Email can be a wonderful tool, but it can also be a source of stress, particularly if your inbox is overflowing with messages that aren't necessarily important. Luckily, we have a few tools at our disposal to give us the flexibility to manage our inboxes effectively, so they become a tool of efficiency rather than a pit of anxiety.

Here, we'll talk about archiving emails in Gmail.

Why Skip the Inbox / Archive Emails?

The most obvious reason for email management is to reduce clutter and help manage priorities. With Gmail, you can set filters to automatically label and move specific emails, skipping the inbox altogether. For many, this means you'll save time and energy by archiving non-urgent or unimportant emails and focusing on the ones requiring your immediate attention.

It might not seem like saving a lot of time by auto-archiving an email, but considering that the average person receives over 100 emails per day, that can add up to a lot of time saved.

Note: "Skipping the inbox" is the same as "archiving", which will remove the "inbox" label from the email, but not send it to the trash. You can access them at any time in your "All Mail" view or via search.

How to Archive Emails in Gmail Using Filters

So how do we actually get emails to skip the inbox?

When you're in Gmail, do the followig:

At the top of your screen, click on the search options icon on the right side of the search bar.

Gmail search options icon

Enter the search criteria for the emails you want to filter and click "Create filter".

Gmail filter criteria

Select the "Skip the inbox (Archive it)" option and then click "Create filter".

Gmail filter skip inbox

Let's say, for example, that you want all emails from a specific newsletter to be marked as read and archived. You would enter the newsletter email or subject in the search criteria, then choose "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)" and "Mark as read" in the options.

That's it! Now, those emails will bypass your inbox and be marked as read in your archive.

How to Find Archived Emails in Gmail

If archived emails are not kept in the inbox, then where do they actually go? Gmail doesn't create a separate folder for archived emails. You can find them alongside other emails in the "All Mail" folder.

Click "More" on the left-side menu.

Gmail "more"

Open the "All Mail" folder.

Gmail All Mail folder

Here, you can find all your emails, including archived ones.

How to Unarchive an Email in Gmail

Want to move an archived email back to your inbox? Here's how to do it:

Find the archived email in the "All Mail" folder.
Check the box next to the message.
Click the "Move to Inbox" icon at the top.

Gmail Unarchive Email

How to Archive Emails with Block Sender

While Gmail's filter system works for many use-cases, there are also limitations to it, like a lack of advanced blocking criteria and having to recreate the filter for every account you own.

With Block Sender, you can use advanced criteria (like IP addresses, headers, domain extensions, wildcards, etc) to match emails, as well as share these archiving rules with all of your connected accounts.

Once you've signed up for an account and linked your email, do the following:

Go to the Blocks page in the dashboard.
Click the "New Blocking Rule" button.

Block Sender block page

Enter the criteria, select "Archive," and click "Create."

Block Sender block and archive email

Common Issues

Although this feature is usually pretty straight-forward, it's possible that some issues can arise from time-to-time.

When using the Gmail filter method, you may notice that the emails still show up in your inbox. This can sometimes be due to a setting on your account. To fix it, do the following:

Go to the Settings page by clicking on the gear icon and then "See all settings".

Gmail see all settings

Click on the "Inbox" tab and scroll down to the bottom.
Select the "Don't override filters" option.
Click "Save Changes".

Gmail don't override filters

If Gmail is allowed to override filters, then you may see emails in your inbox when you don't expect to.

Another possibility is that you have conflicting filters or blocking rules. This is when you have two filters/blocks that both match the same email, but have different settings for where the email should go. Unfortunately, you can't set filter priority with Gmail, so the next best option is to either update your filters to be more specific or remove the conflicting filter altogether.

The final possibility is that your filter/block criteria are incorrect and don't actually match the email you're trying to archive / skip the inbox. In this case, you'll just need to review the criteria to make sure they are correct.

Conclusion

In this article, we looked at a few methods to archive emails in Gmail, both decluttering your inbox and saving you the time of having to do it yourself.

This can be very useful for, among other things, unimportant emails that you still want to keep around for later use. By using Gmail's filters or Block Sender's blocking rules, you can easily set up rules to automatically archive these emails and keep your inbox clean and organized.

Hamna Fayyaz

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How to have Emails Skip the Inbox (Archive)