How to mass delete emails in Gmail

It’s not uncommon to see people with hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of emails in their Gmail inbox. Most of this is old or junk e-mail that is too difficult to sort through. Gmail has a built-in method for bulk deleting emails, which is easy to do on any of the best Chromebooks.

Let’s look at how to delete a large number of emails in one fell swoop.

How to bulk delete emails in your Gmail inbox

If you know you don’t need any of your emails, delete them all and start over. In addition:

1. Open gmail
2. click inbox on the left.

3. Check the check box at the top of the page.
4. A message will tell you that you have selected only the messages on this page. Click on the text that says Select all conversations in Primary.

5. Click on the trash can shape Extinguish Button.

All your emails are now in your trash and out of your inbox. Now let’s look at how you can delete specific categories of emails.

How to delete specific categories of emails in Gmail

Sometimes you may want to delete only certain categories of emails. In order to do this:

1. Navigate to gmail.
2. Select the category you want to delete. For example, one of the pre-built Gmail categories, such as Promotions or Socialor a label created by you.

3. Check the box above the email list.
4. Gmail notifies you that you have selected the emails on the page. Click on the hyperlink to Select all conversations in the category you are in.

5. Tap the Extinguish Button.

All emails in your selected category will now be deleted. Let’s see how to delete emails with a specific attribute.

How to delete emails with a specific trait in Gmail

You may need to delete all emails from a specific person or before a specific date. Gmail makes this easy with its robust search feature.

Delete email from a sender

First, let’s look at how to delete emails from a single sender.

1. login in gmail
2. In the search bar at the top, Enter the sender’s address.

3. Choose check box above.
4. Select the text that says Select all conversations that match this search.

5. press the Extinguish Button.

Delete email before certain dates

You have now deleted all emails from the selected sender. Now let’s see how to delete all emails before a certain date.

1. In Gmail, tap and type in the search field before: YYYY/MM/DD. If the month or day has a single digit, you don’t need to add a zero (e.g. 2019/2/2 instead of 2019/02/02).

2. Choose check box above to enable it.
3. press the Select all conversations that match this search Text.

4. press the Extinguish Button.

All emails that you received before the selected date are now in the trash.

Delete read or unread emails

It can also be useful to delete all read or unread emails if you know they are all junk.

1. From the Gmail main screen, go to the search box and type Label: read or Label: unread.

2. When the results appear, check the box at the top of the page.
3. Beat Select all conversations that match this search.

4. click the Extinguish button

All unread emails are now in the trash. This method of searching and bulk deleting emails is applicable to any search using Gmail’s advanced search filters. This useful feature helps you organize your inbox.

How to delete emails in Gmail forever

Emails in Gmail that are in the trash are automatically deleted after 30 days. However, if you want to dispose of your emails sooner, you can delete them forever.

1. click garbage on the left (tap More and scroll down if you don’t see it).

2. Check the check box at the top of the page.
3. A message will tell you that you have selected only the messages on this page. Click on the text that says Select all conversations in the trash.

4. press the Delete irrevocably Button.

Those emails are now gone forever. If you want to recover an email from the trash instead of deleting it forever, you can do it in Gmail.

How to restore emails in Gmail

When you clean up your inbox, you may end up deleting emails that you didn’t intend to. Gmail offers a way to recover accidentally deleted emails.

1. On the left (you may need to type More and scroll down), select garbage.

2. Check the boxes next to the emails you want to recover.
3. Press the Move Button (in the form of a folder with an arrow on it).

4. Choose the name of the folder where you want to move the selected emails.

Your emails are now moved to the folder you selected and are no longer in the trash. If you have deleted an email forever, you cannot recover it because it is gone forever.

Ctrl, Alt, Delete

Deleting numerous emails in Gmail is easy. You can delete all emails in a specific label or category or emails found via search with a few clicks. Gmail also has a number of keyboard shortcuts to make sending emails a breeze.