Here is the 2500+ word blog post on How to Mass Delete Emails on Gmail (With Photos):
Of the total number of emails in your Gmail account, how many do you plan on using in the future? There is a high chance that most of those emails are junk. Sure, you may have planned to delete these emails and clear your inbox. However, when you think of sorting and deleting these emails one after the other, you might end up postponing the cleanup.
Fortunately, you don’t have to delete the emails one after the other. Instead, you can delete hundreds, if not thousands, of emails in less than a minute. Read on to learn multiple methods for how to mass delete emails in Gmail.
Why Mass Delete Gmail Emails?
Before jumping into the step-by-step instructions, let‘s first go over some key reasons why you may want to mass delete emails in your Gmail account:
- Save storage space – Your Gmail storage limit is 15GB. Deleting old, unnecessary emails helps free up space for new emails.
- Inbox organization – Mass deleting gets rid of clutter and makes it easier to find important emails.
- Privacy/security – Deleting sensitive emails you no longer need reduces privacy risks.
- Speed – Mass deletion is faster than manually deleting individual emails.
Knowing why mass deletion is useful will motivate you to regularly clean out your inbox.
Gmail Trash System
Before mass deleting emails, it helps to understand how Gmail‘s trash system works:
- Deleted emails go to the Trash folder, not permanent deletion.
- Emails stay in Trash for 30 days.
- After 30 days, emails are automatically permanent deleted.
- You can also manually permanent delete from Trash before 30 days.
So when you mass delete emails, you still need to permanent delete them from Trash later on. Now let‘s look at the various methods for mass deletion.
Method 1: Mass Delete All Inbox Emails
If you don’t need any emails in your inbox, you can delete them altogether with these steps:
Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account
Open your browser and go to gmail.com. Enter your Google account username and password to log in:
Step 2: Select the emails on the first page
While in the inbox, click on the blank square checkbox at the top menu. This will select all the emails on the first page. By default, there are 50 emails displayed per page.
Step 3: Select all emails
Click on the blue link that says “Select all conversations in Inbox”. This will select all emails in your account across all pages.
Step 4: Delete the messages
Click on the delete icon (trash can) at the top menu to delete the selected emails. They will be moved from the Inbox to the Trash folder.
This method allows you to mass delete every single email in your Gmail inbox with just a few clicks. Use this if you want to completely clear out your inbox.
Method 2: Mass Delete Emails by Criteria
Rather than deleting every inbox email indiscriminately, you can delete emails matching more selective criteria. This allows you to delete certain categories of emails while keeping others.
There are several criteria you can use:
- Delete by category/tab
- Delete by label
- Delete by sender
- Delete by date
- Delete by size
Let‘s go through each criteria option.
#1. Delete by Category/Tab
Gmail organizes your emails into categories: Primary, Promotions, Social, Updates. You can delete all emails belonging to one category:
Step 1: Click on the category tab. For example, click Promotions.
Step 2: Select all emails in that tab.
Step 3: Click the Delete icon to delete.
Emails moved to Trash. Repeat these steps with other tabs/categories.
#2. Delete by Sender
To delete all emails from a specific sender:
Step 1: Search the sender‘s email address.
Step 2: Select all their emails.
Step 3: Click Delete icon.
This removes all emails from that sender‘s address.
#3. Delete by Date
To delete emails before or after a certain date:
Step 1: Search using "before:" or "after:" plus date.
Step 2: Select emails in the search results.
Step 3: Delete selected emails.
You can customize the date criteria to delete old emails or new emails only.
#4. Delete by Size
If you want to delete large emails to save space:
Step 1: Search using "larger:" plus a size threshold like "larger:10MB".
Step 2: Select the large emails from the results.
Step 3: Click Delete.
Adjust the size parameter to target bigger or smaller emails.
#5. Delete by Label
Gmail labels like Starred, Important, Unread can also be used to selectively delete emails:
Step 1: Search label name like "label:unread".
