Windows 7 - All Unread Messages are loaded into Inbox As Read

Asked By rickster

24-Apr-10 06:34 AM

I am using Windoes Mail on Vista-x64.  My mail account is with AOL and
Windows Mail is configured to use it as an IMAP server.  There are no
problems sending or receiving e-mails except that all e-mail coming into the
Inbox are never in BOLD to indicate they are unread.  They are all loaded as
if they were read.  I can manually set an e-mail to Unread and in that case
it will hold the message in BOLD indicating it is unread and it stays that
way even if I close and reopen Windows mail.   This started happening
recently and I am not sure what triggered it.  Any help would be appreciated!

24-Apr-10 06:55 AM

Not particularly conversant with the workings of AOL mail.

Did you check at your AOL online mailbox to see if the messages are still
showing as unread prior to downloading them?

Two possible causes spring to mind:

1) You have set up a mail rule that is marking all mail as read?
Tools>message rules.

2) Someone else as access to your online Account PW/UN?


--
Regards Steve.
MS-MVP. MAIL. [DTS] UK.
http://www.getsafeonline.org/
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/citizenship/safeandsecure/parentadvice/default.mspx

24-Apr-10 07:17 AM

The above does not hold to be possible, at least with tests that I just
performed with my online mailbox, so ignore that one.


--
Regards Steve.
MS-MVP. MAIL. [DTS] UK.
http://www.getsafeonline.org/
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/citizenship/safeandsecure/parentadvice/default.mspx

24-Apr-10 07:20 AM

Never set up any rules to mark mail as read.  If I go to AOL mail via my
browser instead of Windows Mail, the messages are marked as Unread and in
BOLD there.  So that would also eliminate somebody having my password.  it is
got to be somethign with Windows Mail.  I am going to delete my Windows Mail
AOL account and re-establish it again to see if that helps.  Thanks for your
reply!

24-Apr-10 07:13 PM

Deleting and adding back the AOL -mail account did not fix the problem.  All
new incoming e-mails continue to load as READ.

25-Apr-10 08:15 PM

Which antivirus are you running? Some of them cause problems with
Windows Mail over time.

Do you have any other mail account besides AOL, and if so, does
it have the same issue?

--=20
Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
Microsoft MVP program: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


problem.  All=20
my=20
and in=20
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Windows Mail=20
for your=20
and
are no
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stays that
happening
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http://www.microsoft.com/uk/citizenship/safeandsecure/parentadvice/defaul=
t.mspx=20

30-Apr-10 07:09 PM

I have McAfee Security Center and I have disabled the e-mail and IM filtering
to no avail.  I will try disabling the Virus Scan and see if that does
anything.  I have no other e-mil accounts besides the AOL account.  What's
somewhat peculiar is that when I first launch Windows mail it loads up the
Inbox with new messages and they are all identified as Read.  If a new e-mail
comes in while I have Windows mail open, it comes in as Unread (bold).  Then
after some period of time which I have not measured yet (but several minutes
for sure), it gets marked as Read without it ever being viewed or opened.

I suspected it was the READ setting that allows you set a time limit for
when a message automaticallt turns to Read when viewed for "n" seconds but I
disabled that and it did nothing.  I am wondering if it is because at one time
I had the AOL account set up as a POP3 server and then switched to IMAP.  I
deleted that POP server account but I wonder if it is still "hanging aroud"
and intercepting mail?.  I wish there was a way to uninstall and or repair
Windows Mail.  Something's just flakey...

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

01-May-10 02:00 PM

You could try a system restore to a date before this
started happening.

To be sure it is not McAfee, you will have to completely
uninstall McAfee using their removal tool and reinstall
with the scanning option turned off.

McAfee removal tool:
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=1033

Details why scanning is not necessary:
'OETips' (http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3)    'Why you do not need
your anti-virus to scan your email - A Cloudeight Information Avenune
Tutorial'
(http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm)


rickster;1681599 Wrote:


--
VistaRookie

10% of my brain lives with me. The other 90% can be found
here:
'*Google*' (http://www.google.com)
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

07-May-10 08:00 AM

So I took my problem to the extreme...  I did a clean reinstall of Vista,
configured Windows Mail for my AOL IMAP server and before I installed McAfee
I launched Mail.  Same problem!!!  E-mails get loaded into the Inbox as READ.
UGH!

