How to Mass Delete Emails in Gmail

As Marie Kondo once said “I’d like to tidy up the entire planet. I would go anywhere if there were something that needs tidying.” While cleaning up the entire planet might take a while, we can give you a few ways to channel your inner Marie Kondo and clean up your inbox by mass deleting emails in Gmail.

A cluttered Gmail app can end up occupying extra space in your Google Drive as well. The best way to free it up is by deleting the thousands of emails currently camping on your Gmail account. But is it possible to mass delete emails using the Gmail mobile app as well?

While the app does not have a select all option, you can delete multiple emails at once. Scroll down to find out more.

How to Delete Multiple Emails in Gmail Using Web Browser

Usually, you have to click on one email at a time to select it. However, with the Select button, you can now select multiple emails at once. Additionally, you can also use the keyboard shortcut to delete Gmail emails in one go. Let us show you both the methods below.

Method 1: Use Select to Bulk Delete Emails

Step 1: Open Gmail on your web browser.

Open Gmail on Web Browser

Step 2: Click on the Select button. This will select all the emails currently visible on your screen.

Step 3: Once the menu options appear, click on the Delete icon.

Tip: If you want to delete all the emails in your inbox, click on the ‘Select all conversations in this Inbox’ option and click on the Delete icon.

This will delete multiple emails in Gmail at once. However, these emails will still be available in the Trash folder for the next 30 days. So, if you want to go one step further and permanently delete these emails from your Gmail, follow the steps below.

Step 4: Go to the menu options and click on More, if required.

Step 5: Once all the menu options appear, click on Trash.

Step 6: Here, click on ‘Empty Trash now’.

Step 7: Then, click on OK to confirm.

This will permanently delete all your Gmail emails.

Method 2: Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Gmail also gives you the option of deleting emails in bulk from your keyboard using the designated shortcuts. However, keyboard shortcuts are not always enabled in Gmail. So first let’s enable keyboard shortcuts for Gmail and then proceed to delete the emails.

Step 1: Open Gmail and click on the Settings icon.

Step 2: Here, click on ‘See all settings’.

Step 3: In the General tab, scroll down to Keyboard shortcuts.

Step 4: Then, click on ‘Keyboard shortcuts on’.

Step 5: After this is done, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Save Changes.

This will turn on keyboard shortcuts for Gmail.

Step 6: Now, press the * + A keys to select all the emails on the page. Then, use the # key to delete all the selected emails at once.

Tip: After selecting all the emails, you can also press the e key on your keyboard to archive the selected email.

How to Delete Specified Gmail Emails in Web Browser

If you want to delete a few specific emails that might be, for example, received before a particular date, sent to a specific address, etc., you can use certain labels or filters to sort those emails out. And once done, simply select the emails and hit the delete button. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open Gmail and click on the search bar.

Step 2: Here, enter the specific label or category to sort your emails and press enter.

• For sorting emails from a specified sender: Type to:[name of the person] or type from:[name of the person] and press enter.
• For sorting emails from certain dates: Type before:[date] or type after:[date] and press enter. The date can either be in the DD/MM/YYYY or the YYYY/MM/DD format. You can also select the date range by typing after:[date] before:[date].
• For sorting read or unread emails: Type label:read or type label:unread and press enter.

Step 3: Once the relevant emails are visible, click on the Select button to select all the emails.

Note: For demonstration purposes, we will be using the unread email filter.

Step 4: Then, click on the Delete icon once the menu options appear.

This will delete all the specified Gmail emails at once.

How to Bulk Delete Emails in Gmail Mobile App

While the Gmail Android and iOS apps don’t have a Select button to bulk-select emails, you can individually select multiple emails and then delete them at once. However, it might take a while to do it. Follow the below steps if you’d like to give it a try.

Step 1: Open the Gmail mobile app.

Open Gmail iOS app

Open Gmail Android app

Step 2: Then, tap on the circle next to the emails you want to delete.

Step 3: Once the menu options appear, tap on the Delete icon.

Step 4: Tap on OK.

This will delete all the emails currently selected on the Gmail mobile app. You can also check our guide if you’re having trouble using the Gmail iPhone app.

FAQs for Mass Deleting Emails in Gmail

Delete Those Emails

So these were all the ways you can mass delete emails in Gmail. We hope that with this, your inbox will be much cleaner and easier to navigate. You can also check our article to delete only promotional emails in Gmail.