Why do old messages keep showing as new in my Apple Mail program?
If you use the Mail program on macOS, or on an iPhone or iPad, you might find that messages you’ve previously sent suddenly appear as new messages at the top of your Inbox.
This is caused by an Apple feature called “Follow Up” that can show unanswered messages as “new”. As Apple describes it, “If you send a message and don’t receive a response in 3 days, the sent email automatically resurfaces to the top of your inbox to help you remember to follow up”.
If you don't want the Mail program to do this, you can turn off this feature. If you use both a Mac computer and an iPhone or iPad, you’ll need to turn it off on both of them.
Turning off Follow Up on an iPhone or iPad
- Tap Settings
- Tap Mail
- Scroll down to the “Messages” section
- Turn off Follow Up Suggestions
The section you’re looking for, and the slider you want to tap, look like this:
Turning off Follow Up on a macOS computer
- Open the “Mail” program
- Click the Mail menu at the top of the screen and choose Settings
- In the “General” settings, uncheck the Enable messages follow up suggestions
- Close the settings window.
The section you’re looking for, and the checkbox you want to uncheck, look like this:
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