Version: (using KDE KDE 3.3.0) Installed from: Gentoo Packages The Description says it all. If you enable the systemtray icon for kmail, start kontact and minize it to system tray the count of new messages is shown wrong nearly always.
I can confirm that there is a problem with the systemtray icon for kmail 1.7 (KDE 3.3). For me, it sometimes show new messages (and its correct count) the right way, sometimes it doesn't show anything at all. To track it down, I configured my kmail to play a sound when a new message arrives. It plays the sound correctly if I receive a new mail, but nothing is indicated in the systemtray, although the tooltip says that there is a new mail. If I open kmail, the new mail has a different color as it should, and then - after opening kmail - the systemtray icon displays the new message. It worked for me with KDE 3.2.3.
I'm going to throw my two cents in and completely agree with haye@ritterstrasse.org but add that this happens with or without kontact.
It looks like the problem here is the same as in bug #86281.
yeah, it's a duplicate of 86281
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 86281 ***