For years now I’ve had a secret struggle with flag count in Apple Mail. Every year we get a new set of betas and every year I try again, hoping that I can reliably use flags in Apple Mail. However, before long, the count always gets off.

What I mean is I may show 17 flagged emails on iPhone, 6 on my Mac, and 22 on iPad. For whatever reason it has been very difficult for Apple to keep that flag count reliable and in sync. I hesitate to make this post so early but so far, throughout beta 1 and now beta 2 of this year’s operating system updates, Apple Mail’s flag count has remained consistent.

Assigning flags is a lot easier than moving emails to separate folders. Moreover, since I have a few different email accounts, flags can work across all of them very easily. So my idea is to use flags as a sort of triage mechanism — but only if I can rely upon the flag count to work.

This year, for the first time, so far so good.