Incorrect Unread Count iPhone / iPad FIX

by Guy Florack | Feb 23, 2015 | Apple, Tech | 255 comments

Incorrect Unread Count iPhone / iPad Issue

The Mail app on your iOS device shows an incorrect unread count when there actually aren’t any unread mail messages in your inbox.
First off all please check to see it you really don’t have any unread mails. You can do this by opening the Mail app, opening your inbox, selecting “edit” at the top right, select “Mark All” at the bottom left and select “Mark as Unread”.
I the issue still exists, try the fix below.

Incorrect Unread Count iPhone / iPad FIX

Go to “Settings”
Select “Mail, Contact, Calendars”
Select the mail account that shows the unread message.
Turn “Mail” to “Off”
Turn the iPhone / iPad off by holding down the power button for 5 seconds and slide to power off.
Wait for 30 seconds, turn the iPhone / iPad back on.
Go to “Settings”
Select “Mail, Contact, Calendars”
Select the respective Mail account
Turn “Mail” back to “On”

If you experience an issue whereby you read one of your iCloud email messages in the Mail application on your computer and that email still appears in your unread mail count on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, check this Apple support article:
iCloud, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch: Some of my emails/updates don’t seem to be pushed to my device.

CONTACT

Phone: +31 (0)6 14 20 54 20
eMail: guy@guyflorack.com

255 Comments

Geo on July 24, 2021 at 00:26

Thanks so much. Your method worked immediately!
David A Clark on June 9, 2021 at 18:50

For me the issue isn’t that the mail count doesn’t reflect what’s in my Inbox. The issue is that my Inbox is not synced with the server until I open the Mail app. So if I have for example 6 messages on the server, and I read them on the web, the Mail app doesn’t know that they’ve been read until I open it. Until I open it, the mail count still shows 6, even though I’ve read those messages already.
Virnida Adams on May 5, 2021 at 15:09

It worked for my I phone 11. Thank you so much!!!
Jeanine M Conti on November 21, 2020 at 16:19

It worked. Thank you so much!!
Yooper on October 9, 2020 at 18:16

My problem is slightly different. My unread mails are all showing and when I close the app, the number of unread mails are correctly showing in the little red circle on the corner of the app. However, after a few seconds that counter shows zero, as if there are no unread mails. But they are still there…
Why is the counter resetting itself?
Anonymous on July 30, 2020 at 02:20

Thank you so much!
Anonymous on May 26, 2020 at 12:18

It worked! Thanks!!!
Kristin on April 6, 2020 at 21:41

Simple and worked great! Thanks!
asdfa on March 3, 2020 at 01:51

wow what the hell this made all of my emails disappear. i can still receive new ones, but all of my existing email is now gone. all i did was follow the given steps and now i’m screwed for work in the morning. awesome!
perfect on February 13, 2020 at 13:26

wow thank you, this was simple and worked!
Thomas Secher on December 4, 2019 at 11:18

This doesnt seem to fix the problem on my iphone 4/12-2019
Randy on January 10, 2019 at 01:45

Thanks a million! The procedure to correct Unread Count iPhone / iPad Issue worked great!
Simon on December 12, 2018 at 10:02

IT works, thanks. After years of irritation seeing emails that don’t exist, your fix fixes it
JT on June 11, 2018 at 02:06

Brilliant Eva! Mark all mail as unread, then mark them read again. That works!
Anonymous on May 29, 2018 at 11:20

bz- your fix was the only one that worked, thanks!
Delores Skelton on May 6, 2018 at 15:14

None of the suggestions are working for me! They will appear to be gone but after a few minutes they are back! Grrrrr.
Mike on April 10, 2018 at 03:30

I’m afraid that doesn’t work. I’ve done this twice and the problem hasn’t gone away. It’s not really a problem, just an irritation.
Anonymous on March 23, 2018 at 21:17

I have to do this everyday! It is getting very old!
D. Wakefield on February 25, 2018 at 17:28

Spot on worked well for something that has been bugging me for weeks
Eva on January 25, 2018 at 13:14

It didn’t work for me. But what did work is clicking on “mark all” and “mark as read”.
Frhall on January 11, 2018 at 07:10

Sigh. Perfect solution.
Cristy on January 6, 2018 at 08:27

Worked Thank you!
Dean on November 30, 2017 at 20:01

Hi Mr. Florack – this didn’t work! And when I open each email, it doesn’t reduce the “unread” count. They were all read BEFORE I added this email to the iPad. Any suggestions?
Harikrishna on September 26, 2017 at 21:00

