Unread messages badge on MBP is "stuck"

[darelldd]

To clear the badge icon open terminal and type:

killall dock

Right. And that has been working for me ever since I read about it in this thread. I was hoping that this new method could be an even easier work around.

And here's the deal. I have a stuck badge right now. The conversation does not exist. But the great part about this new way to find the offending message is still helping me (even though I can't fix the badge by deleting something that doesn't exist). This process tells me which message is causing the problem. It shows me the message that is "unread" even though it was deleted yesterday from all devices.

If anybody is interested, the offending message is coming from my car, telling me that it is finished charging. It gets stuck about once every five messages.

PS... I should mention that Dock needs to be capitalized in the terminal command. Won't work otherwise.

 

[mgpg89]

Click and hold down the mouse button on the Messages icon in the Dock. The popup menu will list the conversation/person with the unread message. Open Messages, select that conversation, right-click it and choose Delete Conversation in that popup menu (the Delete command is also available in the File Menu at the top of the screen).

That got rid of the pesky badge for me!

In my case, I didn't need to save the conversation that was causing the problem. If you need to save your conversation before deleting it, follow the instructions here:
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH20163...S&locale=en_US

Hope this helps!

Thank you for this!

 

[nroose]

I am having this problem. killall Dock doesn't work. The desktop goes black and the dock is restarted, and for a moment the badge is not there, but then it comes back pretty quick. If I right click on the dock icon it tells me what number the message is from, but if I click on that number it doesn't display anything. I deleted that thread a while ago in an attempt to remove the badge. The last time I had this problem was a year ago or so, and I came here and solved it. I had gotten it repeatedly and it seemed as though it was always caused by a number that was in my own contact record. Then I didn't get the problem until recently. Perhaps they tried to fix the bug but have not. I have been a software developer for 25 years and it looks like a problem with denormalized data.

 

[KoolStar]

Make sure that you scroll through the list of people, that is top to bottom, then kill the messages app, finally try the killall Dock after the messages app is closed.

 

[ny3ranger]

I am having this problem. killall Dock doesn't work. The desktop goes black and the dock is restarted, and for a moment the badge is not there, but then it comes back pretty quick. If I right click on the dock icon it tells me what number the message is from, but if I click on that number it doesn't display anything. I deleted that thread a while ago in an attempt to remove the badge. The last time I had this problem was a year ago or so, and I came here and solved it. I had gotten it repeatedly and it seemed as though it was always caused by a number that was in my own contact record. Then I didn't get the problem until recently. Perhaps they tried to fix the bug but have not. I have been a software developer for 25 years and it looks like a problem with denormalized data.

There are threads that are un-read on your machine even though they are read somewhere else. I would try right clicking on the messages. On the top of the menu that comes up you can see all the unread message threads. Just click through those and watch the count decrease.

 

[helpsaverivers]

I have found that I have to quit Messages, then do the "killall -KILL Dock" before the badge will go away. As of this week, the problem is recurring multiple times every day. I don't know what has changed that could have caused that.

 

[StudyFlo]

Got the same problem today on 10.11.3

killall dock after closing iMessage worked for me (at least for now!).

 

[Rob W]

Just had it start yesterday on 10.11.3.
- Quit Messages
- In Terminal: killall Dock
- Relaunch Messages
- Fixed

 

[mrdude42]

If this is on the Messages icon on the Dock, open Terminal and try killall Dock

I've found this helped me clear off 'wrong' badge counts on Mail and Messages in the past. Dock not updating correctly seems to be an issue. Someone else reported that the "Downloads" folder still has a progress bar under it after a download completes on theirs. That's something I had on Mavericks, not yet on Yosemite.

This worked for me MacOS 10.11.5. Just needed to first close Messages and then run 'killall Dock'. I'd been trying to figure this out for months. Thanks!

 

[Rob W]

I've tried opening and closing the app, deleting the whole conversations from the individuals it says there are unread messages from, turning off the message notification badge and turning it back on, and combinations of that. But, I still have "3" unread messages on the MacBook (but none on the phone or iPad).

This is a new issue since Yosemite.

Thoughts?

[doublepost=1470054846][/doublepost]In Terminal: 'killall dock' has worked for me several times.

 

[darelldd]

To clear the badge icon open terminal and type:

killall dock

Works great. Until it happens again the next day. .... :-(

 

[miz-mdk]

Works great. Until it happens again the next day. .... :-(

Could this be an icloud problem?

 

[darelldd]

Could this be an icloud problem?

All options are on the table. I honestly haven't seen the problem for a good long while now. But when it comes... I can clear it with killall dock. Works great for a day or two, then it comes right back. I've tried everything I can think of in regard to the cloud, etc.

 

[zimbu]

For some reason this happens to me a lot with messages from Lyft. The real solution is mentioned earlier in the thread, but is kind of glossed over.

If you have a unread (undead?) message that keeps showing up as a badge on the dock, even if you're deleted everything, killed the dock, etc, it is (in my experience) a sign that that things are out of sync and that message is still out there somewhere on another device.

