50 MACWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020
iOSCENTRALIMAGE: MICHAEL SIMONI
f you don’t regularly check your email
throughout the day, the unread badge
count on your iPhone or iPad is an
indispensable part of your workflow.
When it works, that is. If your iOS Mail app
is like mine, it often shows a lone unread
email badge even when everything’s been
read, which can get annoying.
There’s a simple explanation for it that
doesn’t involve nuking your account and
starting over (believe me, I’ve tried). It has
to do with rules. While you can’t actually
create mailbox rules on your iOS device,
you can set them up on the Mac, which is
where the trouble starts.
Mail rules are basically if-this-then-thatWhy the iOS Mail app shows a
phantom unread message
badge and what to do about it
It’s a sorting glitch.
BY MICHAEL SIMON