Excellent, This worked for me.
Thanks
eric on September 21, 2017 at 19:16

Thanks man!
krista on July 7, 2017 at 03:15

It’s much easier to just mark them all as “read”. The suggested solution did not work for me, but this one did 🙂
Nik on April 28, 2017 at 17:54

Wow, that made me sane again. Thank you!
Pauline on February 2, 2017 at 22:15

I did that on my ipad mini and when I turned mail back on had lost all my emails in that account. I have them backed up on other devices but did not expect that. What did I do wrong?
Anonymous on December 28, 2016 at 18:57

“My inbox MUST always say ZERO!!…. This fix worked for me, and restored my sanity!… Thank you soooooo much!… Easy fix to an uber-annoying problem!!!” 🙂
Anonymous on November 28, 2016 at 14:00

it worked for me. thanks
Mort Goldman on November 23, 2016 at 20:51

These instructions had no effect for me. I was able to resolve it by marking all messages as unread, waiting a minute and marking them all as read. This was on a gmail account with ~1000 messages. I suspect I would have to wait longer if this account had 10000s of emails.
Anonymous on October 13, 2016 at 21:23

It worked, thank you!
Anonymous on October 12, 2016 at 17:05

Thank you!! Finally instructions that actually worked!
Anonymous on October 12, 2016 at 15:15

Thank you!
Anne on September 27, 2016 at 12:53

Yayyyy.. It worked!!!! ..Had 5″unread” messages.
Thought they were stuck forever!!! Now gone.
Thank you…
Edd Durst on September 26, 2016 at 01:50

This doesn’t work on my iPhone 5S. When I go to settings and select the email account, I don’t get a list of mail boxes, nor do I get the opportunity turn anything on or off.
KS on September 18, 2016 at 23:53

Original suggestion didn’t work for me. Had to delete my account and log back in. That worked.
Mikhail on September 5, 2016 at 09:57

For me it worked without rebooting the device, switching mail account off and then on did the trick. Thanks!
Pepe on September 4, 2016 at 21:06

That above guide help didn’t work for me so I deleted my email account from the setting outlook and then I signed in again and it worked like a charm. My 3 unread mails are gone!
SillySally on September 3, 2016 at 17:11

Thank you so much!! This was driving me crazy and our IT guys couldn’t figure it out!! Then I googled it and you were the first hit! Thank you!!!
Jeff on August 20, 2016 at 19:07

This worked for me, Thanks!
Ben on August 19, 2016 at 20:19

I tried to turn off email and turn back on as directed but still didn’t work. I ended up getting rid of them by going to advanced settings within the email and swiping off the SSL tab. then exited and they were gone. To turn back on go in and just turn on your email again. Fixed it nice.
Tony on August 17, 2016 at 21:58

Thank you a little knowledge goes a long way.
David on August 15, 2016 at 17:58

Thank you! This was driving me bananas, even went a far as resetting my phone but like clockwork it happens again. Now I can calm my OCD when it happens again.
Ken G on August 13, 2016 at 05:33

Now it’s good ! Took a couple of minutes. Thanks!!!
Ken G on August 13, 2016 at 05:28

Didn’t work for me. The problem is with my COX email, showing over 22,000 unread! On my iPhone it’s fine, also in my Mac and my online Cix acct….. I’ll try again.
Sarah on August 12, 2016 at 16:59

Literally driving me crazy for weeks!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you!
Lynda on August 12, 2016 at 14:36

It worked!!!! For those who don’t have success the first time, try again. It took me two times but worked. Yipppeeee!!!
Arif on August 9, 2016 at 18:45

Thank f**kin u. Worked like Google search.
Tami on August 1, 2016 at 16:40

Thank you! It’s been driving me crazy!
Phyllis on August 1, 2016 at 07:14

Finally a solution that works, thank you!
Gina on July 28, 2016 at 18:25

Finally!!! Thank you so much. Was such an aggravation for me. Yay!!
Melissa on July 23, 2016 at 11:33

Thank you so much!!! I had tried everything and this was driving me crazy. Worked like a charm and took less than a minute!!
S on July 22, 2016 at 15:43