Here is an interesting twist...  Any e-mails that are deemed as Junk are
automatically put i the Junk folder and they ALWAYS stay marked as UNREAD!

Also noticing that once Mail is open, new incoming e-mail stays marked as
UNREAD for an extended period of time  ie. in  one test an e-mail 1 arrived
at 7:22.  E-mail 2 arrived at 7:52 at which time both E-mail 1 and E-mail 2
were automatically marked as READ although I had never opened either of them.

I am out of ideas...  Any thoughts would be apprecaited.

07-May-10 09:38 AM

I ran some additional tests with Windows Mail open on my desktop...

I sent several e-mails to myself every 3-4 minutes with the first one
arriving in my inbox at 8:02 AM.  At this point I had about 6 e-mails sitting
in my Inbox and correctly marked as UNREAD.  At about 8:20, I shutdown Mail
and launched it again.  My 6 e-mails were still correctly marked as UNREAD.
I began watching my Inbox at 8:30.  At 8:32 before my eyes they all switched
to being READ ---one after the other...  I repeated this test and the same
thing happened again.

It appears as though some process is running 30 minutes after a new e-mail
first arrives in my Inbox and it is changing their status to READ for no
apparent reason.

Does anybody have any suggestions and/or ideas on how to trap what is
causing this?

07-May-10 12:58 PM

Needless to say, in my 3+ years of fixing Windows Mail problems,
I have never seen one like yours.

All I can suggest is try Windows Live Mail and see if it exhibits the
same problem for you.=20
http://download.live.com/wlmail=20

--=20
Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
Microsoft MVP program: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


sitting=20
Mail=20
UNREAD. =20
switched=20
same=20
e-mail=20
no=20
Vista,=20
McAfee=20
as READ.=20
are=20
UNREAD!
marked as=20
arrived=20
E-mail 2=20
of them.
need
Avenune
(http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm)
if
AOL
Windows
identified

07-May-10 12:42 PM

The only setting that I am aware of is here:
WM->Tools->Options->Read Tab

However, that does not explain why it would change
an unopened email sitting there from unread to read.
I keep my setting at 5 seconds - and nothing changes



rickster;1683679 Wrote:

08-May-10 12:15 PM

Okay, go to Start  | Search and type msconfig.  Then go to the Startup =
items tab and see what is running at startup.  Disable everything and =
then go to the Services tab and disable all non-Microsoft services.  =
Then reboot and see if you have the same phenomenon. =20

Its a very odd issue and my only thought is that something is either =
tampering with the database or its some other process that is somehow =
triggering them to be marked read. =20

steve

sitting=20
Mail=20
UNREAD. =20
switched=20
same=20
e-mail=20
no=20
Vista,=20
McAfee=20
as READ.=20
are=20
UNREAD!
marked as=20
arrived=20
E-mail 2=20
of them.
need
Avenune
(http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm)
if
AOL
Windows
identified
open, it

10-May-10 08:08 AM

Steve,

My last attempt to fix this was to do a clean vista install on my machine.
After loading vista and the core drivers needed on my machine, I configured
Mail and tried again before any real applications like McAfee were installed.
The problem persisted at that point.

I agree with your point at the end about something tampering with the
database and/or triggering them to be marked read but this happened after the
clean install too...  Could it be Microsoft's Malware tool, Windows firewall
or some other Vista tool?

10-May-10 09:24 AM

Try this, boot into Safe Mode With Networking.
If you have never booted into safe mode, when you
boot up, at some point early on, your screen will
say to press an "F" key - what you want to press
is F8.  Tap it until you get some indication that
booting has switched and will go into safe mode.
You should get a black screen with a menu.
Choose safe mode with networking.  That will
load only basic Windows files.  No extra programs.

Then attempt to receive mail and see if it stays
bold (unread).

rickster;1684583 Wrote:


--
VistaRookie

10% of my brain lives with me. The other 90% can be found
here:
'*Google*' (http://www.google.com)
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

10-May-10 02:57 PM

There could be some kind of indexing or internal search components doing =
it, but I have never seen such.  I would try what I suggested and then see =
if some MS service might be involved.

steve

machine. =20
configured=20
installed.=20
after the=20
firewall=20
Startup items tab and see what is running at startup.  Disable =
everything and then go to the Services tab and disable all non-Microsoft =
services.  Then reboot and see if you have the same phenomenon. =20
tampering with the database or its some other process that is somehow =
triggering them to be marked read. =20
one=20
e-mails sitting=20
shutdown Mail=20
UNREAD. =20
switched=20
the same=20
e-mail=20
for no=20
is=20
Vista,=20
installed McAfee=20
Inbox as READ.=20
Junk are=20
UNREAD!
marked as=20
1 arrived=20
E-mail 2=20
either of them.

