Take a quick look at the screenshot on the left. How many unread emails are sitting in the inbox? The notification icon might say '6' but the real answer is none: the supposedly-unread messages have either been previously read on another computer, are unimportant or – yikes – are simply spam.

And yet that annoying '6' will sit there and over time perhaps become a '7' or a '8', or a '100'. Indeed, if you’ve just set up your iPhone 3G and synched an existing inbox for the first time, that notification number might well read '500'. And it’ll do so until the messages are deleted from or read with the iPhone. This is because the iPhone software doesn’t have a 'mark as read' feature. It’s official, then: the iPhone is stupid.

How to solve the problem? Well, you can’t But read on for a sort-of workaround.

The bad news is that if you’re using a POP email service, you’re stuffed – at least until Apple gets around to issuing a fix (and given all the faults the firm saw fit to carry over into iPhone 2.0, we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath). The only way to remove the unread message count from the home-screen icon is to read or delete the offending emails, as noted.

However, users of IMAP-enabled services can make use of server-side features to deal with this annoyance. With Gmail, for instance, you can log into the web interface and use the ‘mark as read’ option there. The next time your iPhone synchs, the marked-as-read information will also be synched – thus removing the unread-message count from the notification icon. If you’re desperate to remove an erroneous indication when out in the field, then work this same trick in Safari on the iPhone. Not elegant, but it works.

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jen  - I don't have this problem.   |27/08/08 1:57 AM Come on, dude. Why not just tap the email, open it, then go back to your inbox? If you did have the ability to mark as read, you'd probably have to tap the screen twice anyway (2 taps is all it will take to make an email appear as read). Once read (unless you mark as unread, which iPhone does allow you to do), the green number goes down. If you need to micromanage your email this much you should just plop down at the computer and mark them in bulk. It should update on your iPhone accordingly. Reply | Quote

jen  - One more thing. . .   |27/08/08 2:00 AM I don't have a problem w/my iPhone not updating after I've read an email on my computer. Finally, why would you mark SPAM as "read" instead of just deleting it? This complaint of yours is totally lame. Reply | Quote

Paul  - re: One more thing. . .   |05/09/08 6:52 PM Actually it is pretty far from a lame complaint; I think you are missing the point Jen. I am a business class user that gets anywhere from 50-100 emails per day. I NEED a simple option to mark all my emails read on the iPhone so I know when something new comes in I may need to deal with. Going thorugh the process of marking them as read indivudually has been very trying, and I have since given up and simply let the email icon tell me I have 117 unread messages. Please keep in mind I use a pc, so your remark: " ;If you need to micromanage your email this much you should just plop down at the computer and mark them in bulk. It should update on your iPhone accordingly" ; does not apply to the my version of outlook; read email status does not change... This problem definitly still needs a solution and I will keep looking till I find it. Reply | Quote

Kai  - agree   |11/09/08 9:47 AM I totally agree even though I am getting only 10 or 15 emails a day. It is very inconvenient to process each an every email seperately. Actually I have both: Blackberry and Iphone and I have to say that the Iphone is more a toy and the blackberry something you'd use for serious business. Reply | Quote

bob   |17/09/08 10:02 PM Yep, pretty lame. My crackberry does it automatically when I read elsewhere, and when I read them on the berry, that cascades back to PC. I don't expect my touch to do that, but there should be a "mark all read" function. As a software dwveloper I can assure you an hour of work is all it would take. Very lame apple. Reply | Quote

Steve Cooper  - Re-loading mails   |24/10/08 5:13 PM My problem seems related. My e-mails are thru 2 POP services that upload to me.com and then down to my iphone. The problem I have is that read or not read my phone frequently reloads e-mail that has been read on my iphone, hone, or work. I must have a setting crossed but am not sure where to look. Any suggestions? Reply | Quote

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