Fantastic! Was driving me nuts! I had to take an additional step and go into General/Restrictions/Allow Changes/Accounts and click “Allow Changes” before I could turn off the mail, but once i did that it worked well.
Apple needs to fix this bug. It was not occurring before my last upgrade some 6 or 8 weeks ago.
Thank you!
Mariana on July 21, 2016 at 07:06

Thank youuuuu!!! It worked perfect
Megan on July 19, 2016 at 00:03

Thanks so much. This has been driving me crazy. I had to do it twice but it worked.
Anonymous on July 16, 2016 at 03:27

Great stuff! Worked as a charm! Many thanks!
Carl on July 15, 2016 at 20:33

Thanks. Worked.
Iphone6s Newb on July 11, 2016 at 17:46

Worked like a charm, thanks!
BB on July 8, 2016 at 14:56

Thanks Just tried the suggested fix, and it worked it did take 2 attempts , but got rid of those annoying phantom e-mails at last
Anonymous on July 7, 2016 at 20:37

Worked perfectly
nobby on July 7, 2016 at 19:19

Thank you for the solution, I have been searching for a couple of months for the cure. Its wasn’t a big problem but a little annoying Went to Apple store and Vodafone, in the UK. they couldn’t fix it.

Many Thanks
Sharfaraz Ahmed on July 3, 2016 at 08:33

Thanks a lot! This worked 🙂
Lisa on June 28, 2016 at 16:26

Awesome! I can’t stand it saying I have unread messages. This worked great.
Joe on June 26, 2016 at 17:35

Worked like a charm, thank you!
Peter Koller on June 26, 2016 at 08:58

Thanks worked
Anonymous on June 25, 2016 at 21:03

Just tried it and now my phone is locked up…. 🙁
Dusty JoJo on June 25, 2016 at 01:51

Thanks so much! Worked just as you stated – we have been angsting for weeks while traveling.
Anonymous on June 22, 2016 at 18:24

I have multiple email accounts on my phone. I had to turn them all off before it worked.
Jazzy Jasper on June 19, 2016 at 11:47

Superb – fixed an annoying issue in seconds. Thank you.
Anonymous on June 19, 2016 at 09:03

Thank you!!! That’s been annoying me for ages!!
Brian on June 19, 2016 at 09:03

‘VERY PLEASED ! Worked for me going to ‘Settings’- Mail -Contacts -Calendars – Chose the offending email account – Switched ‘MAIL’ off. Then reboote – and switched mail on again. It did take a while as for sometime I lost all my mail – but left for an hour and problem solved.
MANY THANKS – Brian
Anonymous on June 17, 2016 at 13:50

Of all the fixes I have tried in the last three weeks. This is the one that worked.
Gil on June 12, 2016 at 08:16

Excellent advise!! Fixed in seconds, thanks
Adam on June 11, 2016 at 23:54

Big time helpfull! This was driving me crazy.
Anonymous on June 11, 2016 at 01:14

Sorted ! Thank you !
GJ on June 9, 2016 at 19:12

Didn’t even have to restart! Thanks
Anonymous on June 9, 2016 at 17:43

It works
Cheryl on June 8, 2016 at 21:58

Perfect. I did have to shut down iPad when going through the steps on my iPhone 5. Thanks!
Anonymous on June 6, 2016 at 00:39

This was very annoying. Thanks so much!
Michelle on June 5, 2016 at 21:55

Thanks so much this worked perfectly…issue was driving me crazy?
Chris on June 5, 2016 at 12:20

This temporary fix works; but, Apple needs to address this bug. I read all of the posts on this and there are about 6 or 7 ways to temporarily fix the issue. Some of the posts say way they think it is happening, the “Push” feature, the # pf sync days, or upgrading when you have unread messages. I feel that our complaints need to be heard and addressed by Apple. GIVE IS A BUG FIX ASAP.
Chuck on June 5, 2016 at 04:48

Finally. Have tried so many things. Tried turning my email off then back on but it would come back. The key was restarting the phone when it was off. Thank you so much!!!
andy on June 4, 2016 at 14:21

i dont have an option to turn off the email account
S Hyde on June 4, 2016 at 05:18

This worked! Thank you so much- it has driven me nuts for months-guess I didn’t Google the right question until now.
Anonymous on June 2, 2016 at 21:56

This worked!!!!
Shawn on June 2, 2016 at 18:13

I had to reset the iPad rather than just powering it off, but then it worked. Thanks
Anonymous on June 2, 2016 at 00:11

