How to Delete All Emails at Once? Can You Recover Afterwards?

Knowing how to delete all emails in Gmail can help you to start again with your email account, whether it is complete or you simply want to empty it out. Though free webmail services no longer limit storage space as much as they did in the past. Clearing your email might still be useful for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps your inbox has become clogged over time, or maybe you’ve stored all of your emails offline and want to free up some web space. Whatever the cause, starting again on Gmail is a relatively straightforward task. Here’s how to erase all emails in Gmail, according to our instructions.

1. Select the Email Category You Want to Delete From Gmail

Email is divided into three categories: Primary, Social, and Promotions. The simplest approach to remove all emails in Gmail is to go through each category one by one, which I’ll do in this lesson with the “Promotions” portion. With a click, select the tab you want to clear.

how to delete all emails

2. Tick the Box to Select All

A little tick box is highlighted above, nestled between the search bar and the tab selection. If you check it, every email on the page will be picked.

how to delete all emails

However, if you have more than 50 emails to delete, this will not get rid of everything, so we’ll address that in the next step.

3. Add the Emails That Are Not Visible on the Page

When you click the checkbox, everything on the page (excluding the inbox advertising) is selected, but an easily missed text will appear above the tab selection: “All 50 talks on this page have been chosen.” In Promotions, select all X discussions.” When you press the second sentence, everything in the category will be highlighted as ready to be deleted.

4. Press the Delete Key

Press the fourth symbol near the bottom of the search bar, shaped like a garbage can. You’ll be asked whether you’re sure you want to delete that many emails, so make your choice.

how to delete all emails

5. Wait for Confirmation

This will take some time if you have a large number of emails. Even though I only had 3,404 items to clear, it took about 15 seconds.

Once the process is complete, you will see a confirmation pop-up in the lower left-hand corner, as shown below. Also, while this doesn’t appear to have deleted everything, fast reloads proved that it had.

6. Empty the Trash and Repeat for the Remaining Tabs

You don’t need to do anything else, so this is an optional step, but your deleted emails will remain in your trash bin for 30 days before Google deletes them.

If you want to speed things up, go to the Trash folder and empty it manually. Repeat steps 2-6 with the Primary and Social tabs until your Gmail is entirely empty.

How to Restore Deleted Gmail Emails?

Don’t be concerned if you unintentionally deleted some emails. Destroyed emails are saved in your Trash folder for 30 days until they are completely deleted.

how to delete all emails

1. Access your Gmail account. Scroll down to the left side of the screen and select the Trash folder. It may be necessary to click More to reveal it.

2. Select the emails you want to restore by checking the boxes next to them.

3. Select the name of the folder you want to send the emails to, then click the Move to the icon (a folder with an arrow pointing right).

Conclusion

Have you followed the procedures above correctly? If you have, your Gmail inbox should be empty. You can stay one step ahead of your inbox upkeep now that you know how to remove all emails in Gmail. After all, starting again isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

You’ve also taken another step toward becoming a Gmail power user. If you’re attempting to stay on top of your email, you might find it easier to categorize everything with Gmail labels. You can also test several third-party Gmail apps to extend Gmail’s capabilities.

Frequently Asked Question

Is It Possible to Remove Emails in Gmail by Date?

Yes, this is also doable. Gmail will only show emails older than one year if you enter “older than:1y” into the search function. You can then choose and delete several emails.

Is It Better to Delete or Archive Emails in Gmail?

There is no definitive answer to this. If you believe you will need the email again in the future, archive it rather than delete it. Gmail deletes emails permanently. Keep in mind that if an email is in the trash for 30 days, it will be removed automatically.

Is It Possible to Erase Emails From Gmail on My iPhone or Android Phone?

Yes, both iPhone and Android support this.