Can I reset Notification Centre badge counter for Messages?

Question

The new Messages beta app (based on iChat) is stuck with one incoming message.
Can I somehow reset the badge?

Messages app with a badge

You may try to send a test message to everyone you've ever messaged through that software. It'll pull up the previous conversations and may kick off that "unread" message. — , Feb 26 '12 at 01:18
@cksum: This. Exactly. Thanks. Would you mind posting it as an answer so that I could accept it? — Dan, Feb 26 '12 at 01:32
Done. Glad it worked. Personally, I found that sometimes when I load Messages, it pulls up previous conversations. Other times I get a blank window. Can't seem to isolate the bug or reproduce it all the time. Hopefully Apple will fix these issues because on a whole, it seems very rough, even for a beta release. — , Feb 26 '12 at 02:13
Yeah. I experience these glitches with Jabber account, mostly. — Dan, Feb 26 '12 at 11:17

Olivier Lacan · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-16T05:07:34.390

71

The correct answer to this issue isn't to message all your contacts.

First close the Messages app.

Then simply open up Activity Monitor and quit the Dock process to restart it.

Here's how it looks:

Quiting Dock in Activity Monitor

Your badge count should be reset after that.

PS: You can access Activity Monitor from Spotlight (⌘ Space) by simply typing its name and pressing Enter.

Edit: update thanks to @JjP and @Toland H

edited Jan 16 '15 at 05:07

answered Mar 26 '12 at 22:04

Olivier Lacan

836

I suppose you're right. Thanks for the tip and welcome to Apple.SE! – Dan Mar 27 '12 at 15:05
Since this was the accepted answer, there's 1 additional step that you have to do before you restart the Dock process. And that is to quit the Messages app. (thanks to @JjP below) – Toland H Jan 05 '15 at 08:58
2

Killing the dock didn't work for me (yes, I did quit Messages before). I still have 1 unread message according to the badge. It is a message to myself, which occurred when I texted (or was it a call) to my other iphone ... Clicking on the top entry of that dock icon menu does not help either: Messages does not show any message :-( Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. – Gab Sep 09 '15 at 12:42
No. Does not work. – Julian F. Weinert Apr 03 '18 at 20:11
In my case, iMessages has an issue, not the Dock. – Julian F. Weinert Apr 03 '18 at 20:14
This doesn't work. – jzadra Oct 28 '19 at 17:45
This did not solve the problem for me in Monterey 12.5 (21G72). – parhamr Aug 18 '22 at 01:42
Dock does not appear as a process in Activity Monitor in Mac OS 12.6 – Mike Eng Oct 17 '22 at 17:02

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 13 '12 at 12:19

20

Before you kill Dock you need to close Messages to make it work. I had this issue on Mountain Lion (Mac OS X 10.8.2). When Messages was open and I killed Dock it didn't help. But when I closed Messages and then killed Dock, the badge was gone and after opening Messages the unread messages appeared so I could read them.

answered Nov 13 '12 at 12:19

JjP

301
2
3

1

Applies to Yosemite (OSX 10.10) as well. Had this issue receiving notifications for an SMS message received on iphone and could not mark it as read. – Pablo Alsina Nov 21 '14 at 16:55
Killing the Dock will NOT help if iMessages has an issue. Sometimes it could be the Dock. But in my case it's simply not it. – Julian F. Weinert Apr 03 '18 at 20:13
Still doesn't work. – jzadra Oct 28 '19 at 17:45

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 22 '12 at 20:20

11

Try to restart the dock. In the Terminal located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app type:

killall -KILL Dock

edited Mar 22 '12 at 20:20

gentmatt

49,722

answered Mar 16 '12 at 13:15

user20228

111

It's a bit of a last resort but it can work. It worked for resetting Calendar for me. – Tatsh Nov 21 '15 at 01:45
Do you always need the -KILL flag? Will including this flag obviate the need to close the Messages app? – intcreator Mar 02 '16 at 07:02
Nope. Doesn't work – Julian F. Weinert Apr 03 '18 at 20:12
Does not work.. – jzadra Oct 28 '19 at 17:45

score 10 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 07 '17 at 12:58

10

Click and hold on the Messages icon in your dock. A context menu appears with unread messages. Navigate to the previously unlisted and unread message that way. Then "read" it.

