If you’ve been using Gmail for a while, you’re undoubtedly wondering: how can I delete a large number of emails in Gmail, such as hundreds or thousands?
To clear your email and free up some space, simply follow the steps outlined in this guideline. Selecting emails one at a time can be time-consuming, but there are various workarounds available.
We recommend that you use a Gmail for Mac client in order to complete this guide.
- Delete any old emails that you have
- Searches that are more in-depth
- Delete all of your emails from the Gmail application
- Delete Previously Sent Emails Automatically
Delete any old emails that you have
In Gmail, you may quickly search for and delete a large number of old emails in one go. You can enter the date in the Gmail search field using the following format: YYYY/DD/MM.
To remove all emails that were received before January 1, 2018, you can use the search term before: 2018/01/1 to find them.
You can even search for emails based on how old they are. If you type older than:1y into the search box, you’ll see all of the Gmail emails that are older than one year. You can use the letter m to represent months and the letter d to represent days.
If you wish to remove all of them, check the box next to Check all conversations that match this search, then click Select all conversations that match this search followed by the Delete button.
Searches that are more in-depth
With the use of many queries, you may quickly discover all messages that satisfy a specific set of criteria and then delete them all.
Consider the following scenario: you wish to delete all messages labeled with newsletter that were received more than one year ago: You can use this query: older than:1ylabel:newsletter to get older information. You’ll be able to see all of the resulting emails, and you’ll be able to delete them all at once, as previously indicated.
Take a look at this page for a comprehensive breakdown of the types of searches you may perform within Gmail.
Delete all of your emails from the Gmail application
Before you can completely delete all of your Gmail messages, you must first select everything from your inbox.
If you are using a Gmail desktop client, this will be much easier.
If you go to the All Mail tab and click on the tickbox at the top of the page, you will be able to choose all of the emails on that particular page.
A message will appear, as shown in the image below, stating, “Select all of the following xxxxx discussions in all mail.”
Click on that link to select all of the messages in your Gmail account, and then click on the Delete option to remove them all from your computer.
Delete Previously Sent Emails Automatically
If you wish to delete outdated messages on an automatic basis, you can do so by creating a filter in your email program.
To do so, go to the Gmail settings page and select Filters and Blocked Addresses from the drop-down menu. Then click on Create a new filter.
In this interface, in the Has the words field, enter one of the time queries we discussed earlier, such as older than:90d, and then click on Create Filter to finish the process.
Finally, select Delete it from the drop-down menu to have these matching messages deleted automatically.