Worked for me too, Thanks a lot!
Valerie on June 1, 2016 at 19:41

Thanks so much- it was driving me nuts!
Anonymous on June 1, 2016 at 10:12

Thank you so much, it worked! I can sleep now ?
Paula on June 1, 2016 at 03:46

Thanks a lot!!!! It worked for me.
Valerie on May 30, 2016 at 23:58

Great! Worked for me, thanks big time!
bob on May 25, 2016 at 22:41

It worked…thanks for clearing up this problem.
Jeremy on May 24, 2016 at 22:13

Thanks for the post. This worked for me!!
Anonymous on May 22, 2016 at 10:42

This didn’t work for me unfortunately. I tried it twice with no luck
Liz D on May 20, 2016 at 00:05

I had to do this to my iPhone5 and tablet at the same time for this to work.
Thank-you so much:-)
Anonymous on May 19, 2016 at 06:46

Thanks a bunch! Just fixed it on my wife’s phone. It’s been bugging her for months.
Paul on May 18, 2016 at 08:56

Simple, but it worked a treat, great fix thanks
Lin Morris on May 15, 2016 at 20:36

Wicked thanks this has been driving me mad, it worked.
Carol on May 14, 2016 at 13:41

You are my lifesaver lol. My Iphone has shown 1 unread message for a week and it’s been driving my crazy. Thanks soooooo much 🙂
Anonymous on May 14, 2016 at 11:31

Worked great I am 84
Trevor on May 13, 2016 at 18:34

Sweet fix to an annoying problem. Thanks!!
Joe on May 12, 2016 at 17:17

Bam….that worked. So annoying. Thanks.
DD on May 11, 2016 at 23:21

That worked! Thanks!
Nicola on May 10, 2016 at 15:56

Wow that has been annoying me for months……. why I didn’t check before now is beyond me!!
Fantastic tip, thank you very much!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Anonymous on May 10, 2016 at 04:46

Worked for my iPhone 6. Thank you!!
Shasha on May 9, 2016 at 07:38

It worked! Thanks so much. That had been driving me crazy.
Sergio on May 7, 2016 at 18:06

Worked like a charm! Thank you
Ross on May 7, 2016 at 17:17

It worked for my iPad and iPhone. Thanks for the solution.
Anonymous on May 6, 2016 at 16:28

This seems like an old bug. Is Apple not able to fix this? I had a similar issue, syncing with a corporate MS Exchange account. The INBOX on the iPhone Mail client reported 1 unread message, although it would not display any unread messages in opening Inbox. On the PC Outlook client there where also not any unread messages in the Inbox. Luckily this solution solved my issue, for now. A permanent fix from Apple would be appreciated. Thanks for this ‘Work-a-round’ 🙂
R Carlton on May 5, 2016 at 21:52

This worked just fine on my iPad. Easier than deleting then re-adding my Outlook mail account.
Barbara on May 5, 2016 at 01:05

This has been bugging me for months. Thank you so much.
Mike on May 4, 2016 at 19:43

Excellent info. 1 Unread email in my wife’s new iPhone 6. Maybe since she is a newbie to iPhone. Anyway shutting off outlook mail and powering off the phone info worked. Thanks a million for the stress reliever. You know the old saying. An unhappy wife is an unhappy life. ?
Anonymous on April 28, 2016 at 15:49

Thanks for the help. It took a couple minutes and the issue was corrected. It was driving me crazy and I could not find a solution until I came across your advice. Thanks again.
Marc on April 24, 2016 at 22:34

Worked for me on ios 9.3.1.

Thanks
Michael Mills on April 24, 2016 at 06:12

Worked for me. Thanks
Paul Lang on April 23, 2016 at 00:02

Getting rid of unread mail worked!
Thanks
Robyn Petrik on April 19, 2016 at 19:14

Did the trick for me. Much easier than removing and readding the email account altogether, which would have been my next step. Thank you!
Katrina on April 16, 2016 at 21:06

Thank you! Tried it once and it worked! I kept checking it and it made me nuts!! All fixed now. A million thanks!
Jared on April 15, 2016 at 05:44

Thanks! I tried 20 different things I found on the net and this actually worked. Thanks again
Ron Maloney on April 13, 2016 at 23:19