11-May-10 07:48 AM

Tried it... no luck---same behavior... Going to try Steve's suggestion later
today.  If that does not work I am throwing in the towel...

Appreciate the help.  Thanks!

11-May-10 01:07 PM

Let's try one more idea...I do not know many details about
IMAP accounts.  Maybe it is AOL making them change to
read?  Once you get the emails into Windows Mail, go
offline -  see if they stay unread.  Actually disconnect
from the net or click work offline.

WM->File->Work Offline.

rickster;1684994 Wrote:


--
VistaRookie

10% of my brain lives with me. The other 90% can be found
here:
'*Google*' (http://www.google.com)
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

11-May-10 05:06 PM

Well, you definitely get the award for most perseverence and I think you are
on to something....  I disconnected from the network and my e-mails did NOT
change status.  This would seem to indicate that an outide entity, AOL ;-( ,
is doing something, but I never noticed them changing status in AOL Webmail,
unless I had Windows Mail open before I tried AOL Webmail...  I will look
into this further but this has helped narroe down the culprit for sure.
Thanks!

11-May-10 05:07 PM

Tried what you suggested but that did not help.  See my last reply to
VistaRookie.  Could be AOL doing it...

Thanks for your suggestions.

11-May-10 05:12 PM

Is there any possibility that someone is checking that same account
from another computer?

--=20
Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
Microsoft MVP program: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


you are=20
did NOT=20
;-( , =20
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suggestion
my
I
were
with
the

11-May-10 08:05 PM

I hope it leads to something useful, I am out
of ideas now.  :)

rickster;1685197 Wrote:


--
VistaRookie

10% of my brain lives with me. The other 90% can be found
here:
'*Google*' (http://www.google.com)
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

12-May-10 07:43 AM

Well, I tried everythting suggested by Gary, VistaRookie and Steve and was
unable to get my issue resolved.  I suspect it has something to do with AOL
and IMAP...

However (and are you ready for this?) I decided to delete my AOL IMAP
account in Windows Mail and set it back up as a POP3 server instead and found
that the Inbox messsages work perfectly with POP3!  Them come in as UNREAD
and stay that way until I read them.  The downside of this for me is that
POP3 does not support synchronization of my AOL personal folders like IMAP
does.  So I just re-established them as Local Folders and copied them over
from the AOL IMAP server.  Not a perfect solution but one I can easily live
with.

Thanks again for the assistance everyone provided!

Rick

12-May-10 08:18 AM

You are very welcome!

rickster;1685390 Wrote:


--
VistaRookie

10% of my brain lives with me. The other 90% can be found
here:
'*Google*' (http://www.google.com)
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

12-May-10 11:34 AM

Well, I did not know you were using IMAP.  I am glad its resolved.

steve

was=20
with AOL=20
and found=20
UNREAD=20
that=20
IMAP=20
over=20
live=20
doing
then see
were
the
happened
Windows
Startup
and then
Then
either
somehow
desktop...
first one
e-mails

12-May-10 12:21 PM

Windows Mail support for IMAP is known to be a bit flaky.

--=20
Gary VanderMolen, Microsoft MVP (Mail)
Microsoft MVP program: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


was=20
with AOL=20
and found=20
UNREAD=20
that=20
IMAP=20
over=20
live=20
doing
then see
were
the
happened
Windows
Startup
and then
Then
either
somehow
desktop...
first one

12-May-10 05:45 PM

My original post identified that I was using IMAP, but I am wondering if you
would have suggested something different than you did?

The issue really is not "resolved", but I have an acceptable workaround.  :-)

Rick

13-May-10 08:25 AM

I must have missed that in the original post.  I do not know IMAP at all, =
but that does explain why things were being marked read.

steve

if you=20
workaround.  :-)
and
with
IMAP
and
is
like
them
easily
to
components
then
my
I
were
with
happened
Windows