Mail: "Unread" Smart Mailbox Shows Unread Mails - But Is Empty

[desertman]

I have been using a smart mailbox for unread emails for many years. It has always worked well - until a few days ago when the mailbox suddenly claimed there were two unread emails even though it was empty. See screenshot.

I have the same 5 email addresses on my iPhone too, and here the same smart unread mailbox reports no unread emails.

Reconfiguring all mailboxes in Mail has not helped.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of these non-existent unread emails? That would be great.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd just DELETE that smart mailbox.
Reboot.
Then, if you still want such a mailbox, re-create it.

 

[chown33]

I don't think you have to delete the existing smart mailbox first. You can simply create a new smart mailbox and see what it does. If it works properly, only then delete the old one.

I'd start by making one smart mailbox per account. If it misbehaves, showing an Unread message count despite showing no emails, at least you'll know which email account is causing the problem. It could be more than one account.

It would help clarify things if you identified which OS version is on the Mac, and whether the email accounts are using IMAP or some other protocol.

 

[desertman]

I'd just DELETE that smart mailbox.
Reboot.
Then, if you still want such a mailbox, re-create it.

I did that - it didn't help. Now I've done it again - it didn't help again.

 

[desertman]

I don't think you have to delete the existing smart mailbox first. You can simply create a new smart mailbox and see what it does. If it works properly, only then delete the old one.

I'd start by making one smart mailbox per account. If it misbehaves, showing an Unread message count despite showing no emails, at least you'll know which email account is causing the problem. It could be more than one account.

It would help clarify things if you identified which OS version is on the Mac, and whether the email accounts are using IMAP or some other protocol.

When I create a second "Unread" smart mailbox, both claim that there are two (non-existing) unread emails (or more, if there are indeed unread emails in any of the inboxes).

Creating "Unread" smart inboxes per email account is a great idea. When I do this, the individual "Unread" smart mailboxes show no such emails. See screenshot. The two (non-existing) unread emails in the combined "Unread" smart mailbox must be listed somewhere else.

My macOS version is stated in my signature. All email accounts are IMAP accounts.

 

[chown33]

Creating "Unread" smart inboxes per email account is a great idea. When I do this, the individual "Unread" smart mailboxes show no such emails. See screenshot. The two (non-existing) unread emails in the combined "Unread" smart mailbox must be listed somewhere else.

What are the criteria in the "Unread" smart mailbox that are showing 2 unread?

What are the criteria in the per-account smart mailboxes?

I'm wondering if there might be some unread emails that are marked as junk that haven't yet been deleted. Or something like that.

My macOS version is stated in my signature. All email accounts are IMAP accounts.

Signatures can be hidden as an MR acct preference. I see your OS is macOS 13.6.5.

 

[desertman]

See screenshot for smart mailbox criteria. The criteria for the general and the per-account smart mailboxes were identical. Activating the trash and sent options does not make a difference.

I have no undeleted junk mails.

 

[chown33]

Try adding a criterion to the general smart mailbox that hss:
[Message is in mailbox] [Inbox]

The "Inbox" is a popup that lets you choose a mailbox. If you choose "Inbox" then it uses the union (Boolean OR) of all your inboxes.

Logically, this should be the same as a single "Message is unread" criterion, but if there's something wonky about the default set the search criteria are operating on, then maybe making it explicitly a more limited set might change things.


I don't have the same OS version as you, so I'm guessing about this. When I make that Smart Mailbox here with those 2 criteria, it has the same result as a single "Unread" criterion, so the basic logic should be ok.