How to Mass Delete Emails on Gmail: Guide For Web and Mobile (2024)

How to Delete Mass Emails on Gmail on the Web

Let’s say that your inbox is so neglected and overflowing with useless messages that you’re ready to apply the Gmail bulk delete features to get rid of everything in one go.

Check out this video to learn how to delete multiple emails in Gmail and keep reading further.

Here’s how to delete emails in Gmail Inbox:

1. Log in to your mail account.
2. Navigate to the Inbox folder.
3. At the top of the list of emails, you'll find a checkbox. When you click on it, it will select all the messages on that page.



4. Click the ‘Select all [number] messages in Inbox’ option.
5. Now that all emails in your inbox are selected, click on the Trash bin icon at the top of the email list.

All the messages that used to fill your inbox are now in the Trash folder. If you're sure that you won't need to recover deleted emails from Gmail, you can go to the Trash folder and click on the 'Empty Trash now' option. Alternatively, you can let Gmail do the work for you, as it will automatically empty the Trash folder after 30 days.

How to Mass Delete Specific Emails on Gmail

So, it's easy to mass delete Gmail emails regardless of their content, age, and other criteria. But what about when you want to bulk delete specific types of emails?

In this section, we'll explore how to delete:

• All emails in the ‘Promotions’ category
• All unread messages
• Emails older than a certain date
• All or multiple emails from a single sender
• Messages larger than a specific size

So, let's dive into these common scenarios!

How to mass delete emails on Gmail in Promotions

1. Log in to your mail account.
2. Navigate to the Promotions category.
3. At the top-left corner of the email list, click on the checkbox to select all the emails on the page.



4. Click the ‘Select all [number] conversations in Promotions’ option.
5. Once you have selected all the messages, simply click on the Trash bin icon to delete them.

How to delete all unread messages

1. Log in to your mail account.
2. Type "is:unread" in the search bar and hit Enter.
3. Click the top checkbox.



4. Click the ‘Select all messages that match this search’ option.
5. Click the Trash bin icon to delete all unread Gmail emails that you no longer need.

How to mass delete emails on Gmail by age

Follow these steps to delete old emails in Gmail:

1. Log in to your inbox.
2. Type "before:YYYY/M/D" (replace YYYY/M/D with the desired date, such as 2022/2/22) in the search bar and hit Enter.
3. Click the top checkbox.



4. Click the ‘Select all messages that match this search’ option.
5. Tap on the Trash bin icon to delete emails you no longer need.

How to delete all or multiple emails from one sender

1. Log in to your mail inbox.
2. If you want to delete emails from one sender, type their email address or the sender's name into the search bar, and press Enter.
3. Click the top checkbox.



4. Click the ‘Select all conversations that match this search’ option if you want to select all messages from this sender.
5. To delete the selected messages, simply click on the Trash bin icon.

How to mass delete emails on Gmail by size

Follow these steps to delete large emails in Gmail:

1. Open your inbox and go to the search bar at the top.
2. In the search bar, type "larger:4M" (without quotes) to search for messages larger than 4MB. You can adjust the number according to your preference.
3. Gmail will display a list of messages that match the size criteria. Select the messages you want to clean. You can click on the checkbox beside each message to select it individually or click the top checkbox to select all.



4. Click on the Trash bin icon to send them to Trash.

As you can see, anyone can learn how to mass delete Gmail emails that fit certain criteria. Regardless of which messages you clean up, don’t forget to empty the Trash folder as well to free up precious storage space.

How to Delete Gmail Emails in Bulk on Android and iPhone

Unfortunately, the Gmail mobile app doesn't support deleting all emails at once as the web version does. Although the mobile app doesn't allow selecting all messages in a folder at once, you can still select individual messages one by one to delete multiple emails in Gmail app.

Here’s how to mass delete emails on Gmail app:

1. Open the mobile app on your Android or iOS device.
2. Navigate to your Inbox or any other folder where the messages you want to remove can be found.
3. Tap the thumbnail to the left of each message you want to remove.
4. Tap the Trash bin icon to remove the selected messages.



5. Empty the Bin folder to free up the storage space occupied by the messages you’ve just deleted.

Another handy feature for deleting mass emails in Gmail mobile app is utilizing the 'Swipe' option for quick, one-by-one deletions. Here is how to delete Gmail emails in bulk on iPhone using Swipe:

1. Start by tapping on the three-lined settings icon located at the top-left corner.
2. Proceed to scroll down until you find Settings, then select it.
3. Search for the Inbox customizations option and tap it.



