Several iPhone and iPad report that the built-in iOS Mail app unread email indicator (red circle badge notification) shows some unread email messages when actually there are no unread email messages in their Inbox. We call these “ghost” messages. After trying a bunch of time to remove these, you might just feel like they are stuck forever!!! But fear not, we’ve got some tips to get those emails out of your unread box and into their proper place.
Contents
Quick Tips 
Follow these quick tips to fix when your iPhone unread email count is wrong
- Restart your device or force restart it
- Identify your unread email via the Mail app or using the email’s website and mark your unread email as read
- Or for Mac owners, open the Mail App and select the Mailbox Menu from the top menu bar. Choose Mark All Messages as Read
- If you use intelligent mailboxes, delete the intelligent mailbox that causes this problem and creates a new one with those same rules
- Toggle off and on Mail in your email account’s settings via the Settings app
- Hide the Mail app notifications (for persistent or reoccurring problems)
- Reset the Mail app by deleting the Mail App and reinstalling it
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Fixes for Ghost Messages (iOS Mail app shows unread emails)
Please try these steps until you resolve your issue
Find your unread email and mark it as read
First, verify you really don’t have any unread emails in your inbox. You may have some unread emails that you may not know.
For instance, let’s say you are using Gmail as your email account. Open Safari (or any other internet browser) and go to Gmail’s site. To find your unread Gmail messages, in the search box, enter ‘is: unread‘ (without the quotes.)
If this search finds any unread messages, mark them read. Check if this fixes your problem.
Or mark all your email as read
- Open the Mail app
- Choose All Inboxes
- Tap Edit
- Choose Select All
- Tap Mark
- Choose Mark as Read
Reset the email account within the Mail App
The next fix is to disable the Mail settings and restart the Mail app
- Go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Accounts
- Or Settings > Mail ( or Mail, Contacts, Calendars) > Accounts
- Select the mail account that shows the incorrect unread mail notifications
- If you have more than one, perform these steps for each account
- Toggle OFF “Mail” to disable it. This action does not delete your account
- Exit Settings by returning to your Home Screen
- Close the Mail app by swiping up your Gesture Bar or by pressing the Home button twice. Locate the Mail app preview and swipe up to close it
- Now once again go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Accounts
- For older iOS, go to Settings >Mail (Mail, Contacts, Calendars) and select the mail account
- Toggle ON Mail to enable it
- Check to see if your mail app is now showing the correct unread email counts.
If this didn’t stick, add in a restart after closing the Mail App.
Once powered up, return to Settings and toggle Mail back on. Or try a forced restart in between these steps.
Happens a lot? Hide the unread mail number
- Go to Settings > Notifications > Mail
- Toggle off Allow Notifications
We only recommend this step for persistent or reoccurring problems with the Mail app’s unread email count.
Delete & Reinstall the Mail App
If you use iOS 10 and above, Apple now allows users to delete certain native apps, including the Mail App! When you delete the Mail App, it also deletes all your local data but any documents or data stored via iCloud are not deleted.
First, Remove Mail
- On your iDevice, press and hold the Mail app lightly until it jiggles or until you see the Quick Action menu
- If it doesn’t jiggle, use less pressure
- Choose Delete from the Quick Actions or tap on the x, at the top left of the app, then tap Remove
- Press the Home button to finish or press Done
If you pair your device with an Apple Watch, removing the Mail app from your iPhone also removes the app from your Apple Watch.
Next, Restore Mail
- Open the App Store
- Tap the bottom tab for Search and type in Mail in the spotlight field
- Tap the cloud icon to reinstall Mail
- After reinstalling, go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts and toggle ON Mail for all listed accounts
- For folks using iOS 10 or below, you need to re-enter your account details. Go to Settings > Mail and add your accounts back in
If you have an Apple Watch, restoring Mail to your paired iPhone also restores that app on your Apple Watch.
Want Another Option to Delete Mail?
You can also delete and reinstall apps through the Settings App. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage (or iPad, iPod Touch Storage.) 
Then scroll down the list to locate the Mail App, tap on it and select Delete App.
For folks using iOS 11 and above, do not select offload app as this preserves all the Mail App’s documents and data and the problem may return after reinstalling.
No Time? Check Out Our Video!
If time is an issue or you need to learn by watching, take a look at our video and follow along as we walk through the best tips to get your Mail app working normally again.
Reader Tips
- If you have a Mac, open the Mail App and mark all your emails as read. This usually solves the problem
- Open your email via a web browser or its own app (not Apple’s Mail App), then type in label: unread in the search box. This search should show you any messages in your account that are flagged as unread–the mark them as read, read them, or delete them
- I just went into my online email account and searched ‘unread.’ It showed me all the unread mail that, for some reason, won’t pop up when I scroll through my mail on my iPhone. Marked them as read and I fixed my problem in an instance!
