# Email problems

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 10, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882 "2013-08-10T17:58:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882/1 "2013-08-10T17:58:43Z")

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Does anyone here know how to keep an email program from deciding that a message has been read without it being opened and read? I’ve had this problem with both Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail. They both will randomly decide that a message has been opened when in fact it has not, and it will then disappear from the list of unread messages.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882/2 "2013-08-11T09:51:00Z")

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Is your wife secretly reading your email?

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**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882/3 "2013-08-11T10:19:03Z")

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This could happen if you have multiple clients connecting to the same IMAP server. A phone and a computer, say. Or Outlook Express and a webmail client.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882/4 "2013-08-11T10:46:35Z")

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If you’ve got any kind of preview/reading pane in your mail client (so you can preview the content of the message just by selecting it) this often marks messages as read.

If you’re got a smartphone that’s synchronising mail with the same mailbox, that may be marking messages as read.

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**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882/5 "2013-08-11T11:11:23Z")

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^^^ some of the email programs can turn off or adjust the delay on marking previewed emails as read. It’s worth checking under Options.

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**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/email-problems/665882/6 "2013-08-11T23:05:14Z")

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Thanks for the replies. However, i may have solved the problem. In OE, it takes a double click to open an email. A single click will highlight it but not open it. It seems that if OE is closed with one of the messages in the inbox highlighted, that message will be considered “read” the next time OE is accessed. We shall see if making sure the no message is highlighted on closing will cure the problem, but so far it looks good.