What Is Archive in Yahoo Mail?
With Yahoo’s storage now cut down to 20 GB for free accounts (200 GB with Mail Plus), users need to be more careful than ever about what they keep. Archiving in Yahoo Mail simply removes the Inbox label from an email and hides it from your main inbox, but the message still counts toward your storage limit. You just don’t see it anymore.
That’s why archiving is best used for important messages you want to keep, while unnecessary or old emails should be deleted immediately to free up space. Archiving helps keep your inbox tidy, but it won’t solve storage issues on its own.
How to Archive Yahoo Emails on Mobile
💡 Note: All steps in these guides were manually tested in September 2025 by the Clean Email team to ensure they reflect Yahoo Mail’s current interface and features.
You can use the Yahoo Mail app for Android and iOS devices to archive messages on the go.
To archive a single email:
- Launch the Yahoo Mail app on your Android or iOS device.
- Open the message you want to archive.
- Tap ••• More and select Archive.
To archive multiple emails at once:
- In your inbox, tap the round icon next to any email to enter selection mode.
- Select all the emails you want to archive.
- Tap Archive in the bottom menu.
- A notification will appear at the bottom showing “X archived” (X = number of messages). An Undo option will also display on the right for a few seconds if you want to reverse the action.
How to Unarchive Yahoo Emails on Mobile
To unarchive a message using the mobile app, you only need to move it back to your Inbox folder.
- Click the Inbox icon at the bottom.
- Select the Archive folder.
- Select the messages you want restored and click Move → Inbox.
💡 Note: If you are using Yahoo as an email app on your smartphone with your Gmail account, you won’t see the native Yahoo interface with a dedicated Archive folder. Instead, you’ll have the All email folder, which reflects Gmail’s interface and doesn’t include a dedicated Archive folder. Archived emails will be located in the same All email folder together with your other emails.
If you always want your archived emails stored separately — no matter which email provider you use with Yahoo app — along with many other advanced email management features, you’ll need to use the Clean Email mobile app. Clean Email keeps a dedicated Archive folder, making it simple to manage archived messages.
Here’s how to retrieve archived emails that way:
- Open the Clean Email app on your iPhone or Android device.
- In the left-side menu, select the Archive folder under Mailbox.
- Swipe left on a message you want to move.
- Tap More → Move.
- Choose Inbox and click Confirm.
How to Archive Yahoo Mail on Desktop
Yahoo maintains two separate versions of its web interface, which most desktop users rely on when accessing their inboxes.
Using the Standard Version of Yahoo Mail:
- Go to https://mail.yahoo.com/.
- Login with your email address and password.
- Click the checkbox next to the message you want to be archived. You can select multiple messages at the same time.
- Click the Archive button -
![Desktop logo]()
- in the toolbar. - The selected messages will be moved from your Inbox to the Archive folder.
- in the toolbar.
Using the Basic Mail interface:
- Go to https://mail.yahoo.com/ and sign in to your account.
- Click the checkbox next to the message you want to be archived. You can select multiple messages at the same time.
- Click the Actions dropdown menu and select the Archive option.
- Click Apply.
- The selected messages will be moved to the archive folder.
How to Automate Yahoo Mail Archiving
Clean Email comes in handy when you want to organize your emails fast and automate archiving in a few clicks. Let's illustrate how it works with an example.
Let's say you want to archive all emails from a particular sender and want it to be applied to all future similar emails. Here's what you need to do:
- Go to https://app.clean.email/ and sign up for free, or log in with your email account.
- Go to the Inbox folder and select any message from the sender whose emails you want archived.
- Click the Create rule button in the blue toolbar.
- Once a pop-up window appears, choose the Archive action in the dropdown menu under Apply Action.
- Switch the toggle on, so the rule is applied to the existing messages.
- Click the Create Rule button.
From now on, all messages from the sender will be archived automatically, allowing you to enjoy a cleaner inbox without spending much time managing it.
You can view running rules in the Auto Clean section and set new ones here to archive more emails or perform other actions.
The Cleaning Suggestions tool provides recommendations based on emails you’ve previously cleaned or those commonly cleaned up by others. You can move messages you no longer need to the Archive, trash them, or mark them as spam with just a click.
Clean Email simplifies Yahoo's process of archiving emails. It reduces inbox clutter, saving valuable time through bulk archiving and improving email management efficiency.
How to Unarchive Archived Emails іn Yahoo Mail Desktop
Retrieving an email from a Yahoo mail archiver is straightforward:
- Open the Archive folder.
- Select an email or multiple emails you want to unarchive.
- Move the archived message to your inbox by
- Clicking the Restore to Inbox button — in Yahoo Standard Version.
- Clicking the Actions dropdown menu and selecting the 'Inbox' option under Move to — in Yahoo Basic Mail.
Note: As we explained above, if you are using your Gmail account in Yahoo’s web app, your archived emails will be located together with the other messages in the All email folder. To restore them back:
- In the left-hand menu, click All email to see every email, including archived ones.
- Select the emails you want to unarchive.
- At the top of the screen, click Restore to Inbox.
Your chosen emails will move back into the inbox, where you can access them alongside your newest messages.
How to Archive Yahoo Mail to Hard Drive
The Yahoo Mail Archiver feature separates important messages from junk and low-value notifications, but your emails still technically remain in Yahoo's servers. Considering the company's history of data breaches and cybersecurity incidents, it's also a good idea to archive Yahoo mail to a hard drive.
There are various email archiving solutions from third-party software developers that make this easy, such as the SysTools Yahoo! mail backup utility for Windows and Mac.
You can also download email messages using a mail client with POP support, such as Microsoft Outlook. However, the process is considerably more complicated.
Check out our other guides about email archiving on iPhone and Mac email archiving.
How to Archive Yahoo Mail - FAQs
How to archive emails in Yahoo Mail on desktop?
To archive emails in Yahoo Mail, log in to your account, select the emails you want to move, and click the Archive button in the toolbar. The messages will then be moved from your Inbox to the archived emails folder.
What happens to archived Yahoo Mail?
When you archive a message in Yahoo Mail, the message is moved from your Inbox to the Archive folder. You can keep it archived indefinitely or move it back to your Inbox or some other folder at any point.
How do I archive Yahoo Mail to a hard drive?
There are various third-party tools that make it easy to archive Yahoo Mail to a hard drive, and you can also connect to your email account using any POP email client to accomplish the same.
How long do archived emails stay in Yahoo?
Archived emails stay in the folder indefinitely, making the Yahoo email archiving feature great for preserving important messages and their attachments.
How do I get rid of the archive in Yahoo Mail?
Unfortunately, you cannot delete the Yahoo Mail Archive folder because it is part of their system folders. However, you can delete the messages within it and remove the filters and rules that direct your messages to that folder.