- Richo solved this by logging on to the web version of Gmail and marking the errant emails as read
- Here’s my fix: go to the email icon app, select the troubling email, click edit (top right corner), at the bottom click mark all, and mark as all read. Viola, it’s fixed!
- Look for an “all mail” folder. If it has any unread emails in it, clear and mark that mail as read. For me, once I did this my iPhone updated, and the problem is corrected!
- For the iPhone, ghost messages disappeared by disabling mail, then turning off, then back on and then re-enabling Mail.
- I marked ALL my messages as unread, waited a minute and then marked them all as read. This worked for me!
- I had to force reset my iPad (Home plus Power) rather than just powering it off, but then it worked.
- It’s much easier to just mark all your emails as “read.”
- 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.
- I deleted my email account from the settings, signed in again, and it worked like a charm. My 35 unread emails are gone!
- Go to advanced settings within the individual email account and swipe off the SSL tab. Then exit. They should be gone. To turn back on go to Settings again and turn on your email following steps above.
- I went directly to my email server – in my case the AOL.com and logged on via Chrome and marked all the mail there as read. It seemed to fix the problem and immediately showed up on my phone correctly. None of the fixes above seemed to work, but this did for now.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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Reset mail worked, thank you!!
Resetting mail app worked for me! Thanks so much
I am having to do this every day!
I either turn off the email account, do a hard reset on my iPhone and then turn the email accounts back on.
I have also deleted the account and added it again.
The next time I check my mail, I have unread emails in my junk folder.
I have even deleted outlook and set up the account as pop instead and nothing works!
I tried everything until I read here that I could delete the MAIL APP and reinstall without losing all my email accounts. It worked perfectly! Thanks!
Now, if I could just get the “Unread” and “Flagged” mail folder to check all folders and not just Inboxes. I’m using IMAP accounts with filtered folders and it just ignores looking there for unread and flagged. Big bother… !
I tried the resetting my iPhone and it still showed that I had 1 email unread but I couldn’t find it for months. I happened to have the gmail app and I looked there and it was there I
1 unread email. So I suggest if you cannot find that unread email (ghost email) download the app and look for it. I was amazed that it was there and not on my mail app on my iPhone. Quick fix
I am using ios 12.1.2 on iphone6.
I have tried all of the suggestions in this post, including deleting the Mail app twice and reinstalling it, but I am still showing 8572 unread emails.
This is only happing on the iPhone, my iPad and MacBook are ok.
What else can be done?
I have iPhone 7 use version Ios12.1. I have 12,000 ghost emails showing. I have tried all of the above suggestions…..except turnoff notifications ….still there..
Any other suggestions!
Hi Mary Ellen,
Oh, how horrible!
Have you tried deleting the email account(s) and then adding them back in. That may clear up any ghost email issues.
And since your email is stored on a third-party server, you should not lose any data in this process.
Sam
Thank you! This has been driving me crazy for a long time. Turning the account off and then back on again did the trick. 🙂
I solved this by logging on to the web version of gmail and marking the errant mails as read/
I followed all the steps 1-3 but it hasn’t worked. I don’t want to disable notifications as I need them turned on. Any other tips?
This only happens with one of the accounts I have synced to my phone.
Hi Teej,
We suggest deleting that problem accounts and adding it back in to refresh your device’s connection. If using iOS 11, delete the account via Settings > Accounts & Passwords. If using earlier versions, remove the account via Settings > Mail. Once deleted, restart your device and then return to that same setting and choose Add Account.
Let us know if this helps,
SK
I had an issue where iPhone still showed read and deleted emails. I discovered at the bottom of the listings below the labels was an “all mail” folder. It contained all of my mail. It also had unread emails in it. Once I cleared it and marked the mail as read my iPhone updated and the problem is corrected!
Hi DBK,
Thanks for that tip! We’ll add it into the article. We appreciate the heads up.
SK
That fix works for the current set of ghost emails. But I keep getting this condition every day now all of a sudden. Instead of doing the turn off turn on email aver and over, what exactly causes this and how do I try to fix it?
I went directly to my email server – in my case the AOL.com and logged on via Chrome and marked all the mail there as read. It seemed to fix the problem and immediately showed up on my phone correctly. None of the fixes above seemed to work, but this did for now.
Hi Beth, Thank you for the comment and the tip. We will make sure to add it to the Readers Tips section so that other users can benefit.
Just updated to ios 11.1.2. I deleted my yahoo account. I then tried to add the account back, but it will not load it. I also tried to add my gmail account, but it did the same thing where it looks like it going to add it and it’s thinking thinking thinking, and then nothing happens. This is ridiculous!
For the iPhone, ghost messages disappeared by disabling mail, then turning off, then back on and then re-enabling Mail. The iPad didn’t require turning off for the fix.
