python imaplib - mark email as unread or unseen

Question

Searching here and on the internet, there are a lot of examples to how to mark a message as SEEN, even though this is automatic with imap.

But how can I mark an email as UNSEEN or UNREAD.

I have a script in python which receives UNSEEN messages, and it works great. But after reading them, imap automatically marks them as SEEN which works fine but only if the script has no errors, because if it raises an exception, I want the email to be marked again as UNSEEN, so next time the script will read that message again.

How can I achieved this?

I have also used mail.select(mail_label,readonly=True), but it doesn't help because with that I cannot mark a message as SEEN which I also need. I also want this to work with Gmail.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '13 at 15:22

You can easily clear the \Seen flags with this command:

tag UID STORE -FLAGS (\Seen)

but your software will probably be more robost if you only set the \Seen flag in the first place after you have successfully processed a message. That way, if anything goes wrong while you are processing a message (even if the connection to the IMAP server is broken) the flag remains unset and you can retry that message the next time the script runs. You do this by avoiding the IMAP server's automatic setting of the \Seen flag by using BODY.PEEK instead of BODY.

In Python, I think that STORE command should be issued like this but I haven't tried it.

connection.uid('STORE', '-FLAGS', '(\Seen)')

using imaplib, to PEEK, I use: `.fetch(num, '(BODY.PEEK[])')`. — Julien Palard, Feb 11 '15 at 13:40

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 31 '14 at 11:55

In Python, the imaplib module describes STORE as:

(typ, [data]) = <instance>.store(message_set, command, flags)

so, the following line will let you set the message to READ ('+FLAGS') or UNREAD ('-FLAGS') as required.

connection.uid('STORE', MESSAGE_ID, '+FLAGS', '\SEEN')

As you see, the secrets is on the FLAGS command ;)

Vladimir · Answer 3 · 2022-03-09T04:41:23.897

You may use imap_tools package: https://pypi.org/project/imap-tools/

from imap_tools import MailBox, MailMessageFlags, A

with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('test@mail.com', 'pwd', 'INBOX') as mailbox:

    # FLAG unseen messages in current folder as Answered and Flagged, *in bulk.
    flags = (MailMessageFlags.ANSWERED, MailMessageFlags.FLAGGED)
    mailbox.flag(mailbox.uids(A(seen=False)), flags, True)

    # SEEN: mark all messages sent at 05.03.2007 in current folder as unseen, *in bulk
    mailbox.flag(mailbox.uids("SENTON 05-Mar-2007"), MailMessageFlags.SEEN, False)

I am lib author.

Very good job! I am using your lib in a project. – ARNON Oct 05 '21 at 11:41 — ARNON, Oct 05 '21 at 11:41

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 11:02

`imap = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(server)
 imap.login(username, password)
 imap.select("inbox", readonly=False)`

if readonly="True" you can't change any flags. But,if it is false, you can do as follow,

imap.store(id, '-FLAGS', '\Seen')

THEN EMAIL WILL MARK AS UNREAD

(-) means REMOVE flag and (+) means ADD flag.

ex:you can set imap.store(id, '+FLAGS', '\Deleted') to delete email as well.
Like this you can set,any flag in below

    \Seen       Message has been read

    \Answered   Message has been answered

    \Flagged    Message is "flagged" for urgent/special attention

    \Deleted    Message is "deleted" for removal by later EXPUNGE

    \Draft      Message has not completed composition (marked as a
                draft).

More details :https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2060.html#page-9

It works for me but console returns `can't concat builtin_function_or_method to bytes`. — ARNON, Oct 05 '21 at 09:56

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 01 '22 at 20:58

I created an IMAP library, Red Box, which is quite intuitive to use for such cases.

Configure

First we configure the email box (read more about configuring):

from redbox import EmailBox

# Create email box instance
box = EmailBox(
    host="imap.example.com", 
    port=993,
    username="me@example.com",
    password="<PASSWORD>"
)

# Select an email folder
inbox = box["INBOX"]

Search Messages

Then we search for an email (read more about querying):

from redbox.query import SUBJECT

msgs = inbox.search(SUBJECT("Example email"))
msg = msgs[0]

Set Flags

Then we set flags:

# Set \Seen flag
msg.read()

# Remove \Seen flag
msg.unread()

Alternatively you can use set method:

# Set \Seen flag
msg.set(seen=True)

# Remove \Seen flag
msg.set(seen=False)

python imaplib - mark email as unread or unseen

5 Answers5

Configure

Search Messages

Set Flags

Linked