Why does the Outlook taskbar envelope icon sometimes remain active, even if I have no unread email?

Outlook has a nice envelope icon that displays on top of the taskbar icon when I have new mail. Sometimes this icon comes up when I get a new message, but then doesn't go away when the message is marked as read.

The only ways I know of to get rid of it is to close and reopen Outlook, or get a new email. Although sometimes if I'm unlucky the same thing will happen with the new email.

Here are two screenshots of what I'm talking about. You can clearly see the new mail icon along with an empty inbox.

^{(Click image to enlarge)}

enter image description here

Just to be clear, there really isn't any unread email (none in other folders, junk etc.).

How can I get Outlook to actually recognize when I have no new mail?

Kris Harper

Posted 2011-09-13T17:10:49.730

Reputation: 819

Still actual for Outlook 2013/Windows 8. Discussion at microsoft.com - https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/exchange/en-US/daa3a739-b5a4-40a6-a3bc-e5f2eb93f5c3/outlook-envelope-icon-doesnt-disappear

– resnyanskiy – 2015-06-30T04:17:47.117

FWIW, I can repro this every time by using the little invisible bar on the left side of the email in the header pane to mark an email as read rather than clicking on the "Unread/Read" button in the big toolbar. IOW you might not want to use that functionality until MS fixes the bug. – influent – 2015-09-10T19:51:23.443

2Why is your inbox empty? – kinokijuf – 2013-02-19T17:03:17.010

1@kinokijuf Because I've sorted all my mail and put it in folders. – Kris Harper – 2013-02-19T18:49:48.797

1How did you get Outlook to look like that? Is it a skin? It's nice. – Fred – 2013-05-17T21:10:13.230

1@Fred I think it's a color scheme. Options, General, Color Scheme. – Kris Harper – 2013-05-18T21:56:31.890

Answers

This is a known bug in Outlook. To get rid of this icon just right-click any Outlook folder with all read mail select Mark All as Read in the context menu.

thims

Posted 2011-09-13T17:10:49.730

Reputation: 8 081

Apparently, a lot. Seems like Nadella is on the ball, though. – Will – 2014-07-28T21:28:45.163

Thanks! This bug still exists...you'd think they'd have time to get to it in 13 years... – Matt – 2016-10-18T14:35:05.113

Good to know that the fix still works though over 5 years later. – AsheraH – 2016-12-22T12:35:52.503

1bug is still here... 2017 and going. I get it several times per day and it's superannoying. Thanks MS – Vland – 2017-03-03T07:13:48.407

2let's stop referring to this as a "fix" - it's a workaround. The correct answer is that there is no fix. – Fopedush – 2017-03-14T17:34:40.273

7Wow... Posted in 2011, allegedly happening since 2003, and now its 2018 and it's still a bug... – user1308743 – 2018-05-11T17:32:09.917

Checking in from Nov 2018, 15 year old bug still persists. gg – Aaron Lavers – 2018-11-07T02:39:15.347

I had to read and re-read this answer to get it to work because I thought to myself, "why would I 'mark all as read' on a folder with no unread items???" Truth is stranger than fiction. #rolleyesemojihere – ryvantage – 2018-12-17T21:53:11.963

2June 2019, still exists. – Ghukas – 2019-06-11T22:16:42.823

1Your fix works. Thanks. I guess the bug has been reported already then? – Kris Harper – 2011-09-15T14:27:26.507

8That's not a great resolution when it happens many times a day... – SandRock – 2012-03-20T08:24:54.153

5@KrisHarper The bug has been reported over and over again since Outlook 2003. – Crashworks – 2013-07-09T02:58:28.267

10This is so lame! By the way I think it happens when you read your mail from another client (e.g. your mobile), and then your outlook "read" status doesn't get updated in the system tray. – Elad – 2013-07-16T10:51:05.183

4How much does MSs market share need to erode before they realize that user experience matters a whole lot in the 21st century? – jordanpg – 2014-04-03T16:12:58.447

Another way of getting rid of the icon is to fully open an email - any email - in a new window (not just in the preview pane) by double-clicking it.

James Cane

Posted 2011-09-13T17:10:49.730

Reputation: 101

For those who likes keyboard shortcuts, there is a faster workaround than the right click/mark all as read. Select any message in your Inbox and use CTRL+U, CTRL+K. This will mark the message as Unread, then Read, and the envelope will vanish.

kazulius

Posted 2011-09-13T17:10:49.730

Reputation: 71

I have an even easier workaround. When the new mail envelope doesn't go away I simply click on my sent mail folder and then back to the inbox and it goes away every time. Still is annoying when you work an office job and it happens like 10 times per day.

user3216081

Posted 2011-09-13T17:10:49.730

Reputation: 31

I see this happen in Microsoft Office Outlook 2013 all the time! It happens when I manually drag an email from the inbox to a folder, and when I have read messages on one workstation and then move to another one. The icon still displays unread even though there are no unread messages in my inbox.

The quick keyboard shortcut that I've found is to have one or more emails highlighted in the inbox and press ctrl+u to mark the email as unread, then ctrl+q to mark the message read.

Kanuea

Posted 2011-09-13T17:10:49.730

Reputation: 151

Also, in Outlook 2013, marking a message as read using the "blue bar" in the message list does not clear the envelope icon from the taskbar. – Dan Henderson – 2015-08-04T15:13:56.250