How to cure Mail of being stuck on one message?

Every time I open Mail, it has the same message selected. I scroll up three or four screens to the new messages, then close. Next launch, it's on that same old message again. It used to select the newest message on open.

The message doesn't appear to be corrupted. I can read the whole thing, and it's all plain text (via a listserv that doesn't allow attachments or HTML). I can scroll up and select/read other messages. Can't find any other malfunction in Mail. Rebuild Mailbox doesn't help.

Don't want to delete this particular message, just don't want mail to make me look at it on every launch and then scroll & scroll to the new mail.

Reason? Fix?

Solution 1:

A corrupted email message can get stuck on your email system, like clogged pipe in your plumbing. In my experience the problem is always one of those joke emails that has been forwarded countless times.

Web Access To Email

Solution is to use the Web interface to your email provider rather than your email client app. In the web browser, find the offending email and delete. If you really need that message - put it in a folder that doesn’t sync if you can.

Then return to your email client. Your pipes should be clear again. You may need to do a Rebuild command to reconstruct your local cache.