Thank you, thank you, thank you, worked like a charm!!!
Anonymous on April 12, 2016 at 22:28

Brilliant, very useful.
Anonymous on April 9, 2016 at 22:20

Didn’t you man Mark as Read? That’s what I did and it worked
Anonymous on April 9, 2016 at 19:14

many thanks – i had just the same problem with 2 ipads & an iphone…it was driving me mad !!
tanda on April 9, 2016 at 11:17

Awesome indeed! Thanks a lot, Guy!
tanda on April 9, 2016 at 11:16

Awesome indeed, thanks a lot!
Anonymous on April 8, 2016 at 06:15

Awesome! So glad you offered this fix. Worked perfectly. Checked online and someone said to search is:unread and it would show you the unread email. Didn’t work because there was no unread email.
Rajiv Dhananjayan on April 7, 2016 at 18:34

Thank you. Worked fine.
Anonymous on April 6, 2016 at 23:30

Worked for me! Thanks
ellen on April 5, 2016 at 12:20

wonderful!
L. on April 1, 2016 at 17:10

It worked, thanks! This number annoyed me quite a bit the last days
Steve on March 31, 2016 at 21:58

Nice simple and effective thanks for sharing x
Anonymous on March 28, 2016 at 20:22

Thank you so much!!!!
bea kaay on March 24, 2016 at 21:58

it worked, thank you!
Sandra Morbeck on March 22, 2016 at 21:01

The count of emails are wrong on my computer and cell how can I fix that please?
Anonymous on March 20, 2016 at 12:56

Thank you!!!
sb on March 19, 2016 at 19:07

great it works

Thnaks
sb on March 19, 2016 at 19:06

great it worked
Thanks man
Anonymous on March 19, 2016 at 13:49

Finally!! You’re my hero. Buy ocd hated that erroneous count!
Anonymous on March 17, 2016 at 23:22

THANK YOU!!! That was driving me crazy!
Anonymous on March 17, 2016 at 04:13

You just eased all my worries?????????????????????????????????????????
Anonymous on March 17, 2016 at 04:12

Thanks
Anonymous on March 14, 2016 at 17:34

Great thank you!!! The unread message count was really irritating. So easy to fix using your guide 🙂
Thomas Sondergaard on March 12, 2016 at 15:21

Thanks. Worked like a charm.

Thomas
Rajesh on March 11, 2016 at 17:02

It is mainly due to bug in ‘Push’ method of email client. If you change your email refresh method to ‘fetch’ then it will update all email counts properly and then you can go back to ‘push’.

Settings -> Email -> Fetch New data -> ‘Fetch/Push’
Tom on March 4, 2016 at 20:18

Good deal, thanks! Just turning off Mail in the Settings for the account and then turning it back on was enough to fix it for me. I did not have to turn phone off/on. In the past, I’ve fixed this by removed the account and re-adding it, but this was much easier 🙂
Linda Clelland on March 2, 2016 at 07:01

Many thanks, it worked perfectly and I am a happy camper. I don’t think that I will care if the false count returns now that I know how to fix it.
Balazs on March 1, 2016 at 23:27

Thanks for the solution. I had only one counter out of order from 5 account. The procedure helped me to make the correction.
TS on March 1, 2016 at 15:38

THAAAAAAAANK YOOOOOU Sir Guy ! Mystery solved, and Mail.app unread count fixed ! I was wondering how to get rid of those phantom emails with 1969 date stamps causing the issue.

Much appreciated my friend.
Linda on February 29, 2016 at 00:46

Your tip worked. Open mail, edit, mark all, mark as unread. All phantom emails vanished. Thank you!
Sharon on February 27, 2016 at 06:03

Thx this worked
The unread emails were driving me nuts
Rodd on February 24, 2016 at 03:58

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Rodd on February 24, 2016 at 03:56

Can’t thank you enough!!!!!!
Yet another mailer on February 24, 2016 at 00:46

a lot better than removing and re-adding the account… thank you
Rob on February 17, 2016 at 09:05

Thanks it worked!! Previously I could only get rid of the phantom message by unsynching my email account which is a pain. Shouldn’t have to put up with this from Apple. My Android phone doesn’t have the problem!
Ailsa on February 13, 2016 at 04:48

