About a month ago, my HTC Touch running Windows Mobile 6.1 on Verizon crashed while I was reading my email. I finished reading my messages when the phone rebooted, but the phone kept displaying one unread message. It bothered me, but I couldn’t find a solution online. I learned to live with it, and stopped getting excited when the Touch reported one new email. That is, until it happened again last night, but this time with text messages.
I text a lot. It’s the primary reason I own a mobile device — I don’t like talking to people I can’t see. I turn my ringer off when I am at work, so it is very important to me to have an accurate unread text message count. I searched again, but this time I found something: FixUnreadCount by R. Elmer. I am not sure how it works, but it resets the unread count for email and text messages. I am not sure if it sets them all to zero, or if it knows how many messages you’ve truly read. In my case it didn’t matter. I set off in search of the application.
Unfortunately, the file was hard to find for download. Every major software download site had a link to the author’s comcast.net page, which was dead. I eventually found the application on the XDA forum, but you have to be a member (free) to download it.
I ran the 9K executable on my phone. The application dutifully reported the status of unread messages on every email account I had. Windows Mobile reports Gmail labels as “folders,” so FixUnreadCount scoured them, too. After it churned through my email accounts, it set its sights on my text message account. I rebooted my phone and held my breath.
Zoink! No more unread messages. The wrong notifications were fixed.
Talk about the wonder of the Internet. Before the Web, this may have never been resolved. According to my research, Verizon either doesn’t acknowledge this problem or doesn’t have a fix for it. Microsoft apparently fixed this bug before Windows Mobile 5.x came out, but it was re-introduced with 6.1 and has yet to be fixed. Some random, bright person had the ability to fix this problem, and then made it available for free. I hope R. Elmer doesn’t mind that I’ve hosted it here, so that future people plagued by this problem can find it more easily:
http://drfaulken.com/files/FixUnreadCount.zip
Thanks, R. Elmer. :)
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That’s why I love community sourced software! Ahem….and Ubuntu Linux! :P
All those dead links were leaving me with a feeling of hopelessness. Thanks for your initiative, Elmer R.’s file fixed my unread message count too!
Thanks for posting this. I was going insane. I’m not sure why it bothered me so much, but it did.
thank you!!! it worked great after i restarted my phone!!!
Worked great!! Thanks guys…this has been bugging me for weeks.
This worked great, thanks a lot!
Thanks!!! Ran it, soft reset, ran it again. Problem solved. Didn’t realize such a little thing could bother me so much…
[...] message. I deleted all of my text messages, but to no avail. I couldn’t get rid of the stupid ‘(1)’…That is, until I found this site. [...]
THANK YOU! My (1) message was driving me crazy. Finally found the way to remove it.
Yes, at times like this the internet ROCKS. HTC and Verizon were nice enough but not helpful.
I sent the zip to myself in email, ran it and *228 my Imagio…badabing!!
happy guy!
thanks to all
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m unsure of why a tiny green #1 can be SO stressful to me lol but it is and I THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Hi good people out there, given so many positive feedback, I must have not done correctly to remove the unread(1).
I move the FixUnreadCount.exe to my Sony X1, and run it. It show
======Examining ActiveSync
Deleted items [ok]
Drafts [ok]
Inbox [ok]
Outbox [ok]
Sent item [ok]
=======Examining SMS
Deleted Items [ok]
Drafts [ok]
Inbox [ok]
Outbox [ok]
Sent Items [ok]
======
All done!
======
BUT the unread(1) message remained after I reset the PDA.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ok so I guess I’m not quite the “know how to do things” guy. I kinda need step by step instructions if anyone is willing to help me. I click on the link above (http://drfaulken.com/files/FixUnreadCount.zip) and then do I open or save?…and do I save it to my computer first or can I save it to my phone? Then after I open the download, I see a few options at the top and 2 files in the main body, which are: .. and fixunreadaccount. I have absolutely no idea what to do from here.
@smoksg: Sorry for the late reply. Have you tried running the program again? I am sorry it didn’t work right away.
@Chad: No worries, let’s see if I can help you. What computer operating system are you using — Windows, Mac or Linux? It might also help if you say what version of Windows Mobile you have on your phone.
When you click on the link, choose “Save” and save the zip file somewhere on your computer. Unzip the file (as it appears that you have done) and then copy the fixunreadaccount file to your phone. I typically do this by attaching it to a USB cord, but you may need to do this via a memory card.
Once the program is on your phone, you will need to open a file browser and navigate to where the fixunreadaccount file is (memory card or wherever you copied it via USB cable). Double tap on the file and run the program. Reboot your phone when it’s done.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the info. I will try that and post my results. By the way, my computer’s operating system is Windows Vista and my phone is a HTC Touch Pro 2 (Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional).
Hi Chad, that’s the same operating system and Windows Mobile OS version that I used when I ran the FixUnreadCount program, so hopefully you will be able to do the same without a problem.
Good luck!
Hi drfaulken, thank you for the reply, somehow, I didn’t manage to get it working.
I manage to find other solution that have resolved it.
Thanks again.
I ran the program, reboot, and it didn’t fix it. I tried number times…
@smoksg What was the other solution????
