Outlook Inbox showing 4294 million unread mails

Hello Rajat Pendharkar,

Regarding to your screenshot, your situation is the Inbox showing unread message but all emails in Inbox are already marked as read, correct? If so, first of all, I would suggest you sign into Outlook Web App (OWA) to check if the same situation occurs there.

If OWA shows the correct unread email number, then this problem is more likely related to Outlook client. You can try to reset View to see if it can help: Just go to View tab > Reset View.

Meanwhile, you can also try to right click Inbox, then select Mark all as read to check the results.

If the problem persists, we would like to collect your Outlook version to check it further. Please kindly go to File > Office Account and capture a screenshot of it and send it here at your convenience.

Best Regards,

Sylvie

Dear Sylvie

Thanks for your quick response. Tried both options as suggested by you.

But still problem persists.

Kindly find the screenshot having version detail.

Hello Rajat Pendharkar,

Thanks for coming back to us. Have you checked if OWA has the same situation? This can help us identify if it related to Outlook client problems. Please kindly sign into OWA with your account and let us know the outcome at your convenience.

Regarding to your screenshot, I can see that you are using Outlook Monthly Channel, the latest version (11425.20244) was released at April 22, 2019, please try to update Outlook to see if it can help. Just click File > Office Account > Office Updates > Update Now to apply the newest version.

Besides, the corrupt Outlook data file could be a possible cause. If you are using Office 365 account in Outlook, all data is stored in Exchange server, you can simply delete the .ost file, Outlook will recreate the file the next time you open Outlook.

For your reference: Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)

Best Regards,

Sylvie

Hello Rajat Pendharkar,

We haven’t heard back from you. Do you have any updates?

Best Regards,

Sylvie

Dear Sylvie,

Thanks for reply and following up. Got stuck in some urgent work. Meanwhile I checked updating my Outlook Software - same problem of 4 million unread mails in inbox header is still there.

I also check with OWA web Outlook, there the numbers are different. Although I have already read my unread mail from Outlook Software in my laptop. Syncing is not happening properly.

Have not tried checking the procedure related to the OST file. Will get it checked and revert once i get time.

Please find below screenshot of OWA.

<*** Private Message is removed by Sylvie Liang MSFT for privacy ***> 

Hello Rajat Pendharkar,

Many thanks for your screenshot. It seems that the number on OWA is the correct one. If you have no unread emails in Inbox, you can right click Inbox folder and select mark all as read. If the number is also displayed next to Inbox folder, please switch to Other tab and select mark all as read again. For your reference:

Besides, as you mentioned that emails that read in your Outlook client didn’t sync with OWA. This is more related to Outlook sync problem in my opinion.

Please check the .ost file at your convenience and let us know the outcome.

Best Regards,

Sylvie

Hello Rajat Pendharkar,

We haven’t heard back from you. How is your problem going?

Best Regards,

Sylvie

I too have a user with this issue.  The number of "unread" emails is identical to the example above. So this is not an isolated case.  I am not saying it is not a "local" problem as his outlook OWA client show correctly but the fact the number of "unread" emails is identical to the example above should prove that there is definitely a bug of some sort or and underlying default number that pops up if there is corruption of some sort happens.  I would like to know what that something is.

outlook /cleanviews - does nothing

right click on inbox and mark all as read, (though not an ideal resolution),  did not resolve the issue

doing a search:no and marking all as read also did not resolve the issue.

If I mark an random email as "Unread" The problem goes away now.  But as soon as you read the mail the problem returns

Hello JMagnuson,

Many thanks for your detailed information. First of all, this is not a bug as a bug is usually affects all users, not one user. Based on my experiences, since you mentioned that OWA shows the correct number, so the local Outlook data file could be a possible cause. Therefore, you can try to repair Outlook data file (.pst and .ost) to see if it can help. For your reference:

Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost)

If your account is an Exchange account, you can simply remove the .ost file and Outlook will recreate the it the next time you open Outlook. All data is stored in Exchange server, so you don’t need to worry about losing data.

Meanwhile, if your problem persists, to better help you, we recommend you post a new thread in our forum. There will be another engineer focuses on your own problem and provide more detailed help. This can also help other community members easily view this thread to troubleshoot their problems.

We truly appreciated your understanding and cooperation.

Best Regards,

Sylvie