Do you have a full gmail inbox but don’t want to delete the emails if you need them later? archiving may be the answer, but what does that mean?
Feel like your gmail inbox is cluttered with emails? however, you don’t want to delete everything if you need that information at a later date. that’s where the archive function comes into play. but how is it used effectively? and how can you find those emails again when you need them?
Using the file provided by gmail is the best way to ensure you have a clean and organized inbox while still having access to emails you may need later. In this article, we’ll cover some topics related to archiving emails in Gmail so you can organize your inbox and remove some of the clutter.
We will cover the following topics in this gmail email archiving article:
- what is ‘archive’ in gmail?
- the difference between archiving and deleting emails
- how to delete archived emails in gmail?
- why should i archive emails?
- how to find ‘archive’ in gmail
- can you automate email archiving in gmail?
what is the file in gmail?
When it comes to keeping your inbox clean and organized, you have a few options. Gmail gives you a nice feature to classify your messages into categories like main, promotions, social and more. this feature is useful as it keeps those annoying promotional and social media notifications out of your main inbox. this already helps a lot to organize your inbox.
This feature helps keep things more organized, but even if it’s enabled, your inbox can fill up pretty quickly and start to look a bit chaotic. in this case, you may also want to start using the delete and archive features to remove emails you have attended to from your inbox.
When you archive an email, you still keep a copy of the email, but it no longer shows up in your main inbox. this email will be securely archived and you will be able to find it if you need it again. Also, when someone sends you another email in the same thread you archived, it will still show up in your inbox. so you don’t have to worry about missing something or checking multiple accounts or folders for activity.
gmail file vs. deletion
There is a big difference between archiving emails and deleting them. you should be aware of this difference because sometimes you will have emails that can be deleted, while certain emails should be kept as they may contain information you may need.
If you delete an email, it moves to the trash. will remain here for a predetermined period of 30 days. after this, it will be deleted forever. you can delete spam messages and emails without a second thought. It’s good to know that if you accidentally deleted an email, you can still go to the trash bin within that period. you can also set the period within your settings if you want it to be shorter or longer.
Archiving your email only removes it from the inbox, but the message will still be securely stored. so you can retrieve it at any time and without stress. the email will also remain archived indefinitely unless you move it to another folder or return it to your inbox.
how to delete archived emails in gmail?
It is also important to note that you can delete emails that have been archived. This way, if you ever need to free up space and have archived emails that you no longer need, you can delete them and free up space. however, it’s probably a good idea not to do this too often, as you may never know when you’ll need to check an email again.
I’ve been in situations where someone was requesting information from emails you thought were no longer important and were sent many years ago. Fortunately, having them on file meant I could easily refer to this information without much hassle or stress.
why should I archive emails?
Although very few people archive emails, there are some good reasons why you should start using this feature with your gmail account. Studies have shown that reading and responding to emails takes up 28% of an employee’s workday. With such a high stat, it’s critical that your email inbox works as efficiently as possible.
Using the archive feature for your gmail account has the following benefits:
- provides a cleaner, more manageable inbox
- ensures you don’t miss out on essential or valuable information
- makes it easy to find and locate information when you need it
- makes your business compliant with how long any digital information must be kept
- prevents your business from litigation as it is a legal requirement to archive or store digital information for some time
As you can see, there are many personal and professional reasons why it may be beneficial to use the archive feature provided by gmail. It’s also so simple to use this feature that you’ll wonder why you haven’t used it yet.
will archiving emails in gmail free up space?
no, archiving emails in gmail will not save you disk space and emails will still count towards your storage quota. Although there are many benefits to using the archive feature when it comes to organizing your inbox and making you more productive, the only way to save space is to permanently delete emails from your trash.
how long do emails stay archived in gmail?
When you archive emails in gmail, they are moved from your inbox to the “all mails” folder. this process does not delete the email and it will remain on file indefinitely until the user chooses to delete it.
