Mail app badge counts not visible when app closed.

[SaffyDog]

The unread mail badge count does not display on the dock icon in Mail or Outlook, but appears when the apps are open. This is the same on both my 2020 iMac and 2019 MBP both running Big Sur 11.2 and also on a 2010 MBP running High Sierra. The preferences seem to be set correctly within the apps and in the system preferences.
Badge counts are visible and correct on other closed apps in the dock - eg, calendar and notifications.
Is there a way to remedy this? I cannot find a solution anywhere.

 

[appltech]

I've read about all sorts of troubles with mail services on Macs recently (from disappearing emails to "ghost" notifications), that adds another one. Truly misterious problem (provided everything's right with preferences).
So far, I've seen no real solutions to those problems, so, I guess, we are bound to wait for another excuse from Apple and another update, or hotfix, or whatever.

 

[gilby101]

Badge counts are visible and correct on other closed apps in the dock - eg, calendar and notifications.

Calendar and Reminders are updated by macOS in the background - synchronising with iCloud.
Mail is only updated when Mail is open. So different behaviour is not too surprising.

But I do get the behaviour you describe. For me, this is a big improvement on the bad old days when the Mail icon would always show an unread message count even when there were none!