Thank you! That glitch was driving me bonkers.
Jeff E on February 10, 2016 at 14:34

many thanks!
Brian on February 10, 2016 at 12:20

Great fix – hopefully it doesn’t come back
Larry on February 4, 2016 at 02:55

Thanks. It worked! Even if it comes back after a few days as some have experienced, at least I can get rid of it again.
Anonymous on February 3, 2016 at 22:15

Not a solution sadly as they return after a few days.
Karen on February 3, 2016 at 15:43

Thanks, this worked on my phone. Now if I can get the stupid notification on the desktop to be correct.
chris on February 2, 2016 at 06:21

I had .. wait for it….. over 41 million so called unread emails on my gmail account!!! Thankyou so much. It worked !!!
Michael on February 1, 2016 at 17:38

Thanks!
Daren on January 31, 2016 at 22:48

This is not a permanent solution, does anyone know if apple is going to fix this on the next iOS update?
Karla on January 31, 2016 at 22:03

It worked!! Thanks!
Bryan on January 30, 2016 at 15:06

Problem resolved – thanks
Anonymous on January 30, 2016 at 10:40

Thank u xx
Anonymous on January 30, 2016 at 09:44

It worked without the need to restart the phone, thanks
Amol on January 30, 2016 at 04:28

Thanks, cheers it worked..
Anonymous on January 29, 2016 at 23:59

Thanks so much.
Anonymous on January 29, 2016 at 23:43

Thank you. Properly helpful.
Amy on January 27, 2016 at 15:20

THANK YOU!
The man with a mail problem on January 22, 2016 at 21:08

Best relief ever. Cheers.
Mars on January 20, 2016 at 01:51

Ok so this works, but why is it that I have to keep doing this every few days when the same ghost unread email pops up again? Isn’t there a permanent solution by now??
Hesse78 on January 19, 2016 at 23:01

Permanent solution?
Buy an Android.
Anonymous on January 19, 2016 at 01:38

First thing that actually worked. Thanks!
Anonymous on January 18, 2016 at 16:52

Yeah! This worked after trying about a dozen other “solutions” that didn’t work.
Thanks!
KAC on January 16, 2016 at 17:46

Thank you! This was driving me crazy. It worked!!
RuditoBandito on January 15, 2016 at 06:14

You’re amazing. It worked and I didn’t even have to restart my iPhone. thanks!
John "Johnny" Johnson on January 13, 2016 at 18:35

Yeah, worked for me and i didn’t even turn off/restart my phone!
BB on January 13, 2016 at 01:15

Thanks, yep worked
Fred on January 12, 2016 at 22:11

I did what you said and it worked! This was driving me crazy.
Thank you very much.
PJE on January 12, 2016 at 19:58

Thank you. Worked perfectly. You deserve a share of Apple’s profits.
Jenna on January 12, 2016 at 19:32

Thank you so much for posting this! This problem was bugging me for weeks. Worked like a charm!
Arashmania on January 11, 2016 at 23:30

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it!
Jenny on January 11, 2016 at 06:14

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Was driving me crazy.
Liz on January 10, 2016 at 19:04

Thanks!! It worked for me. Spent all morning trying to find one unread message when there was none.
Tom Hampton on January 10, 2016 at 18:26

Did the trick with good result. Thanks.
Carol on January 10, 2016 at 02:14

Thanks for the fix. The reboot with mail off did the trick.
Voima on January 9, 2016 at 16:16

Worked for me even without restart.
Renee on January 9, 2016 at 15:37

Many thanks! This has been bothering me for months! Steadily the unread count would rise and I could not find these phantom messages!
Phil on January 7, 2016 at 02:30

Thank you so much. That problem was driving me insane. Very happy now.
GF User on January 6, 2016 at 12:19

This is just a temporary fix. The inaccurate read count returns.
Anonymous on January 6, 2016 at 03:10

Yay! Thanks a bunch!
Ron on January 5, 2016 at 22:48

Thank you, this has been bothering me for a month or so.
Phil on January 4, 2016 at 00:07

I just applied the “fix” and it worked, for now at least. I have tried deleting and reading the account, which also works temporarily. Hope this is permanent
Mark on January 3, 2016 at 21:56

Brilliant. Been bugging me for weeks.
Anonymous on January 2, 2016 at 04:07

Worked like a charm. Thank you!
Andrea on December 30, 2015 at 09:59

Great!!! Thank vero much!
Those fake unread messages made me crazy for months!
Now I’m finally free! ?
Alison on December 29, 2015 at 11:56

