MacworldI sit in front of a Mac all day (like you probably do), so I rely on notifications a lot, especially to communicate with co-workers, friends, and family. The problem Ive been having, however, is that the Messages app often fakes me out with phantom unread messages, leaving me frustrated and confused.Heres what happens: The Messages icon in the Dock shows a red 1 badge, indicating that theres a new message. But when I open Messages, theres nothing new, and worse, the badge wont go away. So I go back to work for a while, pull up the Dock, see the badge (again), and think I have a new message (again). The badge usually goes away when I restart my Mac, but thats not something I like to do all that often.At first, I found the way to get rid of the badge accidentally. After it popped up again, I accidentally right-clicked on the app icon in the Dock (with two fingers on the trackpad, right-click or Control-click on a mouse), which opened up the pop-up options menu. under the New Message option at the top of the menu was a tally of my messages with a notification that one was unread. I clicked it, and a blank conversation appeared that was apparently tricking the app into thinking I had an unread message. I deleted it and the badge disappeared.FoundryBut then that fix stopped working. So I had to resort to another fix that isnt so convenient, but it does work. It involves syncing Messages with iCloud. HEres what to do:Open System Settings and click on your Apple Account at the very top of the left column.In the main window, click on iCloud.Click on Messages.Click on Sync Now.FoundryThis performs a Message sync with iCloud and it should clear up the phantom badge. Its not really a fix for my problemtheres clearly a bug in Messages on my Mac thats causing thisbut until an update fixes it, I can at least clear the phantom badge and get back to work.Today I Learned is a Macworld column that spotlights lesser-known but useful tips and tricks for Apple users. If you have any ideas for future columns, send an email to michael_simon@idg.com.