWin]

Mail is part of the system, so to reinstall Mail, you would need to reinstall macOS. Do a backup, then boot into Recovery and reinstall the OS. I'm running Catalina and I've never seen what you are seeing, so I don't think it's a bug in Mail itself, but something in your system. A reinstall should reset Mail without losing anything if you just reinstall over what you have. But backup before, just in case.

 

[pine man]

A reinstall should reset Mail without losing anything

What I've got is, basically, a cosmetic issue and I'm not sure I want to get involved in a reinstallation. Mind you if the UK Government gets it's way I could be quarantined in my house for four months to avoid Corona Virus so plenty of time to do a reinstallation!!

 

[pine man]

Just out of interest I had a look around to see if there was a similar alternative to Apple Mail and came across Spark.

The best email client for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android | Spark.

It seems to work in the same way as Mail and hasn't got too many 'bells & whistles'. Going to run it for a while and see how I get on.

 

[MacInWin]

A reinstall should reset Mail without losing anything

What I've got is, basically, a cosmetic issue and I'm not sure I want to get involved in a reinstallation. Mind you if the UK Government gets it's way I could be quarantined in my house for four months to avoid Corona Virus so plenty of time to do a reinstallation!!

I was thinking of a reinstall over what you have, not a nuke/pave install. But I see you plan to give Spark a go. I tried that for a while, went back to Mail. I didn't like the layout in Spark. Pretty much a personal preference, it worked just fine.