Messages dock icon with badge

edited Mar 07 '17 at 12:58

Mithical

245

answered Sep 08 '15 at 07:06

Avand Amiri

201

I wish that I could up this answer a 100 times! This is the only thing that has worked for me on Yosemite! P.S. Right clicking works as well, you don't just have to click and hold. – Dan VanWinkle Jan 22 '16 at 00:47
Agreed, I can't believe this isn't the number one answer. – lydiat Jul 17 '16 at 14:11
There is no "new message" in my iMessage, it still shows the badge – Julian F. Weinert Apr 03 '18 at 20:12
This is not how the menu looks. – jzadra Oct 28 '19 at 17:46
This worked for me in Monterey 12.5 (21G72) – parhamr Aug 18 '22 at 01:41

score 3 · Answer 5 · 2012-02-26T12:16:59.670

3

Sometimes you may miss reading a message from a friend. And sometimes Messages may not pull up the previous conversations as it should (it is still in testing and I hope those bugs are worked out for the final product).

I would suggest sending a test message to all the previous contacts you've IM'ed. It'll pull up the respective conversation thread and hopefully kick off the unread message from your notification badge.

edited Feb 26 '12 at 12:16

answered Feb 26 '12 at 02:11

See user20228's response: restart the Dock. – Richard Das Mar 19 '12 at 11:49
@richarddas Don't down vote because the solution that worked for you was different. That's actually pretty arrogant. It solved the issue for the original poster and there is no law that says there is only one answer to a question. This isn't math. – Mar 20 '12 at 04:58
I merely did that in order to indicate that it was not the best answer. Sending a message to every contact is hardly an optimal solution when fixing the problem on your local machine (without disturbing anyone else) is possible. I take your point though @cksum, thanks – Richard Das Mar 21 '12 at 17:07
1

@richarddas Voting down is not to be used in such a way. Especially in this case as it actually solved the original posters problem. If you find short answers (e.g., "just reboot dude") or false information, or something that is sloppy or not adequately researched, then mark it down. But marking down an accepted answer is just poor form. You can leave a note on the answer that worked for you (as you did) and up vote it, but down voting is not to be misused (or abused). It's a strong statement to down vote a question or an answer. Not voting is often sufficient. – Mar 21 '12 at 19:29
thanks for the clarification @cksum Will be noted in future! :) – Richard Das Apr 04 '12 at 17:25

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 21 '15 at 16:39

2

Go to Terminal and write:

osascript -e 'quit app "Messages"'
osascript -e 'quit app "Dock"'
open -a Messages

That's all

answered Nov 21 '15 at 16:39

juanfal

51

Nope. It's not. – Julian F. Weinert Apr 03 '18 at 20:12
Does not work. Apple clearly does not care. – jzadra Oct 28 '19 at 17:49

score -7 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 26 '12 at 00:56

-7

I'm not certain how the badge works, but I suspect the bug isn't on your computer, it's on apple's iMessage server somewhere in the cloud.

To fix it, you would have to have access to their servers, which you don't have.

Basically, the solution is to stop using beta software if you are worried about glitches like this one.

answered Feb 26 '12 at 00:56

Abhi Beckert

2,610

9

This is an abysmal answer. And not what this community is about! Don't berate people for using beta software. If you don't know, then just move along and help those you can! – Feb 26 '12 at 01:19
Very true, but this isn't a much better piece of "constructive" criticism either. – stuffe Mar 16 '12 at 22:25
2

"I'm not certain…" >> "To fix it you would have to…" > "Basically, the solution is" — please only post an answer if you know the answer. (I don't mean to sound harsh, just trying to be constructive.) – Richard Das Mar 19 '12 at 11:48
This is the best answer, given that none of the other answers work and apple couldn't care less. – jzadra Oct 28 '19 at 17:50

Can I reset Notification Centre badge counter for Messages?

7 Answers7