- Archiving an email in gmail removes it from your inbox, but you can still access it via search or “all mail”.
- You can also unarchive emails emails if you want to put them back. in your inbox.
- gmail also allows you to set up “archive and send” so you don’t have to keep archiving conversations.
If you’re looking for a way to clean up your gmail inbox, archiving might be the way to go.
Archiving a message removes it from the main inbox, but it remains accessible. so it’s a good option if you want to clean up your inbox without deleting everything and starting from scratch.
Setting up automatic archiving can help prevent future conversations from clogging up your inbox. you can always unarchive emails, and if someone replies to an archived message, it will reappear in your unread messages.
This is what you should know about the archive feature in gmail.
how to archive an email in gmail
The method you will use will depend on your device.
on desktop
1. go to gmail and sign in to your account, if necessary.
2. Hover over the message you want to archive.
3. Click the archive icon, which looks like a box with a downward arrow and appears to the right of the email sender’s information and description email.
on iphone or ipad
1. Open the gmail app and sign in, if necessary.
2. touch to open the message or touch to select the sender’s profile picture. if you are selecting email profile picture, you can select multiple profile pictures to archive all selected messages at once.
3. select the file icon at the top of the screen.
quick tip: You can also set swipe actions to archive a message by swiping left or right. To do that, go to gmail settings, tap mail swipe actions, choose swipe left or right and assign it to file.
on android
1. Open the gmail app and sign in, if necessary.
2. open the message you want to archive or select multiple messages if you want to archive more than one.
3. tap the archive icon.
quick tip: You can set swipe actions to archive a message by swiping left or right. To do this, open the gmail app and go to settings, then swipe left or right to archive.
how to find archived emails on desktop
once a message is archived, you can find it through the all mail folder or by using the search bar.
using the ‘all mail’ folder
1. Hover over the left edge of the gmail window. a sidebar will expand.
2. Click all emails from that sidebar. if you don’t see it, click more and then scroll down to all mail.
3. Any archived messages, as well as other undeleted emails, will appear there.
Quick Tip: If you don’t see the sidebar expand, click the three-line icon, located in the upper-left corner of the screen.
using the search bar
Unfortunately, you can’t just search for the archive tag in the search bar to find those emails.
1. If you know the email keywords you’re looking for, such as the subject, sender, or subject of the message, type them into the search bar and click enter.
2. if not, type “-in:sent -in:draft -in:inbox” -has:nuserlabels” (in quotes) in the search and press enter this essentially opens your all mail inbox.
3. review the results to find the email in question.
how to find archived emails in the mobile app
these processes are the same regardless of whether you are using an iphone or an android.
using the ‘all mail’ folder
1. Open your gmail app and sign in to your account, if necessary.
2. tap the three line icon, located in the upper left corner of the screen.
3. select all emails.
using the search bar
1. open the gmail app.
2. tap the search bar at the top of the screen and enter your keywords.
how to unarchive emails in gmail
If you decide you no longer want to archive an email, you have the option to unarchive it.
on desktop
1. open gmail on your mac or pc.
2. scroll to and click the all mail category on the left side.
3. scroll or search to find the email you want to unarchive.
4. once you’ve found it, right click on the email and select move to inbox.
on the mobile app
1. open the gmail app on your iphone or android device.
2. tap the three lines icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
3. scroll down until you find the all mail tab. tap to open.
4. scroll or search for the message you want to unarchive. tap to open once you’ve located it.
5. tap the three dots icon in the upper right corner.
6. select move to inbox.
how to automatically archive emails in gmail
You can set emails to be automatically archived when you hit send.
1. open gmail and sign in, if necessary.
2. Click the gear icon at the top right of the screen.
3. select view all settings.
4. In general, look for the send and archive section.
5. select the show “send and archive” button in response.
6. scroll down and click save changes.