The permanent fix should be to go through the list of messages on all of your other Apple devices (other Macs, iPhones, iPads) and systematically delete it from all of them as well. Deleting it from the other device should resolve the out-of-sync condition and let the unread message badge finally go away.

It may or may not show up as unread on the other device, so if you don't often delete messages, you may have to hunt for it. Right clicking the dock icon to see the sender is pretty helpful for figuring out what conversation you're looking for.

 

[darelldd]

The permanent fix should be to go through the list of messages on all of your other Apple devices (other Macs, iPhones, iPads) and systematically delete it from all of them as well. Deleting it from the other device should resolve the out-of-sync condition and let the unread message badge finally go away.

I'll just add the one data point: I own exactly two devices. Phone and Macbook Pro. I am obsessed with deleting things, and never leave them hanging around on either device when I'm done with them. I can confidently say that this is no solution to the problem I have had. I've deleted everything on all devices, wiped my iCloud account clean, burned some incense and clicked my heals three times. And the message kept coming back.... Of if that one didn't, the next one sure did.

But as I've said, I've been problem free for quite some months now. I'm only back yacking about it because I'm being notified of this thread. So... I did nothing different, but I'm not having the problem today. My fix seems to have been to get frustrated, spout off, and then ignore it.

 

[Theodore Frimet]

If this is on the Messages icon on the Dock, open Terminal and try killall Dock

I've found this helped me clear off 'wrong' badge counts on Mail and Messages in the past. Dock not updating correctly seems to be an issue. Someone else reported that the "Downloads" folder still has a progress bar under it after a download completes on theirs. That's something I had on Mavericks, not yet on Yosemite.

killall Dock worked to remove 2 phantom message counts in El Capitan 10.11.6

 

[BaTycoon]

Unread messages badge on MBP is "stuck"




To clear the badge icon open terminal and type:

killall dock

2016 checking in. Late 2013 MBP, Messages App doing this. killall dock didnt help- some message isnt showing it has not been read.

Instead, start from the top message, then do a Command+Shift+] to scroll through selection of each conversation without the mouse. Eventually it will load the conversation and clear the badge.

 

[theclapp]

2017 checking in. Mid 2015 MBP, macOS El Capitan, 10.11.6, still happening with Messages app. The Command-Shift-] to show all conversations didn't help me. I had to do the "quit app, killall Dock, restart app" dance. I have two Mac laptops, an iPhone, and an iPad; I don't know if that matters.

 

[Ted Bigham]

I've tried opening and closing the app, deleting the whole conversations from the individuals it says there are unread messages from, turning off the message notification badge and turning it back on, and combinations of that. But, I still have "3" unread messages on the MacBook (but none on the phone or iPad).

This is a new issue since Yosemite.

Thoughts?

When the dock says i have unread messages, but I really don't, I just right click any message, select "Mark as Unread", then switch to another message and back. Once it marks that message as "read", it fixes the dock notification too.

 

[peanutismint]

If this is on the Messages icon on the Dock, open Terminal and try killall Dock

killall Dock worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

 

[kubajz896]

killing dock doesn't help anymore...please help

 

[peanutismint]

killing dock doesn't help anymore...please help

Killing dock stopped working for me too, BUT then I found a much easier fix...except now I can't remember exactly what it was....! Sorry.... But I think it was something like 'right clicking' the Messages icon and it'll show you your unread notifications - it looked like I'd missed a message (or rather it just hadn't got successfully marked as 'read') waaaaay down my history. I wish I could check it for you but I don't have any unread messages at the minute so the option isn't there, but it's something like that.....

 

[dimon]

If this is on the Messages icon on the Dock, open Terminal and try killall Dock

I've found this helped me clear off 'wrong' badge counts on Mail and Messages in the past. Dock not updating correctly seems to be an issue. Someone else reported that the "Downloads" folder still has a progress bar under it after a download completes on theirs. That's something I had on Mavericks, not yet on Yosemite.

First i closed the iMessanger, then fired this command killall Dock in terminal, and it solved the problem Thank you guys!

 

[JCos]

Hey all,

So... I have read this thread over and over and over; tried everything, dug deep into Messages.app/Contents/ and still came up empty. I CANNOT FIX THE STUCK MESSAGES APP notification. IT STAYS ON "1" the entire time.

Here's what I know:
- it is not the Dock, because other badges/notifications have the correct counts
- I tried killall messages, nothing
- I tried killall dock, nothing
- I tried killall -kill dock, nothing
- I tried killall -u my_user, nothing,
- I have restarted the Mac, nothing...


I am simply out of ideas and it is growing on my nerves. Anybody out there that can help, please let me know!


CORRECTION (literally after posting this)
--after I thought about it, I actually totally never re-booted my Mac.
AFTER RESTARTING MY MAC (and doing all of the aforementioned suggestions), THE BADGE WENT AWAY.

HALLELUJAH!

 

[dannys1]

--after I thought about it, I actually totally never re-booted my Mac.

What on earth did you mean by "I have restarted the Mac" then??