If the email is deleted, it will remain in the “trash” folder for a default period of 30 days before being permanently deleted. You can also manually delete the ‘trash’ folder by navigating to it and then clicking the ’empty trash now’ button at the top of the screen. however, you must be careful when doing this, as it is difficult to recover emails once they have been deleted.
how to find a file in gmail?
There’s no use archiving emails if you can’t easily find them when you need them. For this reason, many people keep their emails in their main inbox, even though it’s not ideal. however, google has made it very easy to use the file in gmail.
so where is “file” in gmail? There is no archive folder in gmail, which can make it seem complicated to retrieve emails once you have archived them. however, this is not the case, as there are two very easy ways to find archived emails.
on desktop
let’s look at the two different ways you can get your archived emails on your desktop.
via the all mail folder
archived emails are hidden by google by default. that’s why you don’t see them when you scroll through your inbox. however, once you enter your “all mail” folder, they will be visible to you. while in your gmail inbox, hover over the left side to expand the side menu. From here, scroll down to “all mail” and click on the folder. doing this will open the folder that contains all your emails, including archived ones.
While this method works, it’s not the most effective if you archive a lot of messages every day. Manually going through a list of hundreds of emails can be time consuming. luckily there is an easier way.
using the search bar
This method is much more convenient, especially if you archive a lot of emails. When you use the search bar to search for an email, subject, or subject, it automatically searches all of your emails. this includes your sent and archived emails. as such, when you search for a specific topic via the search bar, you’ll also find the archived email related to that topic.
There is also a way to narrow this down and use the search bar to view only archived emails. To do this, type your subject, followed by (not label: inbox). keep the uncapitalized; otherwise it won’t work.
on mobile devices
The process for mobile devices is a bit different. let’s take a look at the following.
find archived emails on android devices
Finding your archived messages in the gmail app for android devices is very simple. all you need to do is open the gmail app on your android device. then tap the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) and from this menu you can choose to use the “all mail” method that appears in the list or the search bar option.
find archived emails on ios devices
gmail might not be the preferred email client among iphone users. the gmail app is still available on the apple app store. If you have the Gmail app on your iOS device, you can access your archived emails by tapping the hamburger icon and then using the “all mail” method or the search bar.
how do i unarchive emails in gmail?
There may be certain cases where you want to unarchive an email. perhaps someone has requested more information or a follow-up on a previous email that has already been archived, so you should move it back to your inbox. archived emails will automatically return to your inbox if the recipient sends an email in that same thread. however, if it was something you discussed, you’ll need to manually unarchive the email.
unarchive emails on desktop
To unarchive gmail emails on your desktop, scroll to “all emails” in the menu on the left of the screen. once in the ‘all mail’ folder, find the email you want to unarchive. once you’ve found the email thread, you can right-click on it and choose “move to inbox” from the list of available options. alternatively, you can open the email completely and, at the top, choose to move the email to your inbox.
move email archived in gmail to your inbox.
can you automate email archiving in gmail?
In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, automation is sometimes essential to improving productivity and efficiency. Fortunately, you can automate the process of archiving your emails in Gmail while you work. this means you no longer have to set aside time to manually archive or delete messages.
Once you have opened your gmail account, you can click the gear icon in the top right corner of the app. then select “view all settings” to access the settings menu.
Under the “general” tap, look for the “send and archive” option and select the “show send and archive option in response” option. once you’ve made your selection, you can click ‘save’ at the bottom of the setup screen.
now every time you reply to emails, you will have a new submit button. the button will read send and show the file icon. once you have typed your response and click this button, it will send your response and automatically archive the email. this makes keeping your inbox clean and organized even easier.
end result
Archiving your emails is an efficient way to organize your inbox and keep it organized. it is the equivalent of marking a task as done on a to-do list. gmail has a unique way of organizing your file as it is not a separate folder but a label. this means that a message can be archived and tagged with multiple titles, making it easy to find when needed. instead of having a folder that completely removes email from the original folder once moved, making it difficult to track.
Do you use the gmail archive function? how effective has it been in keeping your inbox organized?
read: what are the best chrome extensions for gmail?