Unread email count unreadable in macOS 26 Mail app

Mikeinva8 wrote:

With the upgrade to macOS 26, the number that indicates how many emails are unread in a given mailbox has been greatly reduced in size and is currently unreadable. The number is nearly impossible to see clearly, making it extremely difficult to determine how many unread emails are in a given inbox. To make matters worse, there is no contrast—the gray typeface on a white background makes it even harder to read. Prior versions of macOS did not have this issue; it has only appeared with the deployment of macOS 26. I have gone to settings/appearance/sidebar icon size to large, but that only increase the font size of the name of the inbox not the number of unread messages. Please let me know if there are any fixes available to correct this problem.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Mac OS26

Have you quit all apps, Shut down and restarted more than once since your upgrade(?)

>Shut Down...

Yours is the first report I have read along these lines. I see no difference between Sequoia and Tahoe Mail.app

Did you try relaunching the Mail.app holding down the Shift key(?) and compare your results.

Before you launch into re-building mailboxes, etc Through Mail>Mailbox>Rebuild on your selected mailboxes...

I would seriously consider simply reinstalling the macOS on top the existing macOS , and see if the baked in Mail.app straightens out. It is easy enough How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

post back your success or failure.

Mikeinva8 wrote:

I have done all of the standard suggestions you listened above, quitting all APS, shutting down and restarting several times and force quitting mail and none of them have made any difference. This issue is on both my iMac and on my MacBook Air M4, both have the exact same issue. So I seriously doubt it is something to do with the machine or the OS install on the machine. Below, you can see the new version from Tahoe and the previous version Sierra. Notice the size difference of the number listing unread emails and the old one is black type and new is gray type.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/15311fcc-f388-4369-a709-9a4d55dfc2ba

[Edited by Moderator]

macOS Sierra 2016 to macOS Tahoe 2025 is a shockingly huge leap —yes!

There is some clarity provided from your screen shot.

If that is the extent of the issue You can simply increase the size of the sidebar menu items:

>System Settings>Appearance> make some changes and compare your results.

your apple feedback can be sent direct to the Product Team—

https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

You can increase the Display resolution size as well if need be—

To have Apple consider your feedback, submit it here:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

I have experienced the exact same problem since upgrading to macOS Tahoe 26.0. So far I have been unable to resolve this issue.