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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon Apps
If you get a ton of email and don't want to be distracted by the bright red "47 unread messages" overlay on the Mail.app dock icon, I finally found a way to disable it. There is probably an even better way, but this seems to work well enough for me. Control-click on Mail in the Finder, and choose Show Package Contents. Then navigate to Resources, and rename the file called newMailBadge1&2.tiff. You could change the name to anything you want, but I suggest newMailBadge1&2.tiff.orig.

This doesn't completely disable the way Mail.app writes the message count onto the icon, but the contrast is reduced so much, you'll no longer be distracted by a big red dot taunting you to waste more time reading email.

[robg adds: Make sure you quit Mail first; it's a good thing to do when you're modifying a file within an application bundle.]
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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon | 7 comments | Create New Account
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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: ibroughton on Jan 27, '05 11:06:30AM

Odd thing is, I have the reverse problem! On a clean (1 week old) install of OS X, I don't get any notification in my dock when new mail arrives! I've checked the hint, and the files mentioned are there, yet still no notification, and I want it back!

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The server is up but the site is down and I don't know which direction you are trying to go



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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: mountainpics on Feb 11, '05 12:04:36AM

Did anyone answer the question about the MISSING red number of new emails in your inbox - even when I have new emails in my inbox, there's no longer a red dot with a number anymore - just suddenly disappeared



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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: leono on Jan 27, '05 11:44:09AM

I think the 1&2 in the tiff file name stands for the number of digits the "badge" will be used with, so this will only work if you have < 100 unread messages. To disable the badge for higher numbers, rename the newMailBadge(3,4,5).tiff files as well.



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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: callefjant on Jan 27, '05 12:40:56PM

Mail does only show the number of unread mail in the Inbox, so why not just create a new mailbox (named something like 'Unread mail' or whatever) and set up a rule to automatically move all incoming mail into this box? The program will then never even need to change its icon in the dock.



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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: Timbuk3 on Jan 27, '05 01:43:48PM

I want the opposite! This behavior is actually something that has always bugged me about Mail. I don't get a lot of mail, but I do apply filters like a fiend. I've always wanted to figure out a way to make Mail include new messages that have been filtered into a folder in the dock indicator. Anybody have a solution to this? Post it as a hint!



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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: Bwana on Jan 27, '05 04:31:19PM

Have you tried MailEnhancer? Check the "Dock icon count shows all unread instead of just inbox unread"



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Disable Mail.app's unread message count dock icon
Authored by: gshenaut on Jan 27, '05 09:55:06PM

I suppose this is just another reason why I hide the dock & reduce its icons to the minimum size. Even when I unhide the dock, the message count bubble is a tiny red dot, but if I want to see how many messages I have, I just slide the mouse over there & I can read it. As a switcher to the Mac, this feature was one of the things I appreciated the most about the dock.

Greg Shenaut



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