Is there some other place to look on RAC for mail other than the obvious correspondence mail link?
When I log in, it shows there are now 3 unread messages, but I cannot find them anywhere. Before the 2024 tax season, it was 2. The 3rd showed up sometime in early April this year.
I have checked every year, mail and archive, since 2016 (4 years before we started our business) multiple times over the last 2 years. Everything shows as read, but the main page still shows unread messages.
It’s kind of driving me crazy because I’m concerned I’ve missed or will eventually miss something that needs to be responded to because I can’t figure out what’s causing this.
I have this issue for business clients, but not personal clients (individual taxpayers). I have found 2 possible solutions for this, depending on the cause:
If I know that all the mail has been “read” and it still shows 1 unread message, I refresh the browser (hit F5). This, of course, now forces you back to your CRA login page where you must choose RAC and then log back into the client account. But, this usually clears that last red “1” showing up on the Mail icon/link.
For some reason, my default browser (Chrome) will not show one critical control that is now built into the “mail page” for business accounts. I don’t know if it is a bug in the CRA website, or caused by one of my Chrome extensions/add-ins. But, the missing control shows up if I use “Incognito” mode, or if I use Edge. Then, using that control, you can get it to display the “hidden” mail items:
The control with the red asterisk is the one that doesn’t show up in my “normal” Chrome browser. This is NOT the same as the “Period end” filter below it - they have different functions.
This is one bug I am reporting via the EFILE Association annual survey (unless CRA fixes it in the next month or two…)
The “Access services” and “Switch business accounts” are shown there because I took the screen shot from within MY Business Account (not RAC). But, YOU DO have the drop-down list with that message “You are currently viewing correspondence…” so your problem is not the same as mine. I have not seen the message per your second screen shot - almost sounds like you have multiple EFILE accounts and you need to choose which one to use for viewing mail.
Great sleuthing, I have been stumped by this for a while.
I will add that I use Edge regularly and the time line pull down box was missing for me. I was able to see it when I went InPrivate (Edge’s name for incognito).
I really don’t see the need for the box, just show me all the mail!
I filed a Service Complaint some time back in response to this coming up for discussion maybe six months ago, and CRA confirmed it as a bug…not missing anything.
Thanks for the suggestions to try Nezzer and the feedback SmallBizGuy. Sounds like it’s just a gremlin in the system and I’m not missing some super secret location, so I’ll just keep on keeping on.
Did some more troubleshooting yesterday and fixed the problem with Chrome - at least temporarily - had to delete all the cookies set by the CRA website. Probably didn’t have to delete all of them, but there were about 10 cookies, and I didn’t want to spend time testing one at a time, restarting Chrome and logging in to CRA for each one.
Just installed a BRAND NEW copy of Chrome onto a machine … RAC still shows 2 unread, though none are, in any year.
FWIW, Justin Ling had a VERY interesting column in The Walrus about why the GoC’s IT is so bad…although it’s mostly about Phoenix etc…there are applications to CRA and their lousy systems there as well:
