For many of us, our inbox is our virtual “home.” it’s where we get all of our official communications for a variety of things: job applications, new services, purchase confirmations, newsletters, and more.
But when your home is cluttered, your digital life starts to feel chaotic, just like your real home. and you may start receiving emails that you accidentally accepted or simply don’t want to receive anymore.
All this clutter in your inbox prevents you from finding the few important messages you really need to read and respond to. And worst of all, the spam could start piling up. therefore, in this article, we will cover how to quickly and effectively unsubscribe from emails. that way, your inbox is once again a place of productivity, not stress.
method 1: manually unsubscribe
everyone loves a good coupon. but if you’re tired of receiving emails that are no longer useful to you, it’s possible to unsubscribe on a sender-by-sender basis.
You can manually unsubscribe the old-fashioned way using the following methods:
link to unsubscribe
This is the fastest way to manually unsubscribe, assuming they have a link. And, of course, they must have one to comply with can-spam laws.
so, assuming the sender didn’t forget to provide you with an unsubscribe link, it’s pretty easy to stop receiving your emails. just scroll to the bottom of the most recent email from them and click the text that says “unsubscribe” or something similar.
what if there is no clearly visible unsubscribe link?
Still not seeing anything? then you should read the email carefully as the unsubscribe option might be hidden in a wall of other text.
Also, you may need to follow more steps. some referrers take you to a separate web page after clicking the link, where you must confirm that you want to unsubscribe before the process is complete.
Also, some senders may not have a link, but instead require you to take another action, such as replying to the email with the words “unsubscribe”. Please read the email carefully as this option may be hidden in a large block of text with link text that blends in with the rest of the paragraph.
then follow the link and instructions to unsubscribe. some emails may even prompt you to manually reply with the subject line to request removal.
In a perfect world, it would always be this easy. but again, the above approaches are not always possible. so assuming they don’t work, here are several other manual unsubscribe methods based on your email provider:
1. gmail
Another manual approach to unsubscribe is to use your email provider. gmail, for example, has started to get better at identifying marketing emails thanks to its big data and artificial intelligence algorithms.
That’s why gmail now filters most of these emails in the promotions or social inbox tabs. that’s why they don’t clutter your main inbox. but this can still create some problems.
First of all, if you’re using g suite, your administrator may not have enabled that option. second, even with these tabs enabled, you may need to navigate to them. Legitimate emails sometimes leak to social networks or promotions, which means you’ll need to filter through the clutter from time to time.
link to unsubscribe from gmail
gmail has introduced an unsubscribe link in most email newsletters and other marketing emails. when looking next to the sender information (just below the subject line), you should see a link that says “unsubscribe”.
On desktop, gmail now offers an unsubscribe link at the top of most marketing emails and newsletters. Below the subject line and next to the sender information, there should be an unsubscribe link that will mark the email as spam.
once you click this link, google will confirm your decision and you will need to click “unsubscribe” one more time. after this, please note that all emails from that sender will be sent to the spam folder in the future.
If sending your emails to the spam folder is not enough, you have another option. gmail allows you to block a sender entirely by clicking the three dots to the right of the sender’s name. just click “block” in this menu on desktop or mobile, and you’ll never see anything from this sender again.
2. ios
apple tends to spend more research and development to make things as simple as possible. For that reason, the native Mail app on iPad and iPhone devices has an easy opt-out option.
The mail application will automatically detect if an email is a promotional or newsletter email. You won’t even have to search for a specific link: Apple will display a clear unsubscribe option at the top of the email. just click on it and confirm that you want to unsubscribe.
blocking
the ios mail app is just a portal. as such, it accesses emails from other providers like yahoo, outlook or gmail. however, access is one-way. that means you need to be logged in directly to your original email provider to completely block an email.
3. perspective
just like apple mail, you can unsubscribe from emails pretty quickly by clicking the link at the top of an email you’ve opened. This applies to mobile and desktop versions of Outlook. click once more to confirm and you’re all set.
lock with outlook
At this time, the mobile outlook email app does not have a lock option. You will need to use a desktop device to sign in to your Outlook account. then open an email from the sender you want to block, click the dotted icon menu and select “block”.
