Mail in Golden Gate on my mac makes it hard to find new emails

I was silly enough to upgrade to Golden Gate. Mail has been a pain ever since. I no longer see the red dots on the Mail icon to tell me I have new mail. In the mail app itself it looks like I have no mail but if I scroll across the new bar at the top and click on one thing or another I can then see my new unread emails.

I want to see the red dots all the time and I want to see without stuffing around what unread and read emails for that matter are in my inbox. So what are the settings to put it the way it was before Golden Gate so I know when I've got mail. It its a pain when so called improvements to the interface are actually barriers

Posted on Oct 6, 2026 10:20 PM

1 reply

Owl-53

Level 10 (123,805 points)

Oct 7, 2026 1:32 AM in response to murrycave

In Mail >> Settings >> General, set Unread count to All Mailboxes.

In System Settings >> Notifications >> Mail, turn on Badge application icon.

Also check New message notifications and select the mailbox for which you want notifications.

These settings cover the unread count and new-message notifications. (Apple Support)

To get rid of the new category presentation, choose View >> View Options in Mail and turn off Show Mail Categories.

Also check View >> Filter and select Disable Message Filter if a filter is active.

This should leave the message list showing the Inbox without those additional category or filter restrictions. (Apple Support)

In Mail >> Settings >> Viewing, enable Display unread messages with bold font.

If you do not want opening a conversation to mark messages as read, set Mark as Read Behaviour to Never. (Apple Support)

If you prefer every email to appear individually rather than grouped into conversations, turn off View >> Organize by Conversation. (Apple Support)

Those settings directly address what you originally asked for: a visible unread count on the Mail icon, notifications when new mail arrives, and an Inbox where read and unread messages are readily visible without having to work through categories or filters.

Apple's Mail User Guide for macOS 27