How to Delete Mail in Gmail

Written by: rfreshour • Edited by: J. F. Amprimoz
Updated Apr 14, 2010 • Related Guides: Email | Google | Gmail

With all of the storage space provided by Google, there is no need to delete email in a Gmail account. If the want or need arises, however, use this step by step article to learn how to delete any email that is no longer wanted or needed.

Deleting Emails

The storage capabilities of Gmail continue to grow every day, allowing users to save and manage more email than ever possible before. There are still times, however, when a user wants to delete email, both from people they know and spam.

Email can be deleted one at a time, or there is a handy little button in Gmail that allows you to delete all messages in either the Inbox or Spam all at one time. Take the steps below to delete unwanted emails in a Gmail account;

1. To select only one email message at a time to delete, click on the box to the left of the email subject to check the box. To delete all existing messages in either the Inbox or Spam, click on Select: All, located under the Archive, Report Spam and Delete buttons.

2. Click on the Delete button. If one email at a time is being deleted, it will automatically be disappear once the Delete button is pressed. If the user is deleting all existing messages at one time, a message box will appear that informs them of how many messages will be deleted and ask "Are you sure you want to delete all messages?". Click yes. All spam will then be deleted forever or all messages in the Inbox will be moved to the trash.

Deleting mail in the Inbox will not automatically delete it forever, like it does in the Spam. Mail deleted in the Gmail Inbox will be sent to the Trash. To delete Inbox messages forever, the user must delete them in the Inbox and then click on Trash and click "Empty Trash" to delete them forever. A message box appears telling the user the emails will be deleted forever and ask if they are sure. Press yes and the email will be deleted forever.

If you have your Gmail account setup with an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird, you can also use features in the client to select all messages and delete them.

Keep in mind that once any email is deleted in a Gmail account that it will be impossible to recover. If there is any doubt about the future need of the email, just save it. Go ahead, Gmail has the storage capabilities!

Read more about using your Gmail account:

How to Create Mail in Gmail

How to Personalize General Settings in Gmail

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Suresh Oct 26, 2011 4:47 PM

RE: How to Delete Mail in Gmail

To delete the all inbox mails in gmail select all mail in check box and not to delete then select to in middle of gmail all*** mail then select DELETE it shows one error message then click ok.......<br>Then delete alll............

saw naing win Oct 1, 2011 9:11 AM

how to delete all inbox mails

1st step... select mark all inbox mail in the upper right corner.
2nd step..."select all #### inbox mail" that will show in the upper place of inbox mail.
click this and after that the confirm small window will ask u.
if you sure to delete, select "yes"
and after that ur mail will lost all....

Carmel Maloney Sep 6, 2011 9:13 AM

Deleting email address, not contact email addresses

Wante dto know how to delete email addresses, such as Reply to addresses....." they are an annoyance when the appear and certainly not needed. I googles my question and rec'd this reply about deleting emails - NOT want I wanted. Thank you if you can help me.

elena May 21, 2011 10:38 AM

Standard

the solution is that:change the gmail from Basic Html to STANDARD mode,then you can see the checkbox for select all messages

keith sherman Mar 25, 2011 7:25 AM

clean trash

How do I remove emails from trash. After I delete message it goes to trash then how do I remove them from there?

Ashwin Mar 19, 2011 7:00 AM

RE: Remove from Inbox

Hey Darren... Select all the mails and click 'Archive' button to remove the 'Inbox' label and thereby remove it from inbox.

Barbara Mar 6, 2011 8:42 AM

Deleting most but not all emails in Gmail account

How can I select a range of dates to remove the emails? Can I delete them all then manage them in my Trash Bin? I prefer not putting them in Trash Bin as they will be deleted forever with one step of a button.

Rob Feb 22, 2011 8:34 AM

Question: Deleting

When you delete your "sent" messages, does it also delete the "archive" that you made on those messages? If it does, and you have already dumped the trash, is there a backup of the archive that will enable you to retrieve?

Darren Jan 31, 2011 1:39 AM

Remove from Inbox

After filtering some of my mail and adding new labels to it I noticed it still had the label "Inbox" attached to the e-mail, which I don't want.

I want to keep the mail so not delete it, but move it from the inbox. The only way I can find to do this is to go into each e-mail and click the X on inbox.

Is this the only way to do this or is there a way to bulk remove from inbox and assign a different label. I've tried clicking on the labels box but inbox isn't listed there, and there is only one other button called "Send to inbox" which does totally the opposite of what I want.

