Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Marking messages as "read" AFTER opening WITHOUT using 'Message Pane'

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by david

more options

Back in 2015 someone asked about the fact that emails are not marked "as read" once opened but I don't think the answer was ever fully given. They were told: "This option has always been available and I use it. via Menu Bar Tools > Options > Advanced > Reading & Display or via menu icon menu icon > Options > Options > Advanced > Reading & Display select: 'automatically mark messages as read' Select: 'Immediately on display' click on OK When you select/left click an email in the list, it will auto open and display in the Message Pane below the list. If you use double click, it will auto open in a new tab or window depending upon what you selected. In bth instances the message will be immediately marked as read." Here's my problem with that .... I don't use the "Message Pane", I don't like it. I have my incoming messages set at "table view" and they are all just listed down the page by date. I don't want to see what's in the email until I actually open it....but, once I open it and read it when I close out of it the email still stays BOLD in the list....this didn't used to happen, once I read the email the BOLD went away. When I use the "automatically mark message as read immediately on display" then new emails are not in BOLD so I can't tell if they've been read or not. Bottom line, is there a way to have messages marked "read" AFTER they are opened WITHOUT using the message pane??

Back in 2015 someone asked about the fact that emails are not marked "as read" once opened but I don't think the answer was ever fully given. They were told: "This option has always been available and I use it. via Menu Bar Tools > Options > Advanced > Reading & Display or via menu icon menu icon > Options > Options > Advanced > Reading & Display select: 'automatically mark messages as read' Select: 'Immediately on display' click on OK When you select/left click an email in the list, it will auto open and display in the Message Pane below the list. If you use double click, it will auto open in a new tab or window depending upon what you selected. In bth instances the message will be immediately marked as read." Here's my problem with that .... I don't use the "Message Pane", I don't like it. I have my incoming messages set at "table view" and they are all just listed down the page by date. I don't want to see what's in the email until I actually open it....but, once I open it and read it when I close out of it the email still stays BOLD in the list....this didn't used to happen, once I read the email the BOLD went away. When I use the "automatically mark message as read immediately on display" then new emails are not in BOLD so I can't tell if they've been read or not. Bottom line, is there a way to have messages marked "read" AFTER they are opened WITHOUT using the message pane??

All Replies (5)

more options

This is confusing to me. The message pane is where the contents of a message are displayed, but you say you do not use that. Anyway, while this may not address your issue, I suggest setting to automatically mark read after viewing for 5 seconds. That is my setting and messages to not turn from bold to plain unless the message has been opened at least briefly.

more options

I am attaching a pic of what my emails look like ... when I go into 'view' and mark "message pane" it looks different and I don't like it. In the pic the ones in BOLD have not been read and the ones without bold have. Before, when I would double click and open an email it would automatically mark it as "read" when I closed out of it but now it stays BOLD and I have to manually mark it as 'read'....but, when I go into settings and tell it to "automatically mark read after viewing for 5 seconds (or any other amount of time)" then it does automatically mark it whether I've actually read it or not so then I miss reading some. Does that help make more sense?

more options

I cannot duplicate that. I use the 5-second delay and it works perfectly. I am using Win 11 and ver 115.7. You might try this in help>troubleshoot mode to see if this is being caused by an addon.

more options

Automatically mark message as read when opened

The fix is supposed to be in Tools Options, but Options does not exist

more options

That is because that menu pane was changed from 'options' to 'settings' a few years ago.