Thank you! A simple solution to an issue that’s been driving me round the bend for ages!
Anonymous on December 24, 2015 at 20:56

Thank you! Worked perfectly! Many thanks, it was driving me insane.
Catie on December 20, 2015 at 12:07

Thanks so much this has been driving me crazy for ages!
Julie McMahon on December 19, 2015 at 15:30

Worked for me, many thanks
rayhiyaan on December 16, 2015 at 16:52

Worked like a charm for me
Jon on December 14, 2015 at 22:35

Tried this twice, and for some reason, it didn’t work for me. BUT, I was able to solve the problem by opening my inbox in mail, hitting ‘edit’, then hitting ‘mark all as read’ — all of the phantom unread emails went away!
Mark Truss on December 4, 2015 at 15:55

Excellent…thank you…that worked. And even better – a simple solution.
Chuck on November 30, 2015 at 22:32

This worked for me. Thanks! We are running Kerio Connect (acts like an MS Exchange server using ActiveSynch) and was driving me crazy. Had to delete and re-add the account twice in the past. I will try not rebooting and see if that works but Apple needs to fix this.
Lawrence on November 30, 2015 at 10:11

This worked for me. Many thanks.
John S on November 25, 2015 at 22:45

Worked for me
Many thanks
Matt on November 25, 2015 at 18:16

This suggestion appears to be temporary.
I have tried the following hoping it will fix the issue.
I have not seen it mentioned before.

On iPhone…
In Settings go to (Mail, Contacts, Calendars).
Select your account.
Find …(Mail Days to Sync).
Choose (No Limit).

See if things look better.
Beeth on November 21, 2015 at 20:35

Worked, but only last for a day, could be bug of IOS 9.1…
Bob on November 20, 2015 at 22:04

This is only a temporary fix.
I’ve done it 3 times now, and each time the unread email count goes to zero, but they will start showing up again…one, then two, then four and so on…
We need a permanent fix!
J on November 20, 2015 at 18:59

Worked for me, thanks so much!
Jason on November 16, 2015 at 22:32

Fix is short term. The unread count comes back after a couple of days. This is a bug in IOS 9 and 9.1
EC on November 16, 2015 at 14:23

That did it. Thank you so much!
Rhonda on November 16, 2015 at 06:41

Worked great!

Thank you
John S on November 15, 2015 at 02:55

Worked for me. Thanks.
Steve on November 12, 2015 at 20:30

This works great, but two days later more unread messages appear intone count and require going through the fix repetitively. Is there a permanent fix ? I can’t believe Apple won’t address this!
mandy on November 12, 2015 at 10:17

worked thank you
Greg Renk on November 10, 2015 at 13:53

Worked for me, brilliant. Frustrated by other posts for 2 weeks now, but this was perfect and instantly fixed the problem!
JaRon on November 10, 2015 at 06:33

Worked for me !
Thanks
Gilles on November 8, 2015 at 12:38

Werkte perfect, dank je Guy!
Anonymous on November 4, 2015 at 17:28

Brilliant. Many thanks!
Jim Fagan on November 4, 2015 at 14:35

Great solution. Easy fix. Thanks
Brian on November 4, 2015 at 08:56

Thx, I also did like Chris, no reboot needed. All is perfect again 🙂
Joe on November 3, 2015 at 17:31

+1 worked for me iOS9.1 + Exchange
Tu.b on November 3, 2015 at 11:50

Im so sorry if this is a dumb question but who do you do step 3??
Tank on November 2, 2015 at 23:05

Bravo!! Thank you very much, Guy!!!!
Keeley on November 2, 2015 at 19:30

Thank you so much. 2 minutes reading your instructions and it worked. This has been driving me crazy for weeks and the Apple forums were useless!
fmlnash on November 1, 2015 at 04:09

Thank you so much!! This website is far superior to the Apple troubleshooting website. You fixed my problem and I am extremely appreciative. Awesome website and support!
Hal on October 31, 2015 at 17:05

Worked perfect; very nice, simple advice. Thank you.
Max on October 31, 2015 at 03:56

Worked like a charm. Thank u!
zea62 on October 30, 2015 at 21:07

This worked for me for iOS 9.1 and my Exchange Account. Thx
Jandrade on October 25, 2015 at 07:21

Fix worked perfectly on iphone 6, iOS 9.1 Thanks.
rpr on October 24, 2015 at 14:52

Thanks, your advice was helpful in fixing this issue on iOS 9 Mail app reading mail using a MS Exchange account.
Francesco on October 24, 2015 at 13:14

Worker: clear, simple and fast.
Thanks
Jahedur on October 22, 2015 at 14:03

Wow. Worked brilliantly. Thanks a bunch!
Matt on October 21, 2015 at 22:29

This didn’t work for me at all. Very frustrating!

