Quick Links
Delete Emails in Gmail Using “Select All”
You candelete everything in your inboxquickly using the “Select All” box at the very top of your inbox when using Gmail on a desktop browser. Click it once, and the first 50 emails (everything on the first page of your inbox) will be selected, with a notice.
If you want to select everything in your inbox, go ahead and click the link next to the notice that reads “Select allconversations in inbox” (whereis how many conversations you have in your inbox).
From here, you can use the “Delete” trash can icon to move everything to the Bin, where it will be permanently deleted in 30 days. You can expedite the process by clicking “Empty Bin now” to permanently delete everything in the bin at once.
You can also use the “Archive” button to move selected messages to your archive so that they’re out of your inbox butstill accessible should you need them.
Use Search, Labels, and More to Mass Delete
If you’d rather mass delete email based on certain criteria, you can useGmail’s full suite of search featuresto perform a query. The easiest way to do this is to use the “Advanced Search” button in the search bar at the top of your inbox.
Use the form that appears to fine-tune your criteria, then hit “Search” to run your query. You’ll see the exact search terms you could have manually typed appear in the search bar, along with a list of results. This is a great way tomaster Gmail’s powerful search features.
Remember that you can use the wildcard asterisk () to specify broader search terms. As an example, if you want to find every email received from the @gmail.com domain, search for “@gmail.com” in the “From” field.
From here it’s a simple case of using the “Select All” button to select everything (remember to click on the “Select all conversations that match this search” button to include all results) and then use the “Delete” or “Archive” button as required. You cando the same with any labels you have created.
How to Delete Archived Emails in Gmail
If you’re in the habit ofarchiving messages, you can alsofree up Gmail storageby deleting your archived emails instead of letting them sit there. In fact, there are several reasonsyou should delete emails instead of archiving them.
To mass delete your archived emails, first retrieve your archived emails by clicking the “All Mail” folder (you might need to reveal it first by clicking the “More” arrow.
In the “All Mail” folder, you’ll see every email your Gmail account contains, including archived emails. Unfortunately, there’s no way to sort out non-archived messages, but the archived emails will not have the “Inbox” label, and when you select it the Archive icon (a box with a downward arrow on it) will be grayed out.
When you find archived emails, check their boxes and hit the “Delete” button (a trash can icon).
Use labels and more advanced search techniques to find old messages you really don’t need. For example, searching for “has:nouserlabels” will reveal messages that haven’t been labeled. You could combine this with the “older_than:1y” and “is:read” flags to find only unlabelled messages that are at least one year old and have been read.
Mass-Deleting Emails on the Gmail Mobile App
If you prefer the Gmail mobile apps for Android and iPhone, you should know you can mass delete emails from the inbox view, but you can only remove 50 at a time. To do this, tap on the image that appears to the left of an email’s sender and subject line so that you see a tick appear in its place.
Now at the top of the screen, check the “Select All” box to pick all 50 messages on the first page of your inbox. From here, use the “Delete” button to bin them all. Repeat as necessary, or hop on a desktop browser, log in, and follow the instructions above to get rid of everything at once.
Go One Further and Delete Your Whole Account
Are you done with Gmail? You canchoose to delete just Gmail or your entire Google Account. If you limit this to just Gmail you can still use other Google services like YouTube, Maps, and Drive.
Alternatively, delete the whole lot andde-Google your lifeandpick another free email serviceto replace it.