I follow this to resolve it:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showtopic=103619&st=70
Thanks so much! This did the trick for my Verizon HTC Touch Pro 2 with Windows Mobile 6.5. The rapidshare download site for this exe was really pissing me off… trying to get me to buy a premium membership and saying there wasn’t bandwidth for free users to download a 9KB file. My green “1 new text message” circle has meaning again :)
Note: It still showed the 1 after running, but when I went into the folders, it showed the phantom one being moved to deleted items, so I simply emptied that and it went back to 0.
Awesome and worked like a charm! I had 5 fake message indicators (for at least 4 months) and after running this and rebooting my phone, they were all gone. I made sure to save the file to my memory card just in case this happens again. Big ups to R.Elmer!!!!!!!
I had the same problem that started a couple of days ago, just with text messages. I called HTC customer service who directed me to this website and walked me through the download, set-up and the correction of the problem. This was the second time I’ve had to contact HTC customer service and both times, they were wonderful and efficient to work with. Very helpful.
thank you very much. I have a tilt 2 and that ghost message was bugging for months. I emailed the fix to myself and ran it. worked great!!
Thank you!!! worked great, phantom message gone!!!
I guess if I hadn’t been looking so hard for a .cab file for this fix rather than an .exe file I could have saved a few hours of me pulling my hair out. Very simple though, after unzipping on PC, drop the .exe file on your phone then go to File Explorer and open it up, reset device and I was good to go.
THANK YOU for this! Verizon wanted to give me a new phone to fix the problem when I went to see them about it yesterday. Thankfully I decided to scour the web first because I knew someone would have a fix for it. I can’t wait to get this installed when I get home!
It Worked .. awsome easy and simple … my kinda of fix.. thanks to everyone who spend time finding this awsome file.
YES, it worked! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This was VERY annoying as it had been a fix on an earlier version of Windows Mobile … again THANK YOU! “Small application, big fix” indeed!
This solution worked great for me. I accessed the file through the phone browser…opened it up and ran the program. At first I did not think it worked as I still saw “2″ unopened texts showing. Once I turned the phone off and back on….all was good! Thanks for sharing this awesome fix!!!
Wow, yes, many many months of “suffering” with this ridiculous false message counter reading… I just happened to be surfing from my phone the other night and found this. Many thanks. Just wanted to also note that on my BlackJack II with WinMo 6.1, I didn’t have to reset or reboot. Just running the program totally cleared my erroneous un-read text message count. Many thanks again!
This was driving me nuts!!! I never thought I’d be so happy to see that I DIDN’T have any unread text messages. Thanks sooooo much!!
Worked great. I have Windows Mobile 6.5 and it did work–just had to reboot to see the fix.
THANK YOU! I run Windows Mobile 6.5 on my Touch Pro2. This is the 2nd time I have encountered this problem. 6 months ago, I wiped my Touch Pro2 and ultimately sent it back for a new one. Alas, the unread message indicator was back last night. I checked with Verizon Wireless first thing this morning to see if they had a fix. They say it’s a known software issue and are working on it. It seems like they should have been able to fix it already. Thank you!!!
WootWoot! That’s awesome. After running it once and not working, dread set in. Ran it twice, and serenity set in. Problem fixed! Was 5, now 0. Thanks!
Oh yeah. Worked for me on 6.5 windows mobile ATT Tilt 2. Had to go to settings>today>items and toggle the Touch Flow a few times to clear on Touch Flow. I think the problem arises when deleting messages. Will probably need to run fix regularly, so I keep it on phone now. Disappointed ATT wont get it fixed, but then they do have the Iphone 4…
Worked like a champ. Ran the program, rebooted the phone, all gone. Thanks much.
This works !!!!!!!!!!!
Originally Posted by drue
There are several threads with various fixes depending on the cause. It seems to happen when using threaded SMS (or Codys Threaded) and a new SMS somehow escapes the software and sneaks onto the old sms stack. In that case, you can edit the following registry, setting it to 0. Then, when you click on the SMS icon on HTC Home, it should show the lonely unread text message.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Inbox\Setting s]
“SMSAvailable”=dword:1
0=old style
1=threaded style
Be sure to set it back to 1. On my phone, when I had to do it, setting it to 0 took effect immediately and no soft reset was needed, but I had to soft-reset to get back threaded-style messaging.
Additionally, there are some other problems which can occur, which seem to be fixable by the following applications: FixUnreadCount – seems to be the most common “ghost sms” remover, Markallread – think this will work in even the above case, of a message slipping by the threaded application… but then you won’t see the text it’ll just be marked read, and no clue on the phantom email one.
This worked perfect it was bothering me for like a week and i was searching the internet everywhere for this. Thanks
OMG thank you so much I had a stupid little 3 number an now its all gone. you have no idea how much that drove me nuts an being pregnant doesnt help it…. THANK YOU!!!
You all are GREAT!!! This problem with the false message indicator for HTC Tilt 2 wich has Windows Mobile 6.5 has been driving me crazy. I was ready to box it up and send it back for a new one; Thank You so much,I had to do hard reboot, where you take the battery out and had to do this twice but after the second time, it cleared it out and is working great! Thanks again for the fix program… AT&T are the ones that recommened it to me… LOL….
Thank you so much R. Elmer, whoever you are! Your program worked flawlessly on my Samsung Omnia Lite B7300 running on Windows Mobile 6.5. I had ghost sms messages 3 instances now since i bought my phone last March, and i had to do a hard reset to get them out and that meant wiping out my contacts, messages etc., as well. But with your program, ghost messages will never haunt me ever again! Thank you!!!