Introduction
Deleting unnecessary emails is a crucial step in clearing your inbox. An overloaded inbox not only makes it difficult to manage emails but also causes low storage space. If your Gmail storage is full, you will not receive new emails. To tackle that, start by deleting old, unread emails that are taking up storage space in your inbox. Luckily, Gmail allows the mass deletion of emails, so you don't have to waste time manually deleting all unread emails one by one.
You may not want to delete all unread emails in your inbox, but only specific ones, such as those that have occupied space for over a year or those from a particular sender. In this article, we'll cover all such scenarios. We'll be using the Gmail search operators to filter the search results.
Why Delete All Unread Emails
You may be wondering if it's even necessary to delete all unread emails. Here's why you may want to do this:
- Get a cleaner and more manageable inbox. A decluttered inbox is easier to manage.
- Free up storage space to make room for newer and important emails.
- Get rid of promotional and social emails, as most unread emails belong to these categories and are generally unimportant.
- Quickly find important emails by deleting unwanted junk.
- Speed up Gmail search as finding emails in an overloaded inbox is slower.
Understanding Gmail Search
Gmail search allows you to filter emails matching specific criteria using search operators. Search operators are words or symbols used to filter search results. For example,
is:unread
The above query uses the Gmail search operator "is" to filter all emails that have not been opened.
Gmail provides many more search operators to narrow your search results and filter out the emails you are looking for, such as label, category, has, older_than, and after.
How to Delete All Unread Emails in Gmail
We'll use the search bar to delete unread emails from Gmail inbox.
is:unread
Type the above query in the search box at the top. This will filter out all unread emails present in your inbox, excluding the Spam and Trash folder.
Note: Before you go ahead and select all unread emails for mass deletion, make sure there are no important emails included in this selection.
Next, select all these emails in order to remove them. To do so, select the checkbox at the top. This will only select the emails shown on the current page. To select all unread emails, click "Select all conversations that match this search" (if available) and click the delete icon.
how-to-delete-all-unread-emails-in-gmail-mass-deletion
Note: Perform this deletion on the desktop version of Gmail, as the mobile app doesn't have a "Select All" option.
Gmail will then ask you to confirm the bulk deletion of emails. Click the "OK" button in the pop-up window to confirm the action.
Deleting All Unread Emails from Specific Labels
You may not want to delete all unread emails, but only those with a specific label. These may include default labels such as promotions and socials or custom labels such as work or bills. Here's what the query will look like:
is:unread label:updates
This will filter only those unread emails that have the label "updates". Next, repeat the steps discussed in the previous section to select and delete all the filtered emails.
Deleting All Unread Emails Based on Date
If you don't regularly delete emails, your inbox may still contain emails from many years ago. Some of them may be unread. It is unlikely that you will need these emails later if they have been sitting in your inbox unread for years. Therefore, it is best to delete them to make room for newer, more important emails.
The process to do this is the same; you just need to include the date information in the search query. For example, to delete all emails that are older than a year, type:
is:unread older_than:1y
Or, if you want to delete all emails received after a particular date that you never opened:
is:unread after: 1/1/2021
Emptying the Trash to Permanently Delete Unread Emails
You will notice that deleting unread emails doesn't immediately free up storage space. The deleted emails are removed from the inbox and moved to the Trash folder. Gmail keeps the emails there for 30 days in case you want to recover them. After this period, the emails are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
However, you don't have to wait for 30 days for the emails to be deleted permanently. You can do so yourself by opening the Trash folder and clicking "Empty Trash now".
Additional Tips for a Cleaner Inbox
Depending on their volume, deleting all unread emails can clear a considerable space in your inbox. If you want your inbox to stay clean, you should adopt productive email habits.
-
Unsubscribe from Newsletters
Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters that you never read but are cluttering your inbox. If you're unable to unsubscribe, use BlockSender to block the newsletter permanently. -
Schedule a Regular Cleanup
Set aside some time every week or month to delete unnecessary junk and get a cleaner inbox. -
Use Labels and Filters
Use Gmail filters to apply labels to emails automatically. Labeling emails helps with organization and allows for efficient email management.
Conclusion
If you have a lot of email junk in your inbox, you may want to delete all unread emails that have been filling up space. If you haven't opened these emails for a long time, chances are you will not need them in the future, so it's best to discard them. Luckily, Gmail allows you to delete all unread emails in your inbox in one go without having to select each one individually.
Additionally, you may need to delete only all those unread emails that have a specific label or have been sitting in your inbox since a particular date. You can use Gmail search operators to filter the search results to match these criteria. If you want your inbox to stay clean, regularly clean your inbox, organize emails into labels, and unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters. We hope this guide helps you achieve a squeaky-clean inbox.