4. Select Email swipe actions from the list.
5. Choose your preferred direction for deleting emails - 'Right swipe' or 'Left swipe'.
6. From the list that appears next, pick Bin.
7. Click Done and head back to your inbox. From now on, swiping in the direction you selected will send your messages to Trash.

In the mobile app for Android, the process is similar to that on the iPhone. Navigate to 'Settings', select 'General settings', then choose 'Mail swipe actions'. From there, you can customize the actions for either a left or right swipe, including the option to delete emails.

💡 Note: Given the limitations of the Gmail mobile app in terms of bulk email deletion, the Clean Email app emerges as a more robust alternative. Available for both iOS and Android, it empowers users with greater flexibility and functionality for managing their inbox on the go.

How To Bulk Delete Emails in Gmail Using Clean Email

While it’s certainly possible to clean up messages in bulk using nothing but Gmail’s own email management features, you may find it difficult or impossible to bulk delete emails based on very specific criteria.

Clean Email offers a wide range of email filtering options, allowing you to delete multiple Gmail emails based on its Smart Folders, custom search filters, and other criteria. Smart Folders are predefined filters that effortlessly organize your mailbox. With 33 unique custom filters, they surpass Gmail's basic categories by sorting messages using various parameters.

Acting like 'labels', these Smart Folders don't move your emails but provide a more structured view of your inbox. Among the most useful Smart Folders are ‘Top Senders’, ‘Online shopping’, ‘Seasonal Sales’, ‘Productivity tools’, and ‘Finance and Insurance’, each providing a convenient way to quickly access and manage emails based on specific, common parameters.

When you select a Smart Folder, for instance, 'Productivity tools', it allows you to review all email groups within that category. By simply clicking on the circular checkbox of the desired sender or senders, and hitting the Trash button on the blue action bar, you can easily delete groups of unwanted messages. This method saves you the effort of creating additional filters in Gmail app to find all messages from a specific sender.

In a similar manner, you can delete emails in bulk in your Inbox or any other familiar folders in your Gmail account. By using the additional filters located above the search box, like 'Unread' or 'Old Mail', you can further refine your email search to find messages with very specific criteria.

Not only can you bulk delete existing emails, but you can also utilize the Auto Clean feature to create automated rules that will remove specific messages once they surpass a certain age. This convenient functionality allows you to effortlessly command your mailbox to eliminate old and unwanted messages, without the need for manual effort. Moreover, you will receive a report detailing the items that were cleaned according to these rules, ensuring that no important messages were mistakenly deleted.

While Gmail does offer filter creation capabilities, Clean Email provides additional advantages such as the ability to apply more precise criteria to your rules, easier management (with the option to pause and restart rules as needed), and a comprehensive action history that Gmail lacks. By opting for Clean Email, you can avoid the risk of overlooking important matters when using Gmail's rules.

Here is how to mass delete emails on Gmail by creating an Auto Clean rule:

1. Access Clean Email via https://app.clean.email.
2. Choose All Mail from the left panel (you can choose any Smart Folder instead of All Mail) and select the Old Mail filter above the search box.



3. 'Older than 6 months' is the default filter - modify as needed, selecting messages you want to manage. To create an Auto Clean rule, simply click the Create Rule button on the blue action bar.



4. From there, select an action, such as Trash, under the Apply Action section. If you wish to apply this rule to all existing messages, toggle the 'Apply to existing messages' option on.
5. Click Create Rule once more to confirm, and your rule will be set and added to the Auto Clean dashboard, allowing you to easily edit it whenever necessary.

If there are some senders or categories of emails that you definitely don’t want the app to clean up, then you can go to Preferences → Pinned and add your exclusions there before cleaning.

Taking full advantage of Clean Email doesn't just mean mass deleting emails. The app's Cleaning Suggestions recommend specific Auto Clean rules or other strategies based on your common actions and those performed by other users. These insights can help you optimize your mailbox more effectively.

In the case of recurring newsletters or updates, the Keep Newest feature comes in handy. It allows you to retain only the most recent version of a recurring email, automatically archiving or deleting previous iterations. This just requires setting up an Auto Clean rule.

Clean Email's capabilities extend beyond mass deletion in Gmail. It can also help you unsubscribe from unwanted subscriptions, block bothersome senders, and more. Best of all, it achieves this while respecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your messages.

How to Mass Delete Emails on Gmail - FAQs