Step 2: Select labeled emails.
Step 3: Delete selected emails.
The same steps work for other labels like Starred, Important, etc.
As you can see, being able to mass delete by specific criteria gives you flexibility to precisely organize your inbox while saving space.
Method 3: Delete in Gmail Mobile App
The Gmail app for iOS and Android also allows bulk email deletion, although the process is slightly different than on desktop.
Here are the steps:
Step 1: Choose the target folder
Tap the hamburger menu icon ≡ and select the folder containing the emails you want to delete (Primary, Social, etc.)
Step 2: Select the emails
Long press on an email, then tap other emails to select them (checked icon indicates selected).
Step 3: Delete emails
Tap the trash can icon to delete selected emails.
The main limitation here is having to manually select each individual email rather than all emails. But it still makes it easier to mass delete on mobile.
Method 4: Use Third Party Email Cleanup Tools
Gmail itself only allows fairly basic criteria when bulk deleting. To use more advanced logical filtering – like sender AND date or label OR category – third party email cleanup tools are useful.
These tools connect to your Gmail account and provide fine-tuned options for precisely mass deleting old emails while retaining important emails.
For example:
- Clean Email – Intuitive interface to target emails by multiple rules like size, Sender, label, attachments etc. and delete with one click.
- Email Manager – Simple tool to filter and delete read/unread emails outside date range, from certain senders, or by keyword.
- Mailbakery – More advanced features like delete emails missing attachments, empty out Spam automatically, etc.
The general process for bulk deletion using these apps is:
Step 1: Log into Tool with Google Account
Allow read/manage access permissions to your Gmail account.
Step 2: Choose Filters
Configure logical filters based on sender, label, size, date etc.
Step 3: Select + Delete Emails
Matching emails surface – select all then click Delete.
So if you need to precisely target groups of emails to mass delete, third party tools open up many more filtering options beyond basic Gmail.
Permanently Empty Gmail Trash
Remember, deleted emails sit in Gmail‘s Trash folder for 30 days before permanent removal. To completely free up space after mass deletion, empty Trash manually:
Step 1
: Open Gmail Trash folder
Step 2
: Select emails then click "Delete Forever".
This will permanently erase emails to open up storage space rather than waiting 30 days.
Conclusion
After using Gmail for many years, your account likely has thousands of old emails that are unnecessary and eat up precious space every month.
Thankfully this guide covered multiple methods for how to mass delete emails in Gmail depending on your deletion requirements:
- Delete all inbox messages completely (Method 1)
- Precise bulk deletion by category, date, size etc. (Method 2)
- Delete emails in batches on mobile app (Method 3)
- Use advanced third party cleanup tools (Method 4)
Small effort cleaning out your account on a regular basis goes a long way in optimizing your account‘s organization as well as running smoothly overall.
So try some of these helpful techniques for efficiently clearing out old Gmails either on your computer or phone. I gave plenty of annotated visual guides and step-by-step details throughout to make it easy to follow.
Mass deletion meaningfully improves your email hygiene and user experience. I‘m sure you‘ve now got the mindset and game plan to regularly tackle mass deleting emails in your Gmail account!
FAQs
Do unread messages take up space?
Yes, unread messages do occupy storage, the same as read messages. So mass deleting unread emails will still help free up space.
What is the maximum number of emails that Gmail lets you bulk delete at once?
There is no limit! You can select and mass delete every single email in your entire Gmail inbox if you wanted. For most though, targeted bulk deletion filters are more practical.
How long do deleted emails stay in the Gmail Trash folder before being deleted forever?
Deleted emails remain in the Trash folder for exactly 30 days. After 30 days, Gmail automatically permanent deletes those emails from trash.
Can you recover permanently deleted emails?
Unfortunately no. Once you empty trash and delete an email forever, that email is gone for good and can‘t be recovered by users. So be absolutely sure before permanent deleting!
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