Clicking “Edit” and marking all emails as unread and then again as read worked for me! Such an easy fix to a pesky, persistent problem! Thank you!
Went looking at how to delete all seven thousand unread mail ,and I spent quite a lot of time to no avail. Came across your suggestions and ,after all that wasted time that I had spent trying to solve the problem . Your suggesting to how to go about deleting the mail and then turning it on.Certainly worked for me. Thanks
I tried everything that was suggested but nothing worked, so I just went into my email and searched ‘unread’ and it showed me all the unread mail that won’t pop up when I scroll through my mail. I just marked them as read and my problem was fixed.
Thaisce,
Sometimes the simple solution is the best solution! Thank you for sharing this great tip. We’ll add it in as this one will surely help a heck of a lot of other iFolks! Good catch!
Cheers,
Liz
The same problem exists in Outlook for iOS except here the false notifications disappear after you open the app and lets it check.
thanks.
I’ve tried editing emails but it doesn’t work. Says I have 8,000 plus emails and they are dating back to. 2015. Help….how do I get rid of them permanently?
Hi Terry,
I am sorry to hear that you are having continued issues with your mail. That must be very frustrating…and overwhelming to see over 8000 emails unread!
My suggestion, if you haven’t already tried, is to delete the mail stock app, restart, and then download and reinstall via the app store. You will need to set everything up again, but this often does the trick.
Let us know how things are going. And good luck!
Cheers,
Liz
Thanks It’s worked for me
Thanks so much. This was driving me crazy for days. Today I tried many websites , some with somewhat or even very similar techniques that did not work. One was almost the same but involved doing a hard reset. Tried that one twice. This one wrked perfectly the first time.
Thanks. Worked for me the second time when I turned my iPad off after disabling hotmail.
Didn’t work for me the first time so I tried it again but also changing my sync time to 1 week and it worked when I went back in and enabled it all again I change Sync back to no limited and all was good I’m so happy it was driving me crazy
Bravo!!!
iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.4
Number 3 worked for me
Thank you
It worked with my exchange account. Thank you! I have tried several tricks before and after found one by one marking them as read it didn’t work but it did now!
Go into settings, mail, choose the email you are signed in with. Sign out, and resign back it.
Thanks! So helpful
thank you – it worked for me
Thanks a lot….
Number 3 worked for me, nothing else online did – thanks for the post, fixed this truly annoying issue!
number 3 worked for me many thanks as this was driving me mad having 5 unread mail….
Worked for me as prescribed – thanks!
I have this problem on my iMac, not with my iphoone or iPad. The procedure above doid not work. The number of supposedly unread mails in one of my mail accounts keeps going up. Any other suggestions?
Joel, In the past when we have seen this issue in older OS X, the easiest way to try fixing this is to open your Mail. Click on the Mailbox that yo are having issues with. Then Go to the “Mailbox” on the top Mail Menu and click on “Rebuild”. That should hopefully take care of your issue. Please keep us posted if it worked for you.
Thank you “Andrew”! Your suggestion of changing “mail days to sync” to “no limit” did the trick for me. You rock!
Love it, thank you, I have been searching for this fix for a long time!!
You legend!
Now for the first good nights sleep since it started……..
Easiest fix I’ve found:
1. Go to “Settings”
2. Select “Mail, Contact, Calendars”
3. Select the mail account that shows the unread message.
4. Turn “Mail” to “Off”
5. Turn the iPhone / iPad off by holding down the power button for 5 seconds and slide to “power off.”
6. Wait for 30 seconds, turn the iPhone / iPad back on
IT WORKS FOR ME
Can someone explain to me how disabling your mail notification is a cure for this problem? If this was a fix, you would be able to keep your notifications on and the problem would simply go away.
Excellent! it works for me!!!
Worked like a charm! Thank you! Now I can find something new to drive me crazy!!!
Thank you! Finally got rid of them! Would never have worked that out in my own!
This did not work for me. Outlook still shows I have 1 unread message and I do not. I’ve deleted every email in every single folder and even deleted everything in my Trash folder. Not a single email anywhere, still shows I have 1 unread message. Microsoft joke on my Apple device??
Thank you worked a treat
Worked the second time! Use 30sec rule of disabling the mail as described and turning off application (like the computer power button to restart but here just walk away from the application).
Then enable the unread #disappears!
Thanks a lot-yes, good fix!
This worked for me!
Thanks.
You may have suggested that I would loose ALL my stored mail messages on my phone with that trick…. Any suggestions how to recover those??
AAAAAGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR its more frustrating that its works for so many people but not me!!
Fix is not working for me and I do not have gmail
Thanks been annoying me for so long
Thank you, God !!
Spot on.
Sorted so easily.
Thankyou.
