Phantom Messages Badges

[gwlecompte]

Ask Siri: "Show my unread messages"
Siri will show nothing, but ask you if you want to reply, no. If you have multiple phantom unread messages, Siri will continue asking you if you want to reply. After going through all phantom messages, the badge count will correct.

This did the trick for me! I've tried the other "solutions" without any luck. Was driving me nuts! I don't use Siri and have actually turned it off but was willing to try anything and reenabled it. Siri found the unread messages which appear to be part of 2-part messages with on part being read and the other part "hidden". Now my iMessage notifications match on iPhone, MBA and Mac Mini. THANK YOU! And Siri is disabled again. I also signed up for an account to thank the OP, @kylebarker72.

 

[KyloKing]

This worked for me too. Brilliant workaround thank you so much.

For those wondering what the unread messages were, they were various automated text messages I had previously received from the cell company i used when i had another simcard overseas

Same here. I was in Australia for over a year, and the message was from Optus. I tried so many different things repeatedly for months, but this is what worked.

 

[KyloKing]

Y

Ask Siri: "Show my unread messages"
Siri will show nothing, but ask you if you want to reply, no. If you have multiple phantom unread messages, Siri will continue asking you if you want to reply. After going through all phantom messages, the badge count will correct.

You are a genius. Been trying things for months to no avail. Registered an account here just to say THANK YOU! It was irritating me to no end. Turns out it was a message from a previous cell phone company whose SIM card I used while overseas.

 

[KyloKing]

signed up for an account specifically to thank you for this genius workaround, i have been trying to fix this for over a year.

SAME!

 

[Yeaandy]

Ask Siri: "Show my unread messages"
Siri will show nothing, but ask you if you want to reply, no. If you have multiple phantom unread messages, Siri will continue asking you if you want to reply. After going through all phantom messages, the badge count will correct.

I also signed up just to thank you. This is the only thing that worked for me out of all the proposed solutions. I also wanted to add that I had to ask Siri to read my messages on my iPhone and that fixed that issue. However, I still had one unread badge on my laptop iMessages (even though I'd sorted the conversations by unread and it showed no unread messages) so I asked Siri on my laptop to read all my messages, and she read one that I'd definitely already read and responded to, but that did the trick!!!!! Now all those annoying red badges for phantom messages are gone. Thank you so much for taking the time to figure this out and altruistically post your solution to help the rest of us.

 

[RUQRU]

I’ve had this happen as well. I usually just end up clicking on every recent message conversation in the messages app and eventually it finds one that was “unread” even though it had been read on another device. I find it is usually a SMS conversation that causes this. And to note as another poster said, it usually happens after a few days on inactivity on that Mac.

Yes, this worked for me. Some junk texts from politcal orgs. I blocked and deleted them all and my counter badge is now cleared.

 

[ballingxo]

Ask Siri: "Show my unread messages"
Siri will show nothing, but ask you if you want to reply, no. If you have multiple phantom unread messages, Siri will continue asking you if you want to reply. After going through all phantom messages, the badge count will correct.

Wow! Unexpected solution that works! Signed up for an account just to say thank you since this has been bothering me for so long!

 

[ajg23]

Or, tap with two fingers to get the context menu from the Messages icon in the dock. Under "New Message" a the top will be an entry about an unread message. Click that and an empty message thread will appear. Close that and the badge will clear.

This is the one that worked for me (on Sonoma 14.3)! Well, it required one more step: when I right-clicked the dock icon, and then clicked the single conversation (shown as phone number only) below "New Message", the Messages app showed "1 Conversation Selected," but I didn't see that conversation list on the left. However, from the conversation menu I was able to click Delete Conversation, and the badge went away!

WARNING: After the above, to assist writing this post, I right-clicked the Messages app on the dock icon's pop-up menu again, and it still showed that conversation! I clicked it and Messages again showed "1 Conversation Selected." But THIS TIME, when I clicked Delete Conversation, it deleted the previously-selected conversation (which was my pinned conversation with my wife!).

 

[XCrystalMermaidX]

This is the one that worked for me (on Sonoma 14.3)! Well, it required one more step: when I right-clicked the dock icon, and then clicked the single conversation (shown as phone number only) below "New Message", the Messages app showed "1 Conversation Selected," but I didn't see that conversation list on the left. However, from the conversation menu I was able to click Delete Conversation, and the badge went away!

WARNING: After the above, to assist writing this post, I right-clicked the Messages app on the dock icon's pop-up menu again, and it still showed that conversation! I clicked it and Messages again showed "1 Conversation Selected." But THIS TIME, when I clicked Delete Conversation, it deleted the previously-selected conversation (which was my pinned conversation with my wife!).

This is CRITICAL The warning on this just happened to me and I lost a multi-year history with my partner of 20 years. Im gutted and heartbroken. It made the bug go away but it completely deleted everything. IM absolutely done with Apple Devices. This is the last time I have to wipe my device or lose precious memories because of their piss poor QC on their products and refusal to fix even the simplest of bugs.

 

[RUQRU]

See: TIL how to quickly get rid of a phantom Messages badge on my Mac

I followed the steps and opened the first thread displayed. I deleted the last message in that conversation and badge disappeared leaving the rest of the conversation intact:

Do the Following:

1. Right-click on the app icon in the Dock:
- Use two fingers on the trackpad,
- Right-click, or
- Control-click on a mouse.

2. This action opens the pop-up options menu.

3. Under the "New Message" option at the top of the menu, note the tally of messages with a notification that one is unread.

4. Click on the notification.

5. A blank conversation appears, tricking the app into thinking there is an unread message.

6. Delete the last message in that conversation.

7. Observe that the badge indicating unread messages has disappeared.

 

[tgwaste]

In case anyone else comes across this.. just go to deleted messages on phone, recover the last message(s), then delete it on the mac.
The fact that this freaking garbage isnt fixed after 3 years is infuriating.