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 how to mass delete emails. 

Method One: Mass Delete All Emails in Your Inbox

If you don’t need any emails in your inbox, you can delete them altogether. Here are the steps: 

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account 

Open your browser and search 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 at the top menu. This will select all the emails on the first page. By default, there are 50 emails on each page. There can be more emails than this if you have changed the settings. 

Step 3: Select all emails 

 Click on the blue link that says, ‘select all the x conversations in the primary.’ 

Step 4: Delete the messages 

Click on the delete icon at the top menu, which is in the shape of a trash can, to delete the emails. They will be deleted from the Inbox and sent to the Trash folder. 

Method 2: Mass Delete Emails with Specified Characteristics

#1. Delete Emails in One Category

Your emails are often divided into four categories: primary, promotions, social, updates, and forums. You can delete emails in one of these categories. Below, we shall look at how to delete emails in the promotions folder. Here are the steps:

Step 1: On your Gmail account, navigate to the promotions tab 

Switch to the second tab of your inbox to open promotions.

Step 2: Select all the emails 

Click on the empty box at the top menu to select all the emails on the first page. Then click on ‘select all x conversations in promotions’ to select all the emails in this category. 

Step 3: Delete the emails 

Tap the trash can icon to delete all the selected emails.

Step 4: Confirm your action. 

Click ok on the confirmation message to confirm that you want to delete all the emails in the promotions category. This will delete all the emails in a few minutes. The emails are moved to the trash folder. Use these steps to delete emails in any other category. 

#2. Delete Emails from a Specific Folder

Do you want to delete all emails sent by a specific sender? Here are the steps to follow: 

Step 1: Open your Gmail account, and search the emails from that sender 

Enter the sender’s email address at the search bar and hit enter to show their emails. 

Step 2: Select the emails from that sender 

Click on the empty box at the top menu to select the emails. You can also click on the link that says ‘select all conversations that match this search.’ 

Step 3: Delete the emails

Click on the trash-can icon at the top menu to delete the selected emails.

#3. Delete Emails Sent before a Specific Date

You can use this method to delete all old emails in your inbox. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Open your Gmail and search for the emails sent before the date 

In the search bar, enter before: YYYY/MM/DD. If searching for a month or date with a single digit, enter before: YYYY/M/D. Press enter to get the results.

Step 2: Select the emails in the results 

Click on the top menu’s empty box to select all the emails. Later, click on the link that says ‘select all conversations that match this search’ to select emails on all pages. 

Step 3: Uncheck the emails you don’t want to delete 

If there are any emails among those selected that you don’t want to delete, uncheck them by clicking on the checked box to the left of the sender’s name. Otherwise, if you want to delete all the selected emails, skip this step and proceed to step four. 

Step 4: Delete the emails

Click on the trashcan icon to delete the emails. All the selected emails are sent to the trash folder.

#4. Delete Emails with a Specific Status

Emails in your inbox can have four statuses: All, none, read, unread, starred, and unstarred. If you wish to delete emails with any of these statuses, you search using the search word ‘label.’ For instance, if you want all unread messages, you search the label: unread.

Below are the steps to delete emails in the read status. You can use the same steps to delete emails in any other status. 

Step 1: Open your Gmail inbox and search all read emails 

On the search bar, type label: read and click enter to get all read messages.

Step 2: Select all emails 

Click on the checkbox (the empty box in the search menu) to select all emails on the first page. Next, click on search all conversations that match this search to select all emails in the consequent pages. 

If there are emails that you don’t want to delete, uncheck them by clicking the check box to the left of the sender’s name. 

Step 3: Delete the emails

Click on the delete icon at the top menu to delete the selected emails. 

#5. Delete Emails by Email Size

If you are looking forward to reducing the space occupied by your emails, you can start by deleting emails that occupy a large space. When deleting emails by size, you use the search word ‘larger.’ In these steps, we shall delete emails that are larger than 5MB.

Step 1: Open Gmail and search for emails larger than 5MB

On the search bar, type larger:5MB and click enter 

Step 2: Select the emails from the search results

Click on the checkbox at the top menu to select all messages above 5 MB. You can also select one message at a time by checking the box to the left of the sender’s name if you don’t want to delete all of them. 

Step 3: Delete the emails

Delete the selected emails by clicking on the trash-can icon at the top menu. These emails are sent into the trash folder. 

Method 3: Delete Emails in Bulk Using the Gmail App

You can also delete emails on your Gmail app, whether you have an Android or iOS device. Unfortunately, unlike in the desktop or web version, you will need to select the emails one by one. Here are the steps to follow: 

Step 1: Open Gmail and choose the folder with the emails you want to delete 

You can delete primary, social, promotions, updates, or forums emails. Tap the three lines at the top left of the Gmail app to choose the category. 

Step 2: Select the emails you want to delete 

Long press, then release one sender’s icon. To select the rest of the emails, simply click on the email. You can tell that an email has been selected if there is a tick that replaces the sender’s icon. 

Step 3: Delete the emails

Tap the trash can icon at the top of the screen to delete the emails you selected. Your emails are sent to the trash folder. 

Method 4: Delete Emails in Bulk Using Third-Party Tools

Although Gmail lets you delete emails in bulk, its have some limitations, especially limited criteria. For instance, you want to delete emails sent before a specific date but exclude those sent by a certain sender. In this case, you will need to use third-party tools. 

These tools allow you to include many filters simultaneously, making bulk deletion easier and faster. Here, we look at how to mass delete emails in Gmail using Clean Email. 

Step 1: Sign in to the website using your Gmail address

On your browser, search https://app.clean.email/ and enter your Gmail address to sign in. Allow Clean Email to access your account to continue. 

Step 2: Enter your search criteria

On the left sidebar, scroll down to All mail under Mailboxes, then enter your filtering criteria using the menu at the top. 

Step 3: Select the emails from the search results

Tap on select all the emails in the results 

Step 4: Delete the emails

Click on Trash on the menu below to delete all the selected emails. 

How to Permanently Delete Emails from Gmail

Deleted emails aren’t permanently removed from your email regardless of the method you use. Instead, they are sent to the trash folder, and they permanently become deleted after 30 days. Ideally, you can wait for Gmail to delete these emails automatically. However, if you want to save space, you can permanently delete them sooner. Follow these steps to delete emails permanently. 

Step 1: On your Gmail account, open the trash folder

Log in to your Gmail account and click on more on the left bar menu. Under more, select trash.

Step 2: Select the emails you want to delete permanently 

If you want to delete all emails in Trash permanently, click on the checkbox to select all. Also, you can click on the blue link that says ‘select all x messages in Trash’. Otherwise, you can uncheck the emails you don’t want to delete. 

Step 3: Delete the emails

Click on delete forever to delete the emails permanently 

Step 5: Confirm your deletion 

Click ok on the confirmation message to delete the selected emails permanently. 

Conclusion 

If you have been using Gmail for a while without deleting any emails, you probably have a sea of junk emails. Although these emails don’t interfere with the usage of your gmail, they take up space. When you delete these emails, you save storage space and get a chance to review overlooked messages. Use the methods above to mass delete emails and keep your inbox organized. 

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The image featured at the top of this post is ©Cali6ro/Shutterstock.com.