Thanks! Worked for me
I’ve had this phantom mail for years with Apple emai And the only solution I’ve found was to have apple sene new/recondition hoe to swap out. I’m
Not getting do it yourself recommendations only thanks
Whew. Worked on my iPhone and I am so happy. Thanks for the fix!
I too am glad, it worked for me as well on my iPad Air
nothings working listed here trie everything its driving me nuts
I reckon the device (iPad Air for me) keeps some sort of separate record of unread mails rather than a “live” count of downloaded messages each and every time the app is used.
If you have an mail item which hangs around unread for long enough so it then becomes older than the device-server sync period then it disappears but still is counted as unread by your device. The unread mail count then can never drop back to zero as this unread message has gone.
All I did to solve this problem was to change the “Mail days to sync” to “no limit” (I then changed it back to 1 month where it was originally).
Awesome it worked. Thank you
Fixed! Thank you for this post!
Thank you so much! Have saved this page in case it happens again.
Very happy.
I’m so happy this worked! It was driving me nuts!
Thank you so much it worked like a dream:)
I Have latest (30.4.2016) IOS 9.3.1 & iPhone 5S and MobileIron work email app.
Worked for me, many thanks!!
You save my weekends 😀
Like so many other posters….this has been driving Nuts for weeks. Started w 1 “unopened” then mysteriously it changed to 2 a few days later then to 3 the next week for no reason to what’s so ever, Checked my desktop Puter email program and server…all fine showing none unread.
Found this help link through Google on my iPad…and Bam. It worked!!!!
Fixed issue on Pad and iPad. Thank you!!
method no 3 worked fine
I had this problem too. try turning off the Email account and restarting you phone. Once you restart, turn the Email account on again.
Worked!!! It was making me crazy!!!!!
perfect worked for me
#3 worked for me!!
The suggestion described in the article worked perfectly for me the first time! I had the annoying “1 Unread Message”on my iPhone Hotmail account for weeks and kept searching my desktop, trash, and sent messages for unread and couldn’t figure out what was causing it. Luckily I found this suggestion right before I was about to delete my account and re-establish it on my iphone, which I was a bit nervous about.. Thank you! Quick and easy fix, wish I had thought of it long ago. Question is why is this happening? But for now I’ll just be thankful it’s gone. Thank you!
Thank you so much, worked first time
Worked first time thanks!
Thank You! Finally got that to go away.
it worked !!! thanks
Thank you so much. I had “3” on my mail icon for months when there were no actual unread e-mails. Turning off and back on mail sync worked.
Worked for me too! It’s been annoying me for weeks…
Worked for me. Thanks!
WORKED!!!!!! Thanks 🙂
Worked. Finally got rid of badge showing unread email, was driving me crazy.
WORKED BRILLIANTLY!!! I COULD KISS YOU!! NOTHING ELSE HAS WORKED SO FAR! 🙂
Didn’t work first time. Then after disabling the offending mail account I re-booted the phone, then enabled the account and it worked fine
#3 Worked for me. I did reboot after I disabled Mail (just in case.
It helped!
thank you
Worked good! Thanks.
It worked on my IPad and phone. THANKS!!!
arrrrhhhhhh!!!!! please help, didnt work atall ….. any ideas anyone?
Brilliant worked first time, been really annoying thinking I had an email when In fact I didn’t.
One to remember.
Thanks.
It worked
Thank you so much. Your solution works!
It didn’t REALLY work for me.
I reset my settings, then followed the above instructions AGAIN.
When I went to my Inbox, I found there was a box entitled “orphaned whatever” box.
The so-called unread email was still there.
Deleted the orphaned mail box — and the unread mail was gone.
BUT there is a blue box beside “Unread Mail.”
So, I don’t think my problem is completely solved.
And, the bold, italics, and underline options are no longer above the keyboard, on the right.
And the iPad keeps going to airplane mode.
Quite fed up.
Worked for me! Had 110 junk and 70 trash ‘phantom’ emails for months. All gone now thankfully.
It worked for me. Thanks.
What is the fix this is ridicules its on my iPhone my wife iPhone my iPad
Really Apple come on
I have five unread emails in my inbox and there are none. How do I get rid of these?
Worked for me! This has been driving me nuts for months. Whenever I glanced at my iPhone it looked like I had mail until a closer look showed it was the same-old six non-existing unread e-mails. Searched several times online for a solution and nothing worked until I found you.
Thank you!
Thank you Serhat! Followed your instructions and updated all 4 Apple devices. All 4 now working perfectly. Would be curious on what causes this mismatch.
Thank you!
I tried both methods: disabled mail icon and notifications one at a time. I restarted my iPhone 5 after every operation. However, my gmail accounts are still showing incorrect unread count. Called Apple they told me this problem has been going on for 3 weeks. They said it’s Google server issue so they referred me to Google customer service. Google wasn’t helpful either saying that it’s IP network problem. Very frustrating!!! Does anyone have any suggestions?