How to Mass Delete Emails at Once in Gmail

If you have a cluttered Gmail inbox, you’re not alone. Mass-deleting emails come in handy and can be helpful for emails that often pile up or get ignored. There are shortcuts for deleting all read emails, all unread emails, and emails from specific senders. Here’s how to do it all.

To begin off with deleting emails from specific senders, type from:username label:read (where “username” is the sender’s email address) in the search bar and then you can use steps outlined below to proceed with deleting the emails.

How to delete all read or all unread emails

1. Log in to your Gmail account.
2. In the search bar at the top of the screen, type label:read to display all read emails or label:unread to display all unread emails.
3. Click the Select all box to the left of the Refresh button. This will select all emails on the current page. To mass delete all emails in this category (not just those on the first page), also click Select all conversations that match this search.
4. Then click the Delete icon at the top, which is shaped like a trash can.

The above steps not only apply for specified senders but can also be used to delete all other emails.

How to delete only social or promotions emails

Promotional emails are emails sent by companies or organizations to consumers with the general goal of selling products. These types of emails are automatically filed in your Promotions tab to keep them separate from your primary inbox. While Social emails on the other hand are emails you get from the social media platforms that you registered with your email, and to be honest, these emails are not necessary.

To delete these emails;

1. Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Click on the Social or Promotions tab.
3. Click the Select all box to the left of the Refresh button. This will select all social or promotional emails on the current page.
4. To delete all emails in that category, also click Select all conversations in Social or Promotions, and this will delete all the emails not only the current page.
5. After clicking Select all conversations, go ahead and click the Delete icon at the top, which is shaped like a trash can to delete all Social or Promotions emails.

ALSO READ: USED UP YOUR GMAIL STORAGE, HERE’S HOW TO QUICKLY FREE UP SOME SPACE

We’re humans and making mistakes is inevitable. So what happens when you accidentally deleted some emails you didn’t intend to, don’t fret.? Because well, they can be recovered.

Note that, deleted emails are stored in your Trash folder before they are permanently deleted after 30 days.

How to recover deleted emails

1. Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Scroll down the menu on the left side of the screen and click the Trash folder. In case you don’t see the Trash folder, you may need to click on ‘More’ to reveal it.
3. Click on the boxes next to the emails you want to restore.
4. Click the Move to icon (a folder with an arrow pointing right), then select the name of the folder you want to send the emails to.

That is all it.

Notably, be very cautious when deleting your emails.