If you have a busy and complicated inbox, it can often be useful to archive old emails instead of deleting them or storing them under labels. this allows you to access them when you really need them, without cluttering your dashboard.
Fortunately, gmail makes it as easy to retrieve archived emails as it is to archive them in the first place.
what are archived emails?
Archived emails are messages that are stored in a secure folder, allowing you to free up storage space in your inbox. Basically, it’s a way to save and protect email data you don’t want in your inbox, while allowing you to quickly retrieve it.
In gmail, this means moving emails from your inbox to “all mails”, where they are stored on the gmail server. here, you can access and retrieve them (move them back to any folder/tag) at any time.
how to find archived emails in gmail
When you archive your messages, you are technically deleting them from your inbox. however, they are still kept in your gmail account.
your archived emails are not kept in a folder like your “trash” or “important” folders; instead, they are found in all mail.
step 1. On your desktop, scroll down the left menu of your gmail dashboard to find all mail (you may need to click more if you have many folders).
step 2. When you select all emails, the emails in all your folders, your trash, and those you have archived will be displayed.
step 3. To access your archived emails in your gmail app on your tablet or smartphone, navigate to and click the three lines next to the search bar.
step 4. scroll down the menu and click on all mail
And speaking of tidying up your inbox, you can use a third-party tool that brings sanity to your email management.
That’s what the right inbox is made for. gmail productivity tool comes with a dozen different features to help you manage your gmail account with ease.
These are some of our popular features:
- Use the private notes feature to give customer conversations more context without cluttering your inbox.
- recurring emails allow you to write an email and schedule the time you want it to be sent frequently during a period. This feature is useful for occasions like weekly meeting reminders and monthly expense reports.
- The reminder feature will give you a little nudge when you forget to reply to important emails. keeps your inbox clean and free from a dozen emails you haven’t replied to.
access specific archived emails in gmail
once you can see all mail, you can now use the search bar to narrow your search and find a specific email.
Type the email address of the recipient whose email you want to locate, or click the arrow to the right of the search bar to perform an advanced search.
how to retrieve your archived emails in your browser
Retrieving your archived emails simply means putting them back in your inbox.
To do this, go to all mail as shown above:
step 1. select the email(s) you want to retrieve to your inbox. emails that are already in your inbox are marked as inbox.
step 2. click the move to inbox icon on the top menu.
Step 3. You will see a pop-up to confirm that your email is being delivered to your inbox. you also have the opportunity to undothis command.
how to retrieve your archived emails on your mobile app
On the mobile or tablet app, browse all emails and select the email you want to retrieve.
Step 1. In the email, click the three dots at the top right of the message.
step 2. in the menu, click move to inbox.
Step 3. Again, you will see a confirmation popup giving you the opportunity to undo the command.
why you might need to retrieve archived emails
It’s good email management to archive emails you don’t currently need, but don’t want to delete forever.
maybe you’ve completed a project, everything is closed, and you’re ready to free your inbox of the hundreds of emails associated with it. but there’s a chance you’ll need to check some of those emails in the future, so deleting them permanently would be a bad idea.
how to find archived emails – frequently asked questions
where can i find archived emails in gmail?
To archive an email in gmail, simply open the message and click the archive button (the first in the list of icons at the top of the message). the email message is now instantly moved from your inbox to the label called “all mail”, where it will remain until you manually move it back to your inbox.
how can i search archived emails in gmail?
Unfortunately, gmail doesn’t have a specific “archive” tag, so you don’t have the option to scroll through the menu on the left to find where all your archived emails are stored.
Instead, you have two options for locating your archived gmail messages:
1. type the relevant information (eg email, date, size, keyword, recipient) in the gmail search bar.
2. Scroll down to the “all emails” label to locate all the emails in your gmail account (including your archived messages).
how do i retrieve archived emails in gmail?
When an email is archived in gmail, it simply means that an “archive” tag was attached to it. therefore, to retrieve an archived email, you must locate the message and remove the “archive” tag.
Once you have located your archived email, open it and go to the “move” icon on the toolbar. select the folder you want to move it to. this will instantly remove the “archive” tag and move the message to the folder you specified.
how do i find and retrieve archived emails in the gmail app?
just like the gmail desktop website, there is no “archived” tab in the app where you can find all your archived messages. instead, to search for an archived email in your gmail app:
1. enter the recipient’s name, keywords or subject lines in the gmail search bar.
2. click the hamburger menu to scroll through the labels until you find the “all mail” label.
To retrieve the archived message, open the email and tap the three dots at the top right of the screen. tap “move to inbox”, and your message will be instantly sent to your inbox and the “archive” label will be removed.