The emails disappeared and then starting reappearing as ghost emails again the next day!
Bram on October 21, 2015 at 19:42

Big thank, workshop like a charm!
Juan on October 19, 2015 at 16:39

It worked; thanks;
Bart on October 6, 2015 at 12:54

I have the same problem on my ipod touch. Updated to ios9 and was stuck with 3800 on the app badge. Both email accounts (icloud and other) showed no unread mail but the unread folder was showing about 3800 in the mail account list view. Entering the unread list showed “no unread mail”

I turned off the icloud sync for my email and the badge is now correct. I had previously tried all of the above as well as deleating the other email account and re-creating it without sucess.
Robert on October 6, 2015 at 00:25

Well done, that has been doing my head in for days and all the ghost emails have gone !!!
Chris on October 1, 2015 at 15:25

Thanks a lot for this tipp. Actually I found out you do not need to reboot the phone:
– quit Mail (double click home and swipe up)
– disable Mail as described in the article
– open mail, verify the account is gone
– quit Mail
– enable Mail again
voila!
Rich K on September 30, 2015 at 21:57

That worked! Thanks.
Doug Shull on September 30, 2015 at 20:31

Thanks for the ‘fix’, been looking a long time for how to fix this issue.
Costel on September 30, 2015 at 14:46

Also worked for me, great tip! Thanks!
Chad on September 25, 2015 at 18:15

Worked for me. Thanks for this great tip.
Irma on September 22, 2015 at 01:49

I’ve been having this problem since a year and didn’t know how to fix it. I had almost 1800 unread messages on my iphone. Luckily i found this helpful guidance!! And it worked for me :-)) Thank you so much for this article!!
JGMGM on September 21, 2015 at 20:51

FANTASTIC!! Your instructions worked. Finally no more Phantom emails. Thank you very much.
Rob on September 21, 2015 at 07:11

Brilliant! worked first time.

Many thanks!
bz on September 20, 2015 at 22:00

I fought this problem all morning, tried all the suggestions.
After disabling all accounts, turning off the iphone for 30 minutes, turning it on, I enabled one account at a time.
Smurfy’s law was apparent when the last one brought back the 13 phantom unread messages. (Smurfy’s law: what ever happens will make you feel little and blue!)
So I disabled the last one and set up a new account. When I connected it and marked all messages as read, the unlucky 13 phantom messages are finally gone.
So hints: If you have multiple accounts, try and narrow it down to one account that is causing the problem, disable that account and set up a new one (just on the iphone, in the ‘settings’, NOT on the e-mail server!)

The problem started, when I apparently had some unread messages (just a guess) when I told the phone to go ahead and install the latest IOS release that it said was ready to install.

Since this problem seems to have been around for years, I would have though that Apple would have fixed it. And perhaps someone build a ‘fixer’ that anyone could run to correct it.

I guess it hasn’t bothered the right people yet.
Jeremy on September 2, 2015 at 16:34

So glad you posted this fix. It worked perfectly. Thank you!
Anonymous on July 29, 2015 at 23:55

This is what worked for me: put phone in airplane mode for a few seconds. That seems to sync everything with the mail server and the unread emails show up.
Guy Florack on March 27, 2015 at 14:44

Hi RAMACHANDRAN,
Did you try to check if you really don’t have any unread mails:You can do this by opening the Mail app, opening your inbox, selecting “edit” at the top right, select “Mark All” at the bottom left and select “Mark as Unread”.
C RAMACHANDRAN on March 27, 2015 at 10:52

I have three mail accounts configured to my iPhone 6. The unread mail counter is showing wrong figures. I turned the mail to “off” and rebooted the Mobile and turned all mail to “On” again.

The problem persists and the mail counter is still showing the same wrong figure.

Please help.

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Incorrect Unread Count iPhone / iPad FIX

Incorrect Unread Count iPhone / iPad Issue

Incorrect Unread Count iPhone / iPad FIX

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