4. yahoo
yahoo is a bit unique in how it handles unsubscribe, as the mobile and desktop methods are different. for the yahoo mobile mail app, open an email and go to the dotted icon menu. From this menu, you will have two options to select: unsubscribe or mark as spam.
but the desktop version of yahoo mail doesn’t give you the option to unsubscribe. you’ll need to click the spam icon or the dotted icon with the block option, both at the top of an open email.
method 2: unsubscribe tools
The manual methods above should work pretty much every time. but you may have had your email address for several years, and the marketing spam has accumulated. when you simply have too many emails to manually unsubscribe, consider using a tool to help automate the process.
The following tools can simplify your unsubscribe mission to save you hours of mundane work:
mailshake is best known as an email sales engagement tool. but it has a cool little-known feature. If the company sending you an email uses mailshake, you can reply to any of their emails with the word “unsubscribe” in the first 15 words.
A big part of engaging potential customers is making sure they have a good experience, so it makes sense for mailshake to include this in their software. so if the sender uses this service, consider yourself lucky: unsubscribing is a sentence away.
unroll.me
unroll.me is a useful bulk unroll application available on mobile devices or via web access. the app proactively identifies messages it thinks you won’t like. then, it provides you with a list of senders.
From this list, you can choose which ones you want to continue receiving messages from and which ones you want to unsubscribe from. then unrolll.me goes to work unsubscribing automatically.
It even offers a feature called digest, which allows you to re-subscribe to certain senders if you think you’ve made a mistake. unroll.me is free, but it sells anonymous marketing data from users.
unsubscribe by polymail
unsubscriber, powered by polymail, offers easy-to-use bulk unsubscribe options directly from your google account. definitely not the cheapest unsubscribe option: it costs $19.
On the plus side, you won’t have to worry about your information being sold to third-party sellers. if you have hundreds of unsubscribes to complete, it might be worth the price.
leave me alone
When you use leave me alone, you pay a certain number of credits: $2.50 for 50, for example. these credits are then applied to subscription cancellations. one credit equals one unsubscribe and works with any imap account: google, yahoo, aol, icloud, microsoft and more.
unsubscribe from email frequently asked questions (faqs)
is it safe to press unsubscribe from spam emails?
yes, google has introduced its own unsubscribe link visible in most emails. This is an official Google feature, so it’s perfectly safe to click on it. however, some links in the email itself may say “unsubscribe” and are from the sender. make sure you trust the sender to be trustworthy before clicking on any of their links.
how do i mass unsubscribe from gmail?
unroll.me and unsubscriber by polymail are two private apps that allow you to mass unsubscribe from gmail. by default, google doesn’t offer that feature yet.
how do i unsubscribe from email without link?
If you use an application like mailshake, you can unsubscribe from an email without a link. just type “unsubscribe” in a reply to the sender within the first 15 words, and you’re all set!
how do you know which emails you are subscribed to?
By default, most major email providers do not provide a dedicated list of emails you are subscribed to. the best way to unsubscribe from any spam email is to use some of the tools listed above.
is there a way to bulk unsubscribe from emails?
yes, but most email platforms don’t allow bulk unsubscribe by default. Using software like polymail or unroll.me allows you to unsubscribe from multiple emails at once with just a few clicks.
conclusion
A lot of people have a love-hate relationship with email. on the one hand, it is essential for your official business in your private and personal life. Paying bills, receiving important notifications, and keeping up with your work often require email as your home base.
on the other hand, these days it’s easy for your inbox to get out of control. after enough time, you’ll probably have dozens of emails (if not more) from senders you no longer want to receive messages from.
When that happens, it’s time to use the unsubscribe methods above. If you have a significant amount of email to unsubscribe from, consider one of the bulk unsubscribe options. that way, you can achieve peace of mind without the tedium.