Franklin T Snow jr Jan 23, 2011 3:29 PM

How to Delete Old and unwanted Emails from Gmail

1. Go to your Gmail account, at the bottom of the page, click on "basic HTML' reason for this is that "DELETE" will not show.
2. Click on "CONTACTS"
3. Click on "ALL CONTACTS"
4. Choose the "DEAD" email addresses that you want to delete, and click on "DELETE"
5. Sign Out.
6. Sign In.
7. Change your Gmail to "STANDARD MODE"
8. Test by going to "COMPOSE MAIL" and type the first letter of the email address"HINT: write down the email[s] that you are going to delete to make sure that these emails in the drop-list do not appear and are gone forever"
9. I hope this info help everyone as I have done this and have a witness.
10. Enjoy...!

amit Jan 21, 2011 7:04 AM

delete all

how to delete all inbox mails in newer version of gmail

carlos Dec 18, 2010 4:48 AM

delete email

I have sent email to my friend but dut to some reason i want to permenently delete the sent email from the recepient inbox can anyone help me

bishnu Nov 28, 2010 12:58 AM

deleteing message in inbox

how i will delete all the message in ibox of gmail plese help me, i am unable to delete all message in inbox.

richa Nov 26, 2010 11:34 AM

plz tell me how to delete a sent email from recepients inbox

saleem Oct 13, 2010 1:00 AM

how to delete the email id from in box am easily deleting the messeges from in box but i cant delete the idcan u help how it possible.thankyou

shane Oct 10, 2010 11:35 AM

delete my mail

select the box left of archive, then this is listed at the top of your inbox,
All 50 conversations on this page are selected. Select all 2794 conversations in Inbox, click select all then delete. ;-)

Chas Sep 26, 2010 10:52 PM

Bulk deleting in In Box

After doing search for e-mails from a particular sender, a Select All option is checked. However, can only delete selected e-mails on the current view. Want to delete all of the e-mails from the selected sender with one quick operation for selections spread across multiple e-mail page views.

Santosh Rana Sep 15, 2010 6:39 PM

Delete all email in inbox(gmail)

At the bottom of the screen you'll see
1) Gmail view: standard select "Older Version"
2) Select all email then it gives you an option to select all emails in inbox
3) Click delete

And it DONE!!!!!!!

khgerber Sep 13, 2010 11:32 PM

delete multiple emails

I'm trying to delete multiple emails but I don't have any Select button below Archive, Report Spam or Delete. What am I missing?

Matt Sep 12, 2010 12:29 AM

Deleting the big emails made easier

You can use http://www.findbigmail.com to label your big emails into three groups so that you can go through them and delete all the ones you no longer need.

Hope this helps.

Austin Sep 11, 2010 9:24 AM

How to delete mail from your gmail easy

When you see all your mail, there's a sort of a toolbar above them. (Delete, Report Spam, etc.) Click the button that's left of the 'archive' button. Then click 'All' and you will check all of your e-mails in your inbox. Then press delete. That's how to get rid of 50 at a time, but I'm not aware about how to get rid of them all at the same time.

Lauren Aug 15, 2010 6:28 PM

Sandra - your e-mail address cannot be seen by everybody who visits google. It is simply you logged into YOUR account, and only you can see it.

Sandra Aug 3, 2010 9:24 AM

removing gmail addy from google page

hi I just created a gmail account.. hoever see the email address showing on the top of my google page.. which is not good. How do i remove my addy from showing permanently?

erasto Jul 27, 2010 2:22 PM

i have so many e-mail of my friends but i don't know how delete it. can annybody help me?

TC Jul 9, 2010 1:25 PM

there is no need to delete email in a Gmail account

That used to be the case or so I thought....

Not so having a gmail account since day 1, I have recently received a message suggesting i delet emails or purchase more space...

All good things come to an end...
Too bad.

Gmail user Jun 28, 2010 11:40 PM

Delete all mail - how to

Hi,

Hope this will help. Under archive you will see select, and then there is a button 'all'. Click on it, then press delete. This will delete all your emails page by page, which is far quicker than one by one.

Robert Berry Apr 24, 2010 11:04 AM

Delete Gmail selectively Faster.

I am trying to clean up my my mail box. The snag is I can only delete by single checking 1 by 1, or massive groups. Is there any kind of middle road, like some keyboard short cuts?

Deb O'Brien Apr 17, 2010 1:42 PM

delete all mail/notifications from facebook in gmail account

i use several email accounts. i use a gmail account for one facebook page, and i would like to delete all the mail and notifications in gmail that keep stacking up. i do not see a "check all" button, just a button to delete one at a time. can you help?

kalpana Mar 19, 2010 2:05 AM

it os not comfortbull to me so i want delete it .its not given required informatin.thats it

How to Delete Mail